Brought together by death and married in love

Funeral director Stephen McMahon and embalmer Christy Goodin get married at Hamilton Gardens today. Photo / Chasing Light

They were brought together by death, but yesterday a Hamilton couple declared their undying love for each other.

Funeral director Stephen McMahon married embalmer Christy Goodin in front of friends and family at Hamilton's Victorian Glasshouse.

Wedding celebrant Kay Gregory said it was a beautiful ceremony for the couple who had found love at the funeral home they both worked at.

She said for people with jobs involving so much sadness, they had a great sense of humour.

"I've watched the romance grow from the beginning," she said. "They're a great couple because they understand how difficult and stressful the other person's job is."

On the eve of the wedding McMahon, 31, told the Herald that when he first laid eyes on his new wife, he knew it was love.

"Her big blue eyes swallowed me up," he said.

After a month working together, romance slowly blossomed between McMahon and 25-year-old Goodin.

McMahon proposed in July last year.

They both agreed that it wasn't easy to find love outside of the funeral industry.

"Saying what you do for a job - it's either a conversation stopper or a conversation starter," McMahon said.

But working together meant they understood each other's needs and often unusual working hours.

A lot of their free time was spent critiquing TV shows like Six Feet Under, CSI and Shortland Street, which frequently dramatised death and funerals, they said.

In the last six years the couple have rented five houses, bought their first home in Hamilton and adopted two kittens - Mac and Boss.

Photo / Chasing Light