Last weekend I attended a haunted wedding. Okay…maybe not a haunted wedding, but a wedding that took place in an old southern mansion…that just might be a little bit haunted. The Riverwood Mansion is located in a residential neighborhood outside of Nashville, TN. There are the requisite beautiful tall old trees, long gravel driveway, and stately old architecture complete with a pillared front porch. (You can see a photo of the mansion in yesterday’s post, here.)

Don’t get me wrong, this was a lovely wedding. The early evening outdoor wedding in the garden area enjoyed a warm gentle spring breeze, sunlight just beginning to settle down into the treetops, and of course a gorgeous bride walking down the aisle to join my nephew in marriage. And the idea of haunted really didn’t cross my mind—at least consciously at that point. I knew the wedding would take place at a venue that was an old plantation house, and of course all things southern come with lots of history (and often a ghost or two!) as well as rich, and often complicated stories..

It wasn’t until the reception that ghosts and haunting crossed my mind. The sun had set and candles and twinkly lights accompanied the softly lit reception room and the house itself. We headed up the stairs for the buffet and found ourselves in front of an old, elegant floor-to-celling mirror. I immediately wished for my phone/camera (the downside of women’s dresses—most, including mine, lack pockets) as I saw the four of us in the mirror. Luckily, Geoff had his phone and snapped a picture of us in the mirror. As I looked at the photo, I kept expecting to see the image of a ghost in the background—like the hitchhiking ghosts on the haunted mansion ride at Disneyland.

And I couldn’t resist. After dinner and the toasts by family and friends, I headed off with my phone on a photo walk. I found old upholstered furniture with that velveteen fabric and intricately carved wooden backs that seemed to be so popular in the past.

And an interesting staircase with solid wood banisters leading to rooms above with a stained glass window highlighting the landing below.

I peered out a window into the garden where the wedding took place and noticed the archway lit up with tiny lights. When I went to take a photo…an apparition appeared…me!

And from that point on, every photo I took seemed to capture my own reflection…in windows, in mirrors…

And then I had to pose just one…I dragged my husband back to that mirror I described before so we could pose in that silvered, antique mirror. And the result seems to me to be a new (or old and new) version of the famous American Gothic painting with the man and woman and the pitchfork. Our version replaces the overalls and farm clothes with wedding finery and the pitchfork with our cellphones…and I love the result.

My poor husband…I’ve been spending time over the last week or so working on improving my selfie skills—most with him included. And then, without even thinking about it, the wedding created unplanned selfies. I think I will call this series of selfies the Haunted Wedding Selfies.

Have you taken any haunted selfies? Or maybe just unexpected selfies? How are they different from your intentional selfies? Or is all of this just an exercise in narcissism and vanity? It probably is…but it’s also fun. I’d love to see an example of an unexpected or haunted selfie from you…share please..and link back to this post!