Real {Georgia} Wedding: Ashley + Gregory

Meet Ashley Treadwell and Gregory Wilson II.  These two high school sweethearts and current graduate students tied the knot on March 20, 2011 in a lovely outdoor ceremony at The Carl House in Auburn, Georgia.  It was 9 years ago when they met.  Ashley accompanied a mutual friend in search of a Michael Jackson CD.  At that time, Gregory was known around school as the biggest MJ fan, so he was the go-to person for anything Michael Jackson related.  When they were introduced by the mutual friend, they remained inseparable….it’s no wonder they chose Michael Jackson’s, “Lady in my Life” as their first dance.  Check out their gorgeous photos shot by Deborah Jones of JoCo Photography.

The proposal…

While driving, Ashley likes to be in control of everything…temperature, radio, you name it. With that in mind, Gregory knew he could surprise her during a driving trip from GA to VA.  He hid the ring someplace where he knew she’d be able to find it, but it turns out that on that particular day, she chose not to bother with anything in the car.  2 hours later, Ashley was tired of the silence and decided to turn on some music.  As planned, while looking for the radio remote, she found the engagement ring and was totally surprised. They were in South Carolina when he proposed.

This is the most adorable cake by Shellane Pickett of Apple Butter Bakery & Custom Cake Shoppe

The theme of the wedding was a blend of many.  While it was a traditional baptist wedding, that fact that it was on a Sunday, outdoors, and the guys wore chocolate tuxedos, made it slightly non-traditional.  The couple also incorporated eco-friendly and DIY elements into the wedding.

On the aspect of the wedding that mattered to them most…

“Family is very important to me, so the idea of a small wedding just wasn’t a possibility.  Likewise, a destination wedding was out of the question because I wanted everyone who loved us to be able to celebrate with us without having a huge financial strain.  So ultimately, the most important aspect to me was being surrounded by all the people we love and making sure they had a great time.” -Ashley

“My hope was that the wedding ran smoothly and was memorable. I also wanted great pictures,” – Gregory

On how the couple selected their wedding vendors….

“We confess, we ignored the advice that says never use friends as you vendors. But it worked out quite well for us. We were so lucky to be able to use some vendors that we either knew personally, or had worked with before. Our photographer, Debi, is a former coworker of Gregory’s. We had developed a beautiful relationship with her, thus there was never anyone else we’d considered for our pictures.   Ashley’s close friend and bridesmaid is the owner of an award-winning Atlanta bakery, so choosing our cake designer was easy. Our DJ was also an easy selection, as he’d already done another event for Ashley’s family a couple years prior. For our planner and florist, we used the in-house services of our venue, which was very convenient.” -Ashley & Gregory

Advice to current couples…

“It’s so cliche, but really, don’t sweat the small stuff. One (or two, or three) things will definitely not go as planned on your wedding day, but as my sister put it: ‘As long as the two of you show up and have a minister, it’ll be fine.’   We had buttons pop off of groomsmens suits,  saw our painstakingly designed seating chart be rendered completely useless, and we performed our choreographed first dance to a version of the song we had never even heard before… but we got married, and that’s what matters.” – Ashley

Thanks so much to Debi of Joco Photography for this adorable wedding.  Make sure you head over to Facebook and “Like” her page….and “Like” our fanpage too if you haven’t already!

VENDORS

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