As is our annual custom here every January at Memphis magazine, we present three of our favorite local weddings of the previous year. These weddings were clearly joyous and carefully planned occasions and mostly traditional (though one did include the participation of The Peabody’s fine-feathered friends!) starring beautiful young brides in elegant, flowing gowns. In all three, the ceremonies and receptions were held at historic Memphis landmarks — The Peabody, the Hunt Phelan house, and Annesdale Mansion — which added to the fun and excitement.
We congratulate the three families and wish you every success in your lives together.
— Anne Cunningham O’Neill
Photography by Creation Studios
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Donny Granger
Believe it or not, the participation of The Peabody ducks was planned.
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Donny Granger
Guests watch the ceremony bathed in the golden glow of The Peabody’s magnificent ballroom.
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Donny Granger
The elegant wedding party of family and friends poses together.
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Donny Granger
David and Pam Hill, the bride and groom, and Nancy and Jimmy Tashie.
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Donny Granger
It’s swing time for Mr. and Mrs. Scott Tashie!
There was quite a bit of drama last year in the wedding plans of young Memphians Rebekah Hill, daughter of Pam and David Hill, and Scott Tashie, son of Jimmy and Nancy Tashie. The Memphis couple had planned a relatively small, private wedding at the elegant One and Only Palmilla Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, but circumstances beyond their control caused a change of plans. As a result, it made sense in view of time constraints to have the wedding back home in Memphis.
Nevertheless, finding a place for the event might well have become a challenge. Luckily, The Peabody, a lifelong favorite of the bride and groom, was available within the same time frame (the date was moved back a week to June 4th), so the event was quickly booked.
Expert planners, Russell and Ruthie Events, were hired to take care of all the details and make the late transition as smooth and panic-free as possible. The Peabody also went above and beyond to help coordinate all the last-minute changes in details. According to the mother of the bride, it was “a miracle that everything worked out in the end.”
But wait, another small snag (to say the least) occurred when it rained on the evening of the wedding, which meant the ceremony and cocktail hour, scheduled to take place on the Peabody’s rooftop, had to be moved inside at the last minute to the Continental Ballroom. Imagine shuttling around 13 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen and you will get an idea of what an amazingly seamless quick change this was. Thanks to Anthony Petrina, then duck master, the Peabody ducks even made a cameo, marching down the aisle in advance of the couple’s march down the aisle.
The officiant at the ceremony was Rocky Anthony, pastor and counselor at the Memphis Teacher Residency Program. The wedding reception with dinner and dancing took place in the famous Skyway Room. Greg Campbell of the Garden District (also luckily booked at the last minute) outdid himself with filling the rooms with masses of the bride’s favorite white orchids. The Atlanta Party Band provided the entertainment early on, and then Memphis rapper Al Kapone arrived to turn up the heat at 11 p.m. The whole event was photographed by Creation Studios.
In the end, the wedding that had weathered a planning storm all came together perfectly, and the bride reports that “their relationship became so much stronger because of it, and we had an absolute blast!” The couple jetted off into the wild, blue yonder on a honeymoon to Italy and Greece, and I am sure the stresses soon faded away.
While Rebekah Tashie was telling me about her wedding, I kept thinking of the famous Robert Burns quote, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry… .” Meanwhile Pam Hill, the bride’s mother, was convinced that the wedding was never really in earthly hands. She quoted Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know I have the plans for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Amen to that.
