The Imagineering team ultimately decided to focus on one of the mansion's most recognizable yet mysterious characters, the bride in the attic. An ill-fated bride had been part of almost every creative treatment developed for the attraction, dating back to Imagineer and Disney Legend Ken Anderson's very first 1957 storyline. Perhaps in keeping with the "girl power" attitude of the 21st century, Ken's creative heirs at Imagineering decided to turn the tables on the homicidal groom of the previous back stories and make the bride herself the villain of the piece. Constance, the "Black Widow Bride" as she came to be known at Imagineering, first materialized in 2006 at Disneyland and 2007 at Walt Disney World. The bride's sinister new story deepened the veteran Mansion character by turning her into a gold digging seductress with a taste for the finer things.
Wedding portraits and gifts tell the story of how Constance improved her station through each of her five marriages, culminating in her wedding to one of the mansion's many owners. It is clear that the gifts became grander with each successive wedding, and guests quickly notice that the same beautiful young woman appears in all the portraits — but with a different groom in each one. The bride clearly gained in wealth and social stature with each wedding. She wears the same wedding dress in each portrait, but adds a strand of pearls for each subsequent marriage. Even more disquieting, each husband's head disappears from his body only to reappear seconds later. Then guests encounter a luminous, floating apparition of the bride herself, who has manifested herself in the attic. As she repeats her vows and wedding phrases, a razor-sharp axe materializes in her hands, glinting in the moonlight. The "black widow bride" offers a sinister smile, the axe disappears, and she recites another of her favorite vows in a haunting voice.
