Skye and Alex :: A Magic City Marriage

It seems like most every wedding I’ve been to this year has wowed me. With details, locations, wedding gowns, dancing…it’s been an amazing year. Skye and Alex’s wedding is definitely the one that has struck me as being the most “Birmingham”. We started the day at The Tutwiler where the girls were getting ready, and even with a few hours to shoot the details I felt like I might miss something, Skye did so much DIY to personalize her wedding and make her guests feel at sweet home. The guests’ welcome bags contained Bud’s Best cookies, Golden Flake chips, Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale, local magazines, and a mixed cd of music by Alabama artists in honor of 2011 being named The Year of Alabama Music. The whole weekend was a great introduction to Birmingham for guests (I wish I’d had their wedding to attend when I first moved here!), guests were invited to the Rehearsal Dinner at The Veranda on Friday, the wedding at Rucker, the after-party in a downtown loft, and a brunch at Railroad Park the following day to play Bocce ball and eat bagels from Crestline Bagels, leftover wedding cake, Krispy Kreme donuts, cold apple cider (a Michigan favorite or so I hear from Skye), and snuggle up on quilts by the pond at the park.

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When Skye’s parents were first married, their house was broken into and a wedgewood pendant of Skye’s mother’s was stolen. Skye bought this replacement to give to her mother on their wedding day.  For her dad, Skye screenprinted a copy of her favorite poem and had it framed.

Coincidentally, the four bridesmaids had the same two sets of yellow shoes. As a yellow-shoed bride, these made me happy.

A friend who couldn’t attend the wedding made the fingerprint tree for their guestbook.

Skye and Alex’s fathers officiated the wedding and the ceremony was a combination of Christian and Jewish traditions, including a chuppah made from a baby blanket that Skye’s great grandmother had made for her mother when she was a baby.

I love that you can spot Morgan (one of my best friends and sometimes second-shooter)  in the shot above, she’s definitely become a welcome sidekick for all of these amazing weddings this year! (I finally got the chance to second for her a few weekends ago, hopefully I’ll get the chance to blog a few images soon!)

Skye’s dad collects Vulcan figurines so they added a few pieces from his collection as a nod to The Magic City. For those of you unfamiliar with  Vulcan, he is the world’s largest cast iron statue and reflects Birmingham’s iron and steel manufacturing history (as it was made to represent Birmingham in the World Fair in St Louis).

A variety of Southern foods served in cast iron skillets welcomed guests to the South, including fried green tomatoes and fried Wickles (a local pickle brand).

Skye & Alex took a break at The Tutwiler while their friends set up an afterparty at a loft downtown.

As a surprise, a video of friends reading lines from the book I Like You was played during the afterparty, which included some of the friends who couldn’t be there.

All of the sudden, when it seemed like there would be no dancing and we’d go home empty-handed, mass chaos ensued and 4 or 5 people started what became a massive party. We even joined in a bit.

Thank you to Skye and Alex, their amusing friends, Birmingham, Vulcan, Rucker Place…most especially for making it impossible for me to keep this post succinct. Enjoy.