Michigan Couple Had Creepy Halloween Wedding at Abandoned Asylum
They said "I do" on Halloween in a super creepy and cool Pure Michigan landmark.
Like a lot of couples, when Steven and Desiree Harper found out that Halloween was on a Saturday this year, they decided to plan their nuptials on that day with a spooky twist. And the best way they could find to do that was at the abandoned Eloise Psychiatric Hospital.
The hospital was named after Eloise Dickerson Davock, the daughter of Detroit's postmaster at the time. It was open for operation from 1839 to 1982. The complex was self-sufficient; it had its own fire department, police, power grid and railroad/trolley system. Patients came from all over Michigan for x-rays; it also housed the state's first kidney dialysis unit.
The psychiatric part of the hospital started to officially shut down in 1977 as patients decreased, and the state of Michigan took over in 1982. The rest of the hospital closed in 1986.
Today, unfortunately, many parts of the Eloise Psychiatric Hospital are in disarray. The power plant and firehouse are in shambles; the iconic smokestack was demolished in 2006. The land surrounding it was used to build condos and a strip mall; only two of the original buildings remain.
The site is a Michigan historical site and is rumored to be haunted, along with the adjoining cemetery. It's a popular site for ghost hunters around Halloween and now, apparently, spooky weddings.
From the bride, Desiree Harper:
We had already chosen October 31st as our wedding date because not only was it Halloween (our favorite Holliday), but it was also a blue moon, daylight savings time, and a full moon in the astrological sign 'Taurus' which both my husband and I are. We thought everything was lining up perfectly until our venue canceled two months before the wedding. Now before the venue had canceled my maid of honor, Amber, and I had jokingly talked about how cool it would be to have the wedding at Eloise almost every time we passed it. She had previously sent an email asking if we could do the ceremony there, but we never received a response. So when our venue canceled she sent yet another one and it turned out our previous email had accidentally gotten deleted. When we got in touch with the owner, John Hambrick, he was ecstatic! He has never thought anyone would want to get married there and thought it was insanely cool. We made an appointment to go scope out the building and property to see where our wedding would fit best and was told that there had been a wedding on the front steps but never on the inside. We asked if there were any cool places on the inside that would be easily accessible and as soon as we walked through the doors there was this room that was just beautiful and had the daughter (Eloise) of the original owner hanging on the wall. We took one look around and could just see it. Since we had already picked a Victorian Gothic theme there wasn’t much decorating to do. We set up an arch, candles, two carved pumpkins, and a rug and that was it. The ceremony was beautiful. As the guests arrived they walked through the front doors and back in time to watch as we had our ceremony.
Big thanks to bride Desiree and Holly Gauper of GAUPERPhoto for allowing us to share these gorgeous pics!