Leigh Anne Gilbert & Colton McGriff: A Homewood Wedding

September 28, 2019

How We Met: Colton’s older brother was a friend of mine, and 11 years later he and I (Leigh Anne) “re-met.” That fall, Colton came to my housewarming party, and I mentioned to him that I had found some cheap flights online to Amsterdam. As I explained to Colton, he chimed in, “Well, I’ll be your travel partner if you’d like!” The next day, we booked the flights. After traveling to Amsterdam, we both knew that this was something special.

Favorite Moment: A dear friend of mine, Enoch, who I met in 2009 in Ghana when I travelled with Semester at Sea, “co-officiated” our wedding with our pastor here in Birmingham.

Favorite Details: All of the invitations we SO MUCH FUN for me to design to feel like “sophisticated fun.” To make our first look special, we decided to do it outside my grandfather’s house in Southside. Colton’s wedding band is his grandfather’s ring, complete with the inscription from his grandmother dated 6-22-49 next to a new inscription from me to Colton dated 9-28-19, and I wore my grandfather’s ring on my right hand. The chairs we sat in at the reception were hand-carved, teak wood pieces originally from China that came from my grandfather’s house and were brought over as a part of the 1907 Chicago World’s Fair. We had an ALL VEGAN wedding, including the cake, since Colton has been vegan for 3 years after a diagnosis that he has treated through food. The caricature guy we’d seen was a fun addition. AvaniRupa, a friend whose branding I developed, not only designed my engagement ring, but she also let me borrow incredible diamond and sapphire earrings for the day. Lastly, we loved that at the zoo they had an option to do an “animal walkabout” during the cocktail hour.