Given - Peck

Caroline Carter Given and Brennan Kennedy Peck, both of Birmingham, were married May 13, 2017, at Church in the Pines on the shores of Lake Martin.

The 5:30 p.m. ceremony was officiated by the Reverend Charles Daniel Giffen of Birmingham and the Honorable Kenneth Martin Howard, uncle of the groom, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. A lakeside reception followed at Willow Point Golf and Country Club. 

The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Perry Given Jr. of Birmingham. She is the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Perry Given of Birmingham and the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Myron Raley of Montgomery.

The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Kennedy Peck of Birmingham. He is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Walton Howard of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and the late Mr. and Mrs. Roger Phillip Peck of Tacoma, Washington.

Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore a 1951 imported ivory silk satin gown with Lyons lace made in Como, Italy. It featured a fitted bodice with a low-portrait neckline adorned in Point-de-Lyons lace, and full skirt caught up with rings of pearls falling into a cathedral train. Her heirloom gown was originally worn by family friend Katherine Wooten Springs Milnor, followed by the bride’s paternal grandmother, Ellen Pratt Wilkerson Given, and was last worn by the bride’s mother. Her ivory, cathedral-length heirloom illusion veil of Brussels lace and English net was held in place and fell from a spray of fresh sweetheart roses. The veil was purchased by the late “Mary B” Brandon Tompkins Cochrane of Tuscaloosa while visiting Brussels, Belgium, and was worn by the bride’s mother as well as many of Mrs. Cochrane’s family and friends.

The bride carried a bouquet of peonies, French tulips, hyacinth, dendrobium orchids, lily of the valley, eucalyptus and olive branches, all wrapped in an antique white satin ribbon.

Margaret Allyn Pratt Given, sister of the bride, served as her maid of honor, and Margaret Stone Given, sister-in-law of the bride, served as her matron of honor, both of Birmingham.

Bridesmaids were Eulalie Crommelin Draper Given, cousin of the bride, Anna Patricia Bailey, Katherine Farris Briley, Elizabeth Vaughan Edwards, Allison Jane Lazenby and Natalie Elizabeth Thomley, all of Birmingham; Ann Morris Bailey of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Susan Corinne Waggoner of Memphis, Tennessee. Emison Anne Cochrane of Tuscaloosa, Jenevieve Garrett McNeil of Destin, Florida, and Mary Juliet St. John of Birmingham, all cousins of the bride, served as flower girls and dressed the altar.

The father of the groom and Nicolas Howard Peck, brother of the groom, both of Birmingham, served as best men.

Groomsmen were Samuel Perry Given III, brother of the bride, John Harrison McCrary and Harrison Franklin Smith, all of Birmingham; Alando Jonathan Ballantyne of Washington, D.C.; Preston Collins Brown and William Taylor Tucker Thompson of New York, New York; James Francis Busch of Norman, Oklahoma; and John Joseph MacKinnon Moorer of Jacksonville, Florida. Ushers were Harris Hodges Anthony of Nashville, Tennessee; John Hunter Rutherford of Dallas, Texas; and Charles Melbern Wilcox III of Denver, Colorado. Griffin James McCormack, cousin of the groom, of Washington, D.C., served as the ring bearer. Heralding the bride’s entrance as bell ringers, cousins of the bride, were James Tompkins Cochrane III of Tuscaloosa and Adam Perry Hemingway of Birmingham. 

Denise Houlditch Dow, of Birmingham, chimed in the hour. The Shades Creek Chamber Players, a string quartet from Birmingham, performed the music for the prelude, processional, recessional and postlude. Vocalists were John Clark Canada, Benjamin Thompson Dow, and David Ruffner Mandt, all of Birmingham; and Earl Wimberly Stradtman III of Orlando, Florida.

Holy communion was served to the wedding party prior to the rehearsal by the Rev. Giffen, William Turner Chadwick of Dallas, Texas, and Norman Blair Tynes, junior, of Washington, D.C.

Scripture readers were Ellen Elizabeth deBerniere Given, cousin of the bride, and Emily Judith Bailey, both of Birmingham. The wedding guests were greeted by Brenna McClung Moorer of Jacksonville, Florida.

The bride and groom left their lakeside reception under a canopy of tossed rose petals. The bride’s family boat served as their getaway mode of transportation, where they departed under the stars and a full moon.

After a honeymoon to Bermuda, the couple will reside in Birmingham. 

– Submitted by Caroline Given Peck.