Heavy metal love — couple gets hitched at the scrapyard

CONWAY, Ark. — Who needs horse-drawn carriages or white stretch limousines? For a truly unique wedding, heavy equipment is the way to go.

Shirley Arnold and Arthur Day were married at a scrapyard in Conway, Ark. The couple met while working for the yard’s owner, building highways and running road machinery. About a year ago, they started talking about getting married.

The bride said they immediately knew they wanted to try something unconventional.

“Construction is something that gets in your blood — like anything else. It’s a way of life, I guess,” she said.

She characterized the nuptial event as “just a redneck wedding.”

“The first time she had a huge church wedding. She said never again,” said Arnold’s friend, Wanda Fincher, who has known the bride since 1973. “Five kids later, she’s figured it out.”

The wedding guests stood in a grassy field listening to country music as the groom drove up on a scraper — a giant piece of equipment with tires about 6 feet tall — trimmed in blue tulle and decorated with American and Confederate flags. He parked it neatly and waited as his bride rolled in on a matching scraper, decorated in the same theme with white tulle. The bride was dressed in a green shirt, jeans and a black cowboy hat.

The couple stood on the front of a scraper for the ceremony with Conway County Judge Jimmy Hart officiated. The cowboy hats came off for the kiss, after which the bride jubilantly tossed her hat to the crowd.

Hart said it was “probably the most unusual wedding I’ve ever done. I’ve done lots of weddings and lots of weddings in the Conway County Courthouse at Morrilton, but none like this.”

Immediately following the ceremony, the couple made their way to a yellow getaway Jeep parked next to the scrapers. Laughter erupted as the bride picked up the groom and plopped him down in the passenger’s seat. She drove a few yards as the guests threw rice. Then she parked the Jeep, and the couple rejoined their guests. A cake featuring plastic bulldozers was waiting to be cut.

“The only thing I can think of that would have been more unusual would be if we’d had it at the city dump,” Fincher said.