‘I feel like a pumpkin’: Spate of Spokane couples get married on spooky October Friday the 13th

Before going to the courthouse to get married Friday, Megan and Alex Bartunek got a set of matching tattoos: a little headstone telling the world “YOU+ME.”

The macabre sendup of “Till death do us part” is a fitting sendoff for the couple getting married on Friday the 13th in October.

Both members of the couple are big fans of Halloween and spooky season in general.

“We just thought that October Friday the 13th would just be the end-all-be-all of weird, creepy and scary. And that kind of goes right up our alley,” Alex Bartunek said of their wedding date.

While saying their vows in an intimate ceremony with just seven of their closest family and friends, Megan wore a burnt orange dress. Alex wore an orange and black outfit he described as “punk rock.” Both wore green shoes.

“I feel like a pumpkin,” Megan exclaimed. Their wedding cake is also shaped like a pumpkin and is pumpkin spice-flavored.

Megan’s father was born on a Friday the 13th, so she tends to think of the day as lucky, rather than an ill omen.

“It makes it more fun,” she said. “And you can kind of just have fun for the rest of your life with your anniversary, instead of it kind of just being another day. And this way, every Friday the 13th will be our anniversary – whether or not it’s in October.”

Juan Tapia and Emily Simpson-Tapia also got married at the courthouse on Friday the 13th. They were dressed a bit more traditionally, with her in a wedding dress and veil and him in a suit.

Juan was so excited for the marriage, he said “I do” before the judge could finish the question.

“I get to be my true self around her,” he said after the wedding.

Emily had to head into work Friday night after she got out of her wedding dress. But after getting married, she said she was not bothered.

“I’ll be super blissful and happy. I don’t even mind,” she said with tears still in her eyes after crying in the courtroom well.

All 10 Friday the 13th courthouse weddings were performed by Judge Aimee Maurer – a number she described as a “bank run on weddings.”

It’s the most weddings in a single night the court has performed in over a year. The all-time record is 13 weddings in a night, which happened last year. Judicial assistant Hannah Nelson remarked she had been hoping they would get up to 13 weddings again for Friday the 13th.

Maurer said she has found couples are especially attracted to holidays for their courtroom weddings. But she was surprised Friday the 13th was such a popular one.

“We were looking at my calendar and just seeing more and more weddings get set. It took me a while to figure out they were purposely choosing Friday the 13th.”

Just celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary, Maurer and her husband were married in a courthouse themselves. She even uses the vows she and her husband recited as the default for each wedding she performs. To her, participating in so many couples’ special day is one of the few things she does as a judge that is “generally speaking a happy occasion.”

“Taking part in a very special moment in individuals lives when they’re committing to love each other and form this union with one another – I consider it an honor. I always feel such a sense of connection with my brides and grooms.”