Friday 13th: ‘We got married in a cemetery on unluckiest day’

A couple who got married in a cemetery on what is supposedly the unluckiest day of the year have said the day was “pretty perfect”.

Hannah and Mathew Parfitt, from Pontypridd, tied the knot on Friday 13 October last year in a room that was once used to lower coffins before cremation.

Hannah, dressed in a black gown, and Mathew, wearing a red tie covered in skulls, said their vows by candlelight with the curtains drawn.

“We did want to get married on Halloween, but it always rains really badly on Halloween every year,” said Hannah, 27.

“Then randomly when we looked, Friday 13th came up and we wanted to get married in October so it seemed pretty perfect.”

The couple’s choice of venue was Arnos Vale in Bristol, a Victorian cemetery which is also a licensed wedding venue.

Hannah said one of the rooms they used was where a pallbearer would “lower the coffins down before they would be cremated… obviously they don’t use it any more”.

“We didn’t get married on the actual graves, because that would be disrespectful,” she said.

Asked why they chose a cemetery, Hannah said: “I’ve always really liked them. I just find them quite peaceful.”

And as for choosing the supposedly unluckiest day of the year?

“We haven’t had any bad luck yet, have we?” said Matthew.

“No, we’ve been pretty good,” said Hannah. “We got a new house recently, so it’s going well.”

Samantha Buca, an alternative wedding dress designer who created Hannah’s dress, said black wedding gowns were most popular in the autumn, with many getting married around Halloween.

“But I’ve just done a black dress for someone who got married in Ibiza. So there’s no right or wrong anymore with weddings,” she said.

Samantha said she did not really believe in the superstition surrounding Friday 13th.

“[But] I tend not to get people booking in to look at wedding dresses or picking up their dresses up on Friday 13th, because obviously there’s that negative connotation,” she added.

No one is sure of the exact origin of the superstition.

The number 13 and Friday both have a history of supposedly bringing bad luck – and it’s the combination of the two that gives the day its reputation.

It has been suggested that the reason for the number 13’s bad luck comes from the Bible.

Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is thought to have been the 13th guest to sit down to the Last Supper.

Friday has been considered the unluckiest day of the week for hundreds of years.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th Century, he said: “And on a Friday fell all this mischance”.

In the UK, Friday was once known as Hangman’s Day because it was usually when people who had been condemned to death would be hanged.

Additional reporting by Erin Lister