scrapbook:
James & Amanda’s wedding
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reception
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first person
barn house beauty
august fourth By SARAH K. MCDONALD Photos by abi q photography
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(Opposite page) PERSONAL TOUCHES: The bride wore her paternal great-grandmother’s (Marion Renninger) doublestranded pearls and the same shoes that her Memaw (Nancy Beckwith) wore on her wedding day. (This page, clockwise from top left) GETTING STARTED: Monte’s nieces, Peyton Davis (right) and Mason Davis, tossed out white feathers before the bride made her grand entrance. FAMILY TIES: The couple with Joanne Claire Miller (far left), Amanda’s paternal grandmother, and Dot Davis (far right), Monte’s maternal grandmother. SERENE SPOT: “That evening was absolutely beautiful,” Amanda says. SWEET TREATS: Tiffany Pajic, Amanda’s friend from graduate school, created a small cake for Amanda and Monte to cut during the reception.
FIRST DANCE: Amanda and Monte dance together to “Shining Star” by the Manhattans. MOM MOMENT: Amanda and her mom, Dawn Beckwith Miller. THE BRIDAL PARTY: (From left to right) Britt Williams, Bentley Price, James Ford, the groom and bride, Jeanette Jo Price, Becky Keay, and Shontae Jarratt. FEATHERED MEMORIES: Florist Gary Littleton of GH Littleton LLC incorporated feathers into Amanda’s bouquet.
hen Amanda Kimbrough Miller and James Monte Ford Jr. met in January 2009, she was in her first year of working as a nurse, and he helped train her at the VCU Medical Center Evans-Haynes Burn Center. The pair spent a lot of time in professional settings that year, and the following year they celebrated their joint birthday (Jan. 6) together. Amanda, who had been harboring a crush, surprised Monte with a kiss, and they were instantly an item. Monte proposed on Aug. 19, 2011, at the Jefferson Hotel, an evening originally designed to celebrate Amanda’s first day of graduate school. Wedding planning followed. Amanda and Monte’s Aug. 4, 2012, wedding was almost derailed, though. A lack of communication from the venue that the bride-to-be had chosen was giving her uneasy feelings. Monte did some research and discovered that the business was going bankrupt. Enter Castle Hill Cider. Wedding planner Colleen Cook of CCS Events turned the couple on to the site. The ceremony was held outside under four European Linden trees, with the 125 guests seated in rented church pews. “I wanted the ceremony to feel sacred like we were in a church, yet be outside because being out in nature is spiritual to me,” Amanda says. Harpist Virginia Schweninger played songs throughout, including Etta James’ “At Last,” and a flutter of butterflies was released once the couple was pronounced man and wife. Guests enjoyed a cocktail hour on the lawn with watermelon bellinis and caramel apple martinis. Later, inside the barn area, guests were served a full dinner that included lamb shanks, salad, family-style sides and wine. The reception was decorated with romantic Southern touches, including lace table overlays and chair covers made by Monte’s mom. To incorporate Amanda’s love for horses, the couple painted horseshoes as table numbers. After the wedding, Amanda and Monte, who live in Richmond’s Northside, celebrated their new life together in Kauai, Hawaii.
Gown Caryns Bridals, Farmville, Va. Ceremony / Reception Castle Hill Cider Hair and Makeup Avenue42 Catering Catering by Jill Reception Band The Heartbeat of Soul Wedding Planner Colleen Cook of CCS Events Cake Tiffany Pajic
77 Richmond BRIDE