Abbey Phillips & Morgan Freeman: A Vestavia Hills Wedding

July 9, 2016

The Proposal: Morgan and his cousin Addison planned a surprise girls’ day for me (Abbey) and Lauren, Addison’s wife. After lunch and a spa day, Lauren had to “run an errand” at Leaf N Petal at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. When we pulled up, I was handed a handwritten card that said, “Follow the arrows,” and was told to get out of the car. Morgan had set up light up arrows all down the walkway to the Hill Garden where he was waiting to propose.

Favorite Moments: All I envisioned when planning our reception was one big party with everyone we cared about, so I focused on making things fun instead of focusing on the details. We had an amazing band and such fun guests; we even had a huge conga line going! Morgan’s favorite moment was our private dinner after the ceremony. We went in to the bride’s loft at the barn and had time to ourselves to reflect on the day.

Favorite Details: A lot of our wedding details had sentimental value to us. The diamonds in the necklace that I wore as well as the buckle bracelet were family heirlooms passed down from a great aunt. The something blue was a handkerchief from my paternal grandmother, Pat. Some of the flowers used in the bridal bouquet and in some of the arrangements were dahlias grown in honor of our late neighbor, Don Ehrett, who was a close family friend. The pound cakes on the bride’s cake table were baked by my maternal grandmother, Myrtle, using a family recipe. My veil was worn by my mother, Carol, on her wedding day. We also used the cake toppers from both of our parents’ weddings to decorate our cake tables.