Just Her Cup Of Tea

Pretty pottery is the highlight of a bridal shower at a historic home in Summit.

- Kelli Bozeman

It was raining on the day of Laura Sumrall’s bridal shower. Some might call that inconvenient, but it was actually quite fitting for a party centered around a theme of beautiful pottery—artwork that gets its graceful shapes only after adding just the right amount of water.

A few raindrops did not deter Laura’s guests. They gathered at The Covington House in Summit to share tea and conversation as they presented the bride-to-be with gifts of two different types of Mississippi-made pottery.

“Like my mother, I love plates and china,” Laura says. “I inherited my grandmother’s Noritake china, so I instead decided to register for pottery.”

Laura had long admired the work of Summit’s Pisgah Potters—Laurie Steele and Phyllis Waller—so she approached them with an idea to collaborate on a unique pottery design just for the soon-to-be newlyweds, Laura and her fiancé Carl Muntean. “They were excited about the idea,” says Laura, who paid a visit to the artists’ studio. “I came in with a bit of a plan—I wanted square plates with a ruffled edge, but I wanted the edge to be dipped in brown.”

After a couple of trial runs, the potters hit upon the perfect palette for the plates, using a brown shade infused with a hint of pearl for the edges. “Each plate looks a little different; no two are the same,” Laura says.