Coastal Alabama Weddings: Vintage chapel is perfect backdrop for sweet ceremony

Morgan Woodard of Morgan Joy Photography shoots 35 or more weddings per year in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Often, the weddings are elaborate and expensive.

So when it came to her own recent wedding, she kept it small and easy. In her experience, "Most of the time the bride does everything to impress her friends instead of focusing on the meaning of her wedding," she said. "I think a wedding should be a joyful, happy celebration."

And that's just what she had, with a venue that cost next to nothing, flowers she bought the night before and no wedding party or wedding planner.

"I kind of winged everything," she said. "I just knew it would all come together, and it did."

Morgan married Seth Woodard on May 23, at Baldwin County Bicentennial Park in Stapleton. He really wanted a church wedding, and she wanted a vintage setting, she said. When one of her friends suggested the park, which includes the historic, circa-1895 Montpelier Methodist Church, a 19th century general store, a blacksmith's shop and other buildings, Morgan fell in love with it right away.

"I almost cried when I realized it was free," she said, adding that there's now a nominal fee to rent the space.

The couple met about four years ago, when she went to Lowe's to buy some paint. Seth was working there at the time, in the receiving area, but on that day "he walked by and saw me at the counter and decided he'd work in paint," she said, laughing. He followed her out to her car, but the usually outgoing Morgan "shut down" and didn't talk to him.

"I was anti-guys at that time," she said.

Later, when she told her friend about him, the friend took Morgan's business card up to Lowe's and gave it to Seth. Sure enough, he called her, they went on their first date and have been together ever since.

After Seth graduated from the University of South Alabama with a degree in chemical engineering in May, he got a job with Evonik – in Indiana. Since their wedding, Morgan has flown back and forth, spending increasingly more time with Seth in Indiana as she finishes the weddings she's shooting here over the next few months.

Here are some of the details of their beautiful wedding day.

How they met: "We met at Lowes in Daphne, I recently bought a house in Loxley and i wanted to go pick up some paint and paint the walls. He worked at Lowe's," said Morgan.

How he proposed: "He proposed at Blakely State Park, by the huge tree that you can walk inside of. He blindfolded me and walked me down the pier."

Wedding date: May 23, 2015

All about the dress: "I knew about The Timeless Bride from some of my brides. I wanted something different for my dress, but I had no clue what I meant by 'different' until I walked into the shop. Naomi (Maurer) picked out a few vintage dresses. I found my awesome 1970s dress and could see that after alterations it was going to be exactly what I wanted. My mom was able to alter it for me. When I saw myself in the camera in the dress with my hair and makeup done, I thought, 'This is it.' It was exactly what I had envisioned."

Bridesmaids/groomsmen? "None! I wanted it to be as simple as possible. I feel most of the time bridesmaids and groomsmen just cause more chaos."

Wedding cake by: Evelyn Phelps (251-661-9200). "I found her thorough a friend on Facebook. The cake was fabulous and exactly what i wanted for way cheaper than the cake shops. It was a three-tier messy white cake, which I decorated with flowers from The Fresh Market on the top."

Groom's cake: Four cheesecakes made by Seth's grandmother

Flowers by: The Fresh Market. "I just went the night before the wedding and picked up a couple of bouquets of flowers and baby's breath."

Videography by: "One of my photography friends, Brooke Helms, surprised me and videotaped the wedding and reception for me."

Reception food: "We served hamburgers, hot dogs and crawfish. My brother-in-law, Tolly Nassar from Louisiana, bought and cooked the crawfish."

Officiant: Morgan's uncle, John Faciane

Music: "Seth's grandmother played the piano while I walked down the aisle. My sister, Lydia Bru, sang Christina Aguilera's 'I Turn to You' during the ceremony."

Special dances: "Our first dance was to 'Feels Like Home' by Chantal Kreviazuk. The daddy dance song was 'I Will Always Be Your Baby' by Natalie Grant. The mom and groom song was 'You Raise Me Up' by Josh Groban."

Honeymoon: "We spent a few days in Gulf Shores."

Advice for other couples planning a wedding? "Keep it simple, and exactly what you want. Don't do traditional things if you do not want to – we didn't."

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