On Halloween night, under a blue moon, Vivienne Vermuth and Jason Perkins, both dressed in black, were married after a dating life that Mr. Perkins describes as more layered than an onion.
“There were the romantic days; the sexy days; the laugh till you snort days; and some days that felt like the third act of a Tarantino film,” said Mr. Perkins, 44.
Ms. Vermuth, 36, a graduate of the University of North Texas in Denton, is a makeup and hair artist, event producer, and a “campy slash goth” style burlesque performer. “Think Lucille Ball meets Tim Burton — over-the-top humor and wild characters mixed with sensuality,” she said. Mr. Perkins, who graduated from Texas Culinary Academy, which was in Austin, is an executive chef for private clients in the Dallas area.
The two ran in the same circle for years before romance ever hit their radar, having first met casually in Dallas after one of her shows in 2012 at a Viva Dallas Burlesque show. They became social media friends along the way, and in October 2017, Perkins reached out to Ms. Vermuth looking for a “friendly ear.”
“He was going through a divorce and I had just done that earlier in the year,” she said. “We offered consolation and friendship to each other.”
Although both were leery of dating, they went on a first date on Nov. 1, 2017. The goal was to keep it strictly casual. “We even told each other, ‘No feelings!’” she said. “But feelings eventually won.”
Once they began talking, they realized they were both on the same path, including wanting to be polyamorous, Ms. Vermuth said. “We both independently had inklings that traditional relationship structures weren’t for us,” she said.
But it was one of her dogs that sealed the deal. Ms. Vermuth says she “melted” when her dog Hanne, a pit bull, met Mr. Perkins in December 2017.
“Hanne just leaned on Jason and looked up at him with total trust,” she said. “I realized that Jason would not only take care of me, but everything near and dear to me, and my dogs trusted him back.”
In February 2019, Mr. Perkins realized he was in love, too. “I knew we aligned with each other, and that she was my teammate,” he said. “There is so much depth and strength to her. She builds me up and others around her so much.”
A month later, Mr. Perkins took Ms. Vermuth to their kitchen chalkboard where he had worked out financial plans for them in the coming year. “He grabbed me in his arms and proposed life together,” she said. “I immediately said yes. Jason is tenacious in the best ways. We have a mature bond that still giggles at bad jokes and watches comic book movies.”
On Oct. 14, Mr. Perkins decided he wanted to propose again. “He gathered the pups, got on one knee, and asked to be my husband, my partner, and my dogs’ official dad,” Ms. Vermuth said. She said yes once again.
The pair desired to get married because, although they are polyamorous, they are “the center of each other’s lives and love,” Ms. Vermuth said.
They call themselves “goth romantics” and were thrilled to realize 2020 would have the first full blue moon on Halloween in 76 years. “It’s a big deal for us,” she said. “It’s a time of cleansing, of starting over, and I can’t imagine a better time to do so than right now.”
The couple married in an outdoor ceremony Oct. 31 at Flag Pole Hill Park in Dallas by friend and fellow performer Honey Sin Claire, an Open Ministry minister.
They would have liked to have had more guests than the 10 that current Covid-19 protocol allows in Dallas. “We wanted to include our partners and their immediate family,” Ms. Vermuth said. “So it got hard very fast. Luckily it’s still about us, our love, and everyone around us understand and supports us which is most important.”
Mr. Perkins wore a gray velvet blazer and black pants. Ms. Vermuth wore a 1931, hand-sewn, black silk gown with a spider web Art Deco beaded back. Her sheer black gloves were embossed with velvet runes. Her bouquet and his boutonniere included ethically sourced mink skulls with wedding runes burned into them for love, perseverance, trust and sensual energy.
