Feature Wedding in the Triad Wedding Magazine

Fall-Winter 2010

Hilliary & Frank
January 30, 2010
By Monica Young
Photography by BG Photography

Ceremony & Reception The Empire Room
Officiate Reverend Phillip Cates
Photography & Videography BG Photography
Wedding Director Above and Beyond Event Planning
Invitations Melody Zanation Design
Gown Bruce’s Bridal of Lexington
Bridesmaids Dresses Cloaks by Tulla’s Custom Sewing
Hair J. Brewer and Company
Formalwear John Merrill’s Men’s Wear
Flowers Keepsake Bouquet and Floral Designs
Catering & Cake The Painted Plate
Bridal Luncheon & Accommodations Greensboro Marriott Downtown
Rehearsal Dinner Kress Terrace
Music/Entertainment Elite Entertainment DJ Todd White
First Dance Song Somewhere Over the Rainbow from 50 First Dates
Honeymoon/Travel Holiday Inn, Aruba
Transportation Key Valet Services
Favors emDOTzee Designs

As a young girl, Hilliary McPherson dreamed of a fairy tale winter wedding. As she began planning to marry Frank Edmondson on January 30, she opted to have the bridal attendants wear rich midnight blue velvet cloaks. The bridesmaids were instructed to wear black dresses of their choice underneath for the reception. Instead of bouquets, the attendants carried white fur muffs as they glided down the aisle. Ellen Hill, Hilliary’s mother, commissioned the six cloaks to be made by Tulla’s Custom Sewing and then kept them to be used for church programs and other events.

Hilliary envisioned transforming the Empire Room in downtown Greensboro into a winter scene with white covering the floors and walls and bare trees wrapped in white lights.

What Hilliary and Frank and their families could not have planned for, however, was the cooperation of Mother Nature. Their wedding weekend forecast called for snow and a massive amount of it. By the time of the wedding’s 5:00 p.m. start, snow blanketed the Piedmont Triad, making travel treacherous. Out of the 350 guests who responded that they would be present, only 132 attended.

“The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for my dream wedding. Most people would be upset, but I was the bride doing cartwheels over it. The only thing I would change was the attendance because it kept so many people from coming,” says Hilliary, who donned pink and purple striped snow boots to take pictures with Frank on deserted, snowy Elm Street in downtown Greensboro after the ceremony.

Since FOX-8 News covered their wedding, many of the absentee guests were able to see what they missed. Because much of the wedding feast remained, the families packed up food and distributed it to homeless people populating the nearby shelters.

“Brad’s food (from The Painted Plate) was so delicious. It would have been a shame to see it go to waste,” says Ellen Hill.

One family wedding tradition posed a dilemma for Frank and Hilliary. Neither of them likes cake so they opted for a dessert table for their guests. However, four generations of Edmondsons have used a vintage bride and groom on top of their wedding cakes. Brad Semon made a special, small cake so that Frank and Hilliary could continue the family tradition, pose for the requisite cake cutting but not have to invest into a large cake neither wanted to have.

During the seven months from when Frank proposed on Holden Beach during the annual Edmondson family vacation to the actual wedding date where Hilliary’s two brothers walked her down the Empire Room’s beautiful staircase, Hilliary, Frank and their mothers worked to create an intimate weekend full of special details.

And despite wanting a winter wonderland wedding, Frank and Hilliary planned the opposite for their honeymoon getaway. They settled in after the wedding and a few weeks later flew to Aruba to soak up some sun.

“We just had a special, special wedding. How many people get to tell their kids that they could have gone sledding on their wedding day? People said it was like I had a direct line to God because I wanted it to snow so badly on my wedding day. It was perfect,” says Hilliary.