April Smitherman & John Colburn

It may sound cliché, but seeing John was the highlight of my day. It had been a somewhat stressful morning as Birmingham had gone to bed the night before to a steady snowfall and had woken to a thorough blanket of snow and ice. I (April) had spent the night at the house of one of my bridesmaids who happened to live across the street from the church. I spent a good part of Saturday morning on the phone with vendors, making sure venues would be open and décor would be arranged. Many sweet people came together to make our beautiful, special, snowy wedding happen. I felt like I had run a marathon before the ceremony began, but once John and I saw each other, he put me at ease and reminded me that what mattered is we were getting married—even if we had to strap on boots and hike to the pastor’s house.

One of my favorite details is the hairpiece I wore—a restored vintage bridal wax crown from England. I never fancied myself as a tiara-wearing bride, but something about the delicate white-and-gold features of the headpiece brightened my face in more than one way. Upon our engagement, I immediately started searching for one to call mine. I stumbled upon an Etsy shop for Waxflower Vintage, where a UK-based gal hand-makes and sells headpieces composed of antique and vintage wax flower crowns and bouquets. I’m inspired by the vintage aesthetic and knew I wanted my bridal look to have a vintage 1920s bent, so the wax flower crown fit right in.