Something special
Homewood wedding ‘a moment of worship and celebration’
When Homewood native Savannah Wright met her now-husband Noah Glover at Duke Divinity School, she was hesitant. She hadn’t anticipated she would date anyone while in seminary.
But they immediately became close when they met at a blues bar a week before classes started. They shared the same taste in music and the same passion for their local church. As they spent more time together, they realized how much they liked each other and started dating.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person classes, the two went home to their families — Noah in Mississippi and Savannah in Birmingham — and studied online. Then in May 2020, Savannah was diagnosed with brain cancer.
“When he found out about my diagnosis, he came over to Birmingham and ended up spending the summer with my family to take care of me,” she said. “I couldn’t drive the whole summer, so he drove me wherever I needed to go. He took me to all of my radiation appointments. He was there for anything that I might have needed, and he really got a taste of what it was like to be a part of my family.”
At this point, Noah already knew he wanted to marry Savannah. He said he’d known since before the pandemic hit, before the brain cancer diagnosis, on a day when they were sitting on the front porch sipping on some wine and enjoying an Italian dish they made.
“I was sitting and enjoying the moment outside with this lovely lady and had a wonderful conversation,” he said. “We sat out there all night long. I knew right then that she was something special and that I love her.”
In July 2020, Noah recruited the help of the youth pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church, Robert Sturdivant, to plan a proposal at the church’s new prayer garden. Savannah said she was completely surprised and was thrilled to see how the church had changed under its new renovations.
On May 7, the couple, their friends and families returned to Trinity UMC for the Glovers’ wedding day. The afternoon sun twinkled through the stained glass windows of the sanctuary as Savannah walked down the aisle, escorted by both her father and her stepfather.
“Noah and I both want to be pastors, so the ceremony was really important to us,” Savannah said. “We wanted to plan it together and have elements of our relationship but also of us as individuals.”
The first thing the Glovers did as a married couple was give communion to the wedding party at the altar.
“It was a special time,” Noah said. “I wanted to make sure the ceremony was a moment of worship and of celebration, because if it hadn’t been for God, we wouldn’t be standing there and we wouldn’t be together.”
Since their wedding day, the Glovers have returned to their home in Durham, North Carolina.
“I think the joy is planting new traditions and new routines of everyday life,” Noah said. “We try to get up and have coffee with each other every morning, and we try to end the day together reading. Just enjoying those routines and starting a life together is the most fun.”