Meet the Halifax couple who will be celebrating Halloween by tying the knot in a civil ceremony

Tracy Batch and Scott Gornall, who live in Illingworth, have been together for five years and will have their civil ceremony at Spring Hall in Halifax on Monday October 31.

Tracy, 51, says she loves Halloween, and the date has the added bonus of meaning Scott will hopefully never forget the date of their anniversary.

She said: "We’re having a really laid back, relaxed ceremony.

"Just 10 of us at the register office, you cant really dress the venue there, but I have some cute little pumpkins to go on the table that’s in the room.

"We've gone for more autumnal colours, with some home crafted buttonholes for the register office guests and some fragrant dried flower confetti to throw afterwards.

"We’re not in traditional wedding attire, we both have new outfits, but he will have to wait and see on the day what mine's like!"

Scott, 49, said: "It's just our close family and friends who will be at the register office, with more people coming to The Shears pub after for a drink and bite to eat.

"It will be nice to celebrate our day with everyone."The ceremony is at 1.30pm on the day, after which the party will visit The Shears to celebrate with around 20 guests, where there will be a hot buffet with Halloween Colin the Caterpillar cakes.

The celebrations will then take them to a scare attraction called Farmageddon, which sees visitors running from monsters lurking in scare houses, shooting zombies and enjoying fair rides."I'm really looking forward to the whole day," said Tracy, "it's probably been the least stressful celebration to organise as we are keeping it really simple and intimate.

"We just want it to be a happy, fun day for everyone.

"We’ve waited two years now to make this commitment to one another and I can't wait."

"It's such a big day for us really," said Scott, "we are committing to each other for life and I just want to enjoy every minute of it."

Tracy and Scott met through work at Calderdale Council.

"We were working in the same office and Scott was sitting near to my friend Lou and she knew I liked him," said Tracy.

"He had an allotment at Pye Nest and I took him down an old compost bin that I was getting rid of and stayed for a cup of tea with him in the communal shed, we chatted for ages."

"After that, Tracy invited me over to her house for food one evening and we got on really well," said Scott.

"We decided to go out on a date, just for a drink and a chat, see how we got on, and we’ve been together ever since."

The couple were planning the ceremony in early 2020 but had to postpone it due to Covid.

"We never got engaged," said Tracy, "we were planning this epic trip to Florida and the partnership and it all has had to wait.

"We get to go to Florida next year now!"

"We really felt that we wanted to make a commitment to one another," said Scott, "but didn’t feel we wanted a more traditional engagement and wedding ceremony, so the idea of a civil partnership really appealed to us.

"We’re not really traditional people so this type of ceremony really suits us."