A bride who held her baby while they were both splashed with chicken blood during a Viking-inspired wedding ceremony said “it just felt good”.
New Zealand couple Lea Fetting and Cody Kivell were married in January at the Craters of the Moon geothermal walkway near Taupo on New Zealand’s North Island.
But their nuptials took a shocking turn when the couple and their baby Bjorn were splattered with the blood of a chicken slaughtered by wedding celebrant Scott Phillips.
“It sounds scary, but it’s not that bad,” Mrs. Fetting said. The New Zealand Herald.
‘I’m German-Swedish and my partner and I aren’t really religious, but we wanted to get married in front of some kind of god, and since we’re not Christians, we did more research into my Norse heritage and mythology.
New Zealand couple Lea Fetting and Cody Kivell were married in January at the Craters of the Moon geothermal walkway near Taupo on New Zealand’s North Island.
But their nuptials took a shocking turn when the couple and their baby Bjorn were splattered with the blood of a chicken slaughtered by wedding celebrant Scott Phillips.
‘It just felt good; I felt bad not being married in front of anything, we’re both quite spiritual.’
Vikings often sacrificed animals to the gods to ensure success in battle, favorable weather, or fertility rites.
These “spot” sacrifices were often followed by the communal cooking and feeding of the animal.
It is unclear if he ate the slaughtered chicken.
Phillips, who describes himself as an “extreme wedding specialist,” allegedly held a coconut shell filled with blood and cranberry juice into which he dipped a brush and threw it over the couple’s rings and faces.
The couple also performed a hand-binding ceremony, which is an ancient Celtic tradition in which their hands are tied by a rope (pictured).
Wedding celebrant Scott Phillips (pictured) is used to alternative wedding requests, having officiated a zombie-themed wedding and once had a groom arrive in a hearse.
Mrs. Fetting decided to forego makeup and walk barefoot down a hallway with a gravel path to meet her husband.
They also performed a hand-binding ceremony, which is an ancient Celtic tradition in which their hands are tied by a rope.
“We wanted it to be completely personal and just for us. I think you should do what works for you because it’s your day and you have to remember it,” Mrs. Fetting added.
The couple’s original photographer backed out over fears it was “too graphic.”
Only the replacement photographer and the celebrant, Mr. Phillips, were present.
He’s used to alternative wedding requests, as he officiated a zombie-themed wedding and once had a groom arrive in a hearse.
“I have no limits,” Mr. Phillips told the newspaper.
“I may not do a naturalistic wedding in the middle of winter, but that’s it.”