By Donna Cornelius
Journal features writer
As a Major League Baseball pitcher, Graham Godfrey probably isn’t fond of the phrase “hitting one out of the park.”
But that’s just what he and his fiancée, Jenna Cyrill, managed to do when they planned their Nov. 16, 2013 wedding. From the big decisions to the finer touches, the couple created a memorable event that combined sophistication, liveliness and fun.
Jenna and Godfrey chose a venue with an atmosphere that’s decidedly different from a sports arena.
“I’m not from Birmingham, so I really had to do my homework,” Jenna said. “I started Googling and found out you could have weddings at the Birmingham Museum of Art.”
The couple chose to have both the ceremony and the reception at the museum for several reasons, Jenna said.
“First, we love the metropolitan energy of the museum and knew it would be a perfect palette,” she said. “You can go modern and contemporary if you want to.”
Although food, drink and flash photography aren’t allowed outside certain areas of the museum, wedding guests can visit galleries by prior arrangement.
“We thought it was so cool that our guests were able to tour the galleries throughout the evening if they wanted,” Jenna said. “Also, about 90 percent of our guests were from out of town and were unfamiliar with the city. Having the ceremony and the reception at the same place meant they didn’t have to drive from one place to another. And most of them stayed nearby at the Westin, my favorite hotel, and we ran shuttles from there to the museum.”
Besides the ambiance and the location, the couple also liked another aspect of choosing that particular venue. Although some fees pay for specific services, such as catering and security, “You’re also giving a donation to the arts,” Jenna said.
Although they chose one of Birmingham’s most well-known places for their wedding, neither Jenna nor Graham is a Magic City native. She’s from Spartanburg, S.C., while her husband’s hometown is Houston. They met in 2006 when both were student athletes at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. Graham was there on a baseball scholarship, while Jenna had earned a volleyball scholarship.
“All the athletes always hung out together in big groups,” Jenna said. “I first met Graham at a baseball party, and we became fast friends. We never dated romantically in college—we stayed strictly in the friend zone.”
The two stayed in touch, she said, and reconnected in 2011. By that time, Graham was with the Oakland A’s, while Jenna was working in Philadelphia.
“I got a text from Graham saying that the A’s were coming to town to play the Philadelphia Phillies and that he wanted us to catch up while he was in town,” she said.
They not only caught up with each other but discovered that the friendship had blossomed into a mutual attraction.
“Over the next year, I flew out to the West Coast every other week to see him,” Jenna said.
After Graham had graduated from high school, his parents moved to Birmingham.
“He made this his home base,” she said. “In October 2012, I left my job in Philadelphia and moved to Birmingham to be with Graham.”
The couple got engaged soon after that, on Dec. 7, 2012.
“It was a crazy day for a few reasons,” Jenna said. “The first thing that morning, Graham got a call from his agent saying he’d been traded from the A’s to the Boston Red Sox. We picked up his mom and headed straight to the mall to stock up on Red Sox gear and finish our Christmas shopping.”
What Jenna didn’t know was that Graham had another stop to make: to pick up her engagement ring.
Later that night at their house, Graham challenged Jenna to a game of pool.
“We love playing pool together, so it became our little thing to unwind from the day,” she said. “I went to change my clothes, and when I got back, Graham had lit a bunch of candles around the room and was playing Adele’s ‘One and Only.’”
In search of the cue ball to start the game, Jenna found it—and something else—in one of the pool table pockets.
“I pulled out a mahogany ring box and found an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful diamond ring,” she said.
His proposal got an enthusiastic yes, Jenna said.
The round-cut colorless diamond with a prong setting and halo of diamonds is “perfection,” she said. And it was even more special because Graham designed it himself with Diamonds Direct, she added.
Graham said he wanted “something that represented Jenna: simple, timeless and breathtaking.”
While he knew what he wanted the ring to look like, choosing the diamond was harder, he said.
“I couldn’t have done it without the assistance of Diamonds Direct,” he said. “When I saw this particular diamond, I knew immediately that this was the one.”
Jenna also knew she’d found the perfect wedding dress almost right away. She frequently does wedding gown modeling, she said, and thus had seen and worn many different styles.
At the White Room in Cahaba Heights, she was trying on dresses when Graham’s sister, Brigham Godfrey, pulled out an Ines Di Santo mermaid-style gown with a low back and crystal-embellished bodice.
“I grew up in an Italian family, so I wanted an Italian designer,” Jenna said. “Ines is known for her elaborate gowns, and her design fit me perfectly.”
She added a vintage-look veil, four-inch silver stiletto heels and a pair of Maria Elena crystal drop earrings with “something blue” crystal details, she said.
At the ceremony, the groom had an item that combined Jenna’s roots with the couple’s new ones.
“A tradition of Italian folklore, a nod to my family, included having Graham carry a small piece of iron to ward off evil spirits,” Jenna said. “Combining this tradition with our local Birmingham culture, we decided it would be neat for him to have a Vulcan charm in his pocket on our wedding day.”
Their wedding planner, designer and florist was Chris Confero, Jenna said.
“He’s a creative genius,” she said. “He incorporated the insignia from our invitations into every detail of the wedding, from the ceremony backdrop to the cake to the monogrammed decal on the dance floor.”
She especially loved a “light wall,” created by strings of lights hung from a massive glass wall in the reception area, she said.
“One of my very favorite details of the entire wedding was our ceremony music selections,” Jenna said. “We’re not a traditional couple, so we didn’t want traditional music.”
Joyce Terry’s Music Excursions, which includes two violins and a piano, played a rendition of The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” as family members and the attendants walked down the aisle and Coldplay’s “Paradise” for the bridal processional.
“We also included Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ for the recessional,” Jenna said.
Graham said he didn’t have many special requests about the ceremony since the planning time hit during baseball season.
“However, I was in charge of the music,” he said. “My only request was to make our reception a nonstop dance party without the typical wedding songs.”
DJ Coco, whom they chose to provide the reception music, “did not let us down,” Graham said. “He had everyone on the dance floor, and the party didn’t stop. In fact, most people commented on how much fun the reception was because the music was so good.”
The couple also agreed that the food served at the reception would get a high priority.
“Graham and I love all kinds of food, so we knew we couldn’t narrow our menu down to one specific cuisine,” Jenna said. “Our caterers, A Social Affair, were wonderful and accommodating.”
Food stations offered a wide variety of choices, she said, from shrimps and grits, a Charleston staple, to an Italian favorite, Ragu Alla Bolognese.
Barb Sullivan of Barb’s Cakes made the five-tiered, French vanilla-almond wedding cake.
“The coolest thing about the cake was that the top and bottom layers replicated the bodice of my dress,” Jenna said.
More sweets came from Pastry Arts in Birmingham’s signature baby bites. The round, bite-sized cakes were decorated to look like baseballs, Jenna said.
Other vendors for Jenna and Graham’s wedding included photographer Frank Carnaggio and his assistant, Nicole Muro; Amberly Shelton Paperie for the invitations and stationery; Bridesmaids Inc. for the bridesmaids’ dresses; Renaissance for the flower girl’s dress; Mr. Burch Formal Ware for the tuxedos and tiebar.com for the groom and groomsmen’s ties; and Melissa Moore Bogardus, hair and makeup.
Jenna and Graham chose family members, teammates and friends as their attendants. Another special friend fulfilled a crucial role at the ceremony.
“We had Johnny Doskow, who’s also the radio announcer for the Sacramento Mudcats, a team Graham used to play on, to officiate our wedding,” Jenna said. “He’s known us for a long time, and it was really important for us to fly him out.”
About two weeks after the wedding, Graham left to play winter baseball in the Dominican Republic. Jenna spent Christmas with him there at a resort in Punta Cana.
She’s not just a supportive wife but a devoted baseball fan, too.
“I’ll always remember watching Graham get his first major league win,” she said. “It was June 2011, and he was with the A’s, and they were playing the San Francisco Giants in the ‘Battle of the Bay.’”
Graham, a right-handed pitcher, beat the Giants’ two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum that night.
“It’s great to watch the man you love do what he loves,” Jenna said.
Graham has a memorable experience, too—and it’s not related to baseball but to his wedding day.
“Two memories really jump out for me,” he said. “The first was seeing Jenna in her dress for the first time. All I knew was that her dress was amazing, so I was excited to see what the big deal was. My expectations were blown away, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“The other lasting impression was seeing her walk down the aisle to ‘Paradise.” The music combined with the image of my gorgeous wife walking toward me made time stop, and I knew she was the love of my life.”