Pastor Says 'I Won't' to Halloween-Themed Wedding

SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY -- A couple set to say I do this weekend was suddenly told "I won't" by the pastor.

They'd planned a Halloween wedding in legendary Sleepy Hollow, New York home to the "Headless Horseman".

Walking down the aisle in a centuries-old church amid the ghostly legends of Sleepy Hollow.

That's how engaged couple Lisa Penensky and Jim Nieves of Elmsford, New York, pictured their Halloween wedding.

They booked the Old Dutch church next to the Old Dutch graveyard 13 months in advance.

Now the pastor has canceled the wedding in a dispute over music.

"Those were the theme songs to the Addams family and the theme song to the Munsters," said Pastor Jeff Gargano.

"He was offended apparently by the Munsters and the Addams Family which we find kind of ironic being where we're standing right now," said groom Jim Nieves.

But the reverend Gargano, the new pastor in the nearly 325-year-old church, says he wasn't expecting a Halloween-themed wedding.

Both the bride and groom were going to wear black.

Costumes were optional for the guests.

The pastor felt the Munsters and Addams Family were inappropriate for a church wedding.

"Not all secular music would be inappropriate in a wedding. Some can be done. But we felt those two particular pieces - kind of ditties- were disrespectful," said Gargano.

"I don't know what his personal point of view is and where he draws the line of respect. This seems to be a personal issue with him," Nieves said.

The pastor said he tried to be cooperative, offer the couple other options, even told them he would marry them in the church graveyard.

"There's nothing in the contract stating that we are not allowed to listen to a certain music, there's nothing in the contract stating that we have to dress a certain way as if there was any sort of dress code. I think there was just a failure of communication on their part," said Nieves.

"I think quite frankly, two different sets of assumptions," Gargano said.

Jim says he and Lisa will still get married on Halloween, at their home.

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