Kayla Carpenter
&
Andrew McCarley
Baldwyn, MS September 20, 2014
When Kayla Carpenter began planning her September 20 wedding to Andrew McCarley, she chose treasured memories as the theme for the occasion.
The theme was meaningful for many reasons, starting with the location of the ceremony at First Baptist Church in Baldwyn, where her mother and father had married 35 years earlier.
Kayla Carpenter wanted a vintage look, but her mother’s voluminous wedding gown with a scoop neck, long sleeves and tiered skirt screamed 1970s. She remembered reading in Mississippi Magazine how Lara Beth Gentry Manley of Baldwyn wore a restyled version of the gown her mother Vickie wore during her wedding to Terry Gentry and that Mississippi designer Sandra Ashford had made possible.
With her mother’s wedding gown fresh out of the sealed box it had been preserved and stored in, Kayla and her mother Edwina Hobson Carpenter contacted Ashford in July 2013.
“I was thrilled when Kayla wanted to start with my dress and have Sandra redesign it,” said Edwina Carpenter. “It was so special and we became friends with Sandra in the process of restyling the dress. My dress was very much a ‘70s styled dress, and I understood why she wanted to have it restyled. My mother and I purchased it at a bridal shop in Memphis.”
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