7th November 2012

We drove for several hours that night trying to make headway towards New Orleans. We wild camped in a car park off the main highway and set off again first thing the next morning. We had 600km to cover and a meeting in the city centre at 1pm with ABC’s 20/20!

We were being interviewed by the famous Jay Schadler whom we were excited to chat to after he hitchhiked 13,000 miles around America over 3 years interviewing ‘everyday’ Americans. We were excited to hear what he thought of our adventure and of course to hear about his journey!

20/20 had been following us online since we hit New York and we had held a meeting with Gail, one of their producers while we were there. She was excited to cover one of our weddings for a feature due to go live around valentines day 2013 focusing on the different ways people around the world get married.

Gail and Jay had flown in from New York and gathered up a team of people to record sound and video, we were going to be interviewed and then the team were going to be at our Louisianna wedding too which was going to be a wild one!

We had been talking with Bloody Mary, a well known voodoo priestess in New Orleans who holds several types of alternative rituals from healing to voodoo weddings where all unseen ancestors are invited to attend to strengthen the bonds between partners. We had asked her if she would hold us a voodoo wedding ceremony and she jumped at the chance.

We left the whole thing to Mary as she is an expert in this field and having held plenty of ceremonies in her time she knew the perfect places to go and what we would need. Mary is also no stranger to being filmed with episodes of Ghost adventurers under her belt and features on the travel channel, the food channel and many more so she was happy for the camera crew and 20/20 to come along as long as they did not interfere with the ceremony itself.

We were really really excited to get this typically New Orleans ceremony underway. Voodoo came to Louisiana in the 1700’s with the African captives that escaped West Africa and “their knowledge of herbs, poisons, and the ritual creation of charms and amulets, intended to protect oneself or harm others, became key elements of Louisiana Voodoo”.
During the 19th Century Voodoo Queens became central figures to voodoo and they presided over ceremonial meetings and rituals and made money administering charms, magical powders and cures and of course helping others destroy their enemies. One particular Voodoo Queen stood out from the crowd and with her notable powers she overthrew the other Voodoo Queens of New Orleans. Marie Laveau is today “remembered for her skill and compassion for the less fortunate, and her spirit is considered one of the central figures of Louisiana Voodoo”.
Thousands of people visit her tomb (more than visit the grave of Elvis Presley!) in New Orleans to ask favours and to hold rituals and ceremonies other than just funerals.

This is where we were hoping to hold our wedding ceremony!

We arrived at our interview in plenty of time and once the camera and sound checks had been carried out, we met with the lovely Jay Schadler.
We immediately felt at ease around an obviously like minded person and we chattered about each others adventures while we waited for the interview to begin.

We answered several questions and really just enjoyed talking about our journey. I felt extremely proud of what we had achieved at that moment talking to Jay. I think mainly because he knows how much of a struggle travelling every day really is. Once the cameras stopped rolling we talked more of Jays journey and found that the three of us had a real affinity. We had all learned how amazing ‘real’ people really are!

We all went in convoy to find the campsite so that the crew knew where to find us the next day. The site we found was lovely but at $80 a night we couldn’t afford to stay there. We were awkwardly trying to explain to Gail that we would meet them outside the gates the next day (thinking we could sneak and park elsewhere) when Gail paid for us for 2 nights! We were so grateful. We did some filming there inside Peggy at her fancy campsite and then our next stop was to finally meet Bloody Mary at her home in the French Quarter of New Orleans just a few minutes from the grave of Marie Laveau. We drove round in Peggy with the camera crew and Jay, chatting all the way of course, and arrived at a fabulous purple house with steps up to the front porch.

We were giddy with excitement to meet Mary but had to wait a little longer. Gail went inside to speak with Mary while we waited for the camera’s to set up. They wanted to capture us meeting Mary for the first time.

When we were invited into Bloody Mary’s home we were blown away. She has a ritual room with an altar in the middle which is where the spirits are channelled into the room. The walls were covered in old wooden book shelves, cabinets and every flat surface covered in jars holding herbs, dusts and trinkets. Candles dotted around the room in varying colours in an assortment of holders with dried flowers scattered around, bottles of liquor stood in varying states of emptyness stood around the foot of the central altar and there was a strong skull theme throughout. It was like an Aladdins cave of strange. I loved it. crushed red velvet, black top hats and purple trinkets, it was a Tim Burton fans dream!

We were invited to take a seat next to a snake tank. The snake seemed quite friendly and came straight to the glass to greet us. Mary began to tell us excitedly that something really special had happened for us arriving. She explained how never before had the snake (whose name I have forgotten) shed his skin in one full circle. Mary continued to explain that both snakes and circles have a very important meaning in the voodoo world. A snake with its tail in its mouth in voodoo is considered to represent infinity and there it was. The snakes shed skin laid perfectly round as if its tail was in its mouth in the bottom of the tank!

Mary had invited us to her home to prepare for our wedding ceremony the next day. We were tasked with blessing the Spanish Moss that she had collected from the largest collection of mature live oaks in the world which is just around the corner from her house. The oaks, the oldest between 600-800 years old, drip with Spanish moss giving the place a spooky, Gothic (or very romantic, depending how you look at it) feel. The moss only grows in certain areas in the country and is now protected. Bloody Mary may only collect it from the ground below the trees but there is plenty to harvest for gris-gris, or more commonly known, voodoo dolls.

We blessed our voodoo doll stuffing by picking out any imperfections and tying the imperfections with our own and throwing them away. We threw away our bad habits, any ill thoughts we had and any negativity we felt. Once our moss stuffing was clean we had to blow all of our happiness into it. Making wishes for our future and being only positive. The blessed moss was then mixed together and left on the love altar to prove like a beloved lump of dough, left in the warm to grow.

Bloody Mary next took a piece of our moss, mixed it with some of the snakes shed skin and several other secret ingredients to make us a small gris-gris bag which we must feed regularly.

Once we had completed these several rituals we went outside to see Mary’s garden which is where she holds a lot of dance rituals and ceremonies and we loved the dark, calm space so much we decided to hold the ceremony there! We had considered the grave site of Marie Laveau but here was more personal and would of course be easier for the cameras to set up prior to the ceremony  There was going to be a lot of us. We had 2 camera people, 2 videographers, 2 photographers  ourselves and Jay and that was before we even considered how many people would be needed for the ceremony itself!

We ordered pizza and waited in Mary’s garden to meet with Jason and Jo our photographers who had flown in that day from Vegas and our local wedding videographers, mother and son team Terry and Joe. We talked logistics and plans and ate pizza until late. We were all wiped out but all left very excited for the next day!