Real Wedding: Hank and Allison

No one published my wedding, so I'm making my own wedding feature LOL

Our wedding wasn’t a portfolio piece..

It was a holy ceremony and a big beautiful party to mark the beginning of my life with Hank. BUT we’re not surprised that my little artist self had to throw herself into the creative details. There are lots of wedding blogs that highlight unique weddings, and I thought “why not us?”. I would’ve also loved a chance to have my amazing vendors get some press… but alas, no one took the bid. So here I am, dusting off the ‘ol Substack, publishing my own “Real Wedding” blog feature. Tune in below, as I attempt to write one of these as if a publication is highlighting the 2019 Bieber wedding.

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Historic Art Museum Hosts Colorful Wedding of Local Artist and Army Officer

Savannah, Georgia

Photography by Katy Lynn McNab

Allison and Hank met the summer before Hank spent nine months in Europe for a military deployment (they are a dating app miracle). A month after returning home, Hank proposed to Allison on the beach in St. Augustine during an evening thunder storm. “He was very insistent on going on a beach walk after dinner, and we even split a bottle of gas station wine in the parking lot while we waited for the rain to pass… You’d think that’s obvious, but I swear, I didn’t suspect anything”.

(Note: Usually these wedding blogs start with something like: “Allison and Hank didn’t want to be traditional so they did this different thing for their wedding… and then a quote from the bride that’s something like ‘we just wanted to be true to us in the whole process’ la la la.” And then there’s a series of questions the bride answers about the wedding. I copied and pasted some questions from a wedding blog as if I was interviewed by a cool “this bride is different” blog.)

Where was your ceremony and reception? Why did you choose those places?

Our ceremony was at our home church, Christ Church Anglican, in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah has been my home for thirteen years, Hank grew up in South Carolina, and we love being members at our historic little church (est. 1733) - so it just made sense to have it here.

Our reception was at the Telfair Academy (est. 1820), a historic art museum downtown. The Telfair has two ball rooms and a permanent classical art collection, so the first half of our reception was essentially a two-hour long cocktail hour with dinner stations, so that folks could meander around. Hank was a history major at UVA and I’m an artist, so we felt that the downtown museum reception beautifully combined our interests.

After dinner, a second line from our band, The Royals, escorted the whole party through Telfair Square to the neighboring contemporary art museum, The Jepson Center, for dancing and dessert.

Tell us about some of your favorite creative details.

Ha! What a loaded question. I couldn’t help but spend a nine month engagement pumping any spare creative energy into the little details of the day. I knew our wedding was going to be a celebration of beauty and joy, even without the unique touches... But I couldn’t help herself. Three months before the day, my mom banned me from DIY projects, knowing that I have the tendency to let my ideas fill up time I didn’t have. Well, I didn’t listen to my mom (sorry mom) and I spent the remainder of my engagement painting, sculpting, and crafting* my 31 year-old heart out.

(*side note: there were many little wedding projects that I think I’ll share in a future Substack post.. they just deserve their own reflections. Stay tuned!)

If I had to pick one detail… I would say that I appreciated the fearless use of COLOR throughout the day! My florist, Mea Flowers, used 72 different types of flowers and fruit for all the arrangements. I also had fun picking out colorful linens from Beachview Rentals and Nuage Linens to compliment each museum. My bridesmaids also wore a variety of colors and patterns, and it simply worked.

In planning a wedding, what is the most important aspect for you?

I’ve been to enough weddings to know exactly what I wanted, and I knew that it was SO important to make things as painless and effortlessly fun as possible. This is a celebration! Being a stress-ridden bride was not worth it. Even though I tried my best not to be anxious in the process, I still felt like my brain was filled to the BRIM for a while there. To-do’s and emails and coordinating… I just always had something wedding-related to think about.

It was also important to have all our loved ones there. Hank and I are blessed to have lots of lifelong friends, family friends, and a rich community in Savannah. We wanted to be able to fit everyone- and having a fluid food-station reception and a three story museum to dance in perfectly accommodated our size of celebration.

What is a favorite vignette you’d like to share from the day?

I’ll share more about the venues later (in another issue), but at the edge of the dance floor in the Jepson was a wide staircase. During all the dancing, lots of folks of all ages found themselves sitting on the steps and people-watching their hearts out. I didn’t expect this to be such a huge element of the night, but we loved it.

Tell us about your vendors!

As a former wedding vendor, I know how important a vendor list is in helping these small businesses get future business. We were so happy with our vendors and highly recommend all of them! So here’s the big bad list:

Venue: Telfair Museums | Getting Ready Location: The Gingerbread House | Dress: Monique Huillier Bride at Warren Barron Bridal | Photographer: Katy Lynn McNab | Videographer: Summer LaBelle | Rentals: Beachview Event Rentals | Bar Service: Johnnie Ganems | Flowers: Mea Flowers | Catering: Current Catering | Special linens: Nuage | Band: The Royals | Cake: Bakers Pride Bakery | GF cupcakes: Unforgettable Bakery | Transportation: Old Savannah Tours | Day-of Content: BFF of the Bride | Invitations: Polk Paper and Small Creative (the bride!) | Hair and Makeup: Royal Makeup and Hair Bridal Hair: Lauren Norton Beauty | Custom creative touches: Small Creative | Planners: Sincerely Yours Events

That’s all for now, folks! Didn’t Katy do an amazing job with these film photos?Thanks for indulging me. I felt like our wedding was a beautiful reflection of our personalities, and it truly did take up my artist capacity for the first half of 2025. I’m planning on sharing more detailed posts in the next few weeks to hone in on the design touches- like the invitations I illustrated and the silly little ceramic vases I made. After I get all the wedding posts out of my system, we’ll resume to usual programming were I share my normal creative endeavors.

We’ll end today’s wedding round-up with our Super 8 wedding video made by the LOVELY Summer LaBelle - check it out below!

Signing off (for the first time as),

Allison Hall Phillips