The campus of quaint Sewanee: University of the South was the setting when Virginia “Ginger” Zatarain Logan and William “Will” Terry Smith began their courtship. They first met on a spring break trip to Florida with a few college friends. The sun and the sand must have gotten to both Ginger and Will, because by the time the trip was over, the two were completely smitten. Upon their return back to campus, the two became nearly inseparable.
After dating for five years, Will had an elaborate plan for how he would ask Ginger to be his wife. He waited for a weekend when both of his parents could fly in from Georgia, and Ginger’s sister could fly in from college. Unfortunately, after nearly a month of planning, the day he planned to propose happened to be the night before everyone in New Orleans evacuated for Hurricane Gustav. But he couldn’t stop!
Ginger was scrambling that day, trying to get everything packed up, when she remembered she was supposed to go to dinner with Will at her parent’s house. After trying to get out of it to have more time to pack, she grudgingly decided to run over for a quick dinner. When she and Will arrived, her parents were nowhere in sight and the whole house was covered in candles and white roses. At first, her mind was so flustered thinking about the hurricane, she had no idea what was going on. When she realized what was happening and saw Will down on one knee with a ring, she knew the love of her life was proposing! Her parents, Will’s parents, her brother and sister, as well as numerous friends and family all came over to the house to surprise and congratulate them. The following morning, with the French Quarter deserted, they had a celebratory brunch at Brennan’s before evacuating to Georgia for a week.
On May 16, 2009, the couple wed at Trinity Church, where Ginger attended school and church. Father Michael C. Kuhn, whom Ginger has known since she was a child, officiated. The bride walked down the aisle in her mother’s wedding gown, which her aunt designed in 1977 and wore for her own wedding. The dress was candlelight-white with a Brussels lace overlay with cap sleeves and a scoop neck. Her veil was an antique, which her grandmother purchased years ago, and all the women in her family have worn it for their weddings.
The bride carried an all-white bouquet of peonies, ranunculus, spray roses, hydrangea and lilies of the valley designed by Meade Wenzel. Her bridesmaids carried similar all-white bouquets and wore casual yet sophisticated short celery-colored gowns from Wedding Belles.
The groomsmen wore navy-blue blazers and white linen pants. Every groomsmen (except Ginger’s brother) went to Sewanee with them, so they all donned specially made “Sewanee Angel” ties, an extra-special touch to honor their alma mater.
Following the ceremony, guests were treated to an elegant indoor/outdoor ceremony at the Pavilion of Two Sisters at City Park. The menu was a mix of New Orleans-style cuisine for out-of-town guests, including fried oysters, oysters Rockefeller, shrimp and grits, seared tuna and fried catfish.
The band, Bobby J and Stuff Like That, kept guests and the newlyweds out on the dance floor almost all night. Ginger and Will were thrilled to have
all four sets of their grandparents there to celebrate with them, and everyone cut in for a dance or two.
The wedding cake, created by Haydel’s, was a simple five-tier creation with vertical pleats and white flowers adorning the top, almost too beautiful for the bridesmaids to pull their cake pulls. The groom’s cake, a surprise to the groom, was a replica of the Sewanee football field, to honor Will’s football days at the university. But the real surprise was that inside was doberge cake, Will’s favorite.
The couple honeymooned in Biras Creek on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands for one week. They reside in Uptown New Orleans, where Ginger will graduate in December from LSUHSC with a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and Will is a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual.
