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For Carrie Hill and Wade Smith, it all started with an accordion.

We're not talking about their love story — that's a much longer tale,
beginning with a casual encounter at a dinner organized by the Downtown Social
Club.

But as the happy couple exchanged vows on Saturday at Birmingham's Lyric
Theatre, accordion music must have been dancing in their heads. In a very real
way, it made this wedding venue possible for them.

Hill, 45, and Smith, 39, are the first couple to get married at the new
Lyric, a century-old vaudeville house that's been restored to pristine glory in
Birmingham. They said "I do" during a 6:30 p.m. ceremony on stage, surrounded by
family, friends and extreme architectural beauty.

They're also the only couple who'll get married at the Lyric this year,
according to Brant Beene, one of the theater's key organizers. He said the Lyric
— which reopened in January after 30 years of dormancy and a $11.5 million
restoration project — isn't ready for an influx of brides and grooms.

But Beene, executive director of Birmingham Landmarks Inc., the nonprofit
organization that owns the theater, made an exception for Hill and Smith. And
that's where the accordion comes in.

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More than two years ago, when the Lyric was still in disrepair, Hill gave an
impromptu accordion performance at the theater, at Beene's request. Now Beene
has returned the favor, allowing Hill to use the theater for her 1920s-themed
wedding, altering the marquee to read "Love at the Lyric Starring Carrie Beth
Hill & William Wade Smith."

"The Lyric takes your breath away," Hill said. "It's so beautiful."

The theater, with its plaster cupids, stenciled murals, glittering
chandeliers and graceful opera boxes, could be considered a dream venue for many
weddings. But it didn't look that way in August 2013, when Hill made her Lyric
debut.

The interior of the grand old building was dark and shabby, marred by peeling
paint, broken seats, rubble in the upper balcony and more. Still, it felt like a
magical space to Hill.

"I got chills by playing," she said. "I got to thinking about all the people
who have performed there, and I am actually playing on the stage where Mae West
performed. I was so excited. I guess I just fell in love with the place."

At the time, volunteers were giving tours of the Lyric during the annual
Sidewalk Film Festival, trying to spur interest in the theater and raise money
for its renewal. Hill, a piano teacher, was playing the accordion outside,
hoping to promote a fledging pedicab business.

Beene spotted Hill on the street and seized an opportunity to show off the
Lyric's pin-drop acoustics.

"I said, 'Hey, get in here and play that accordion on stage at the Lyric',"
Beene recalled. "She gets up and starts playing and the sound fills the whole
place.'"

When Hill became engaged to Smith a few months later, her thoughts turned to
the Lyric as the ideal spot for their wedding. She secured an OK from Beene, but
there was a catch.

Hill and Smith would have to wait for the Lyric to reopen to the public.

"At one point, we talked about something else, but we couldn't get excited
about anything else," said Smith, a vice president at Tool-Smith Co. who owns a
real-estate and self-storage business. "She had really got her heart set, I
could tell, and any time we talked about anything else, it was, 'Well that would
work.' Anything else seemed like a disappointment."

So they bided their time, about two years' worth. They brainstormed ideas for
the ceremony. They watched as the Lyric's fund-raising and restoration efforts
took shape.

When the theater opened its doors in January with three vaudeville-themed
shows, Hill and Smith were in the audience, beaming with happiness. The Lyric's
restoration was complete. Even better, the couple finally had set a wedding
date.

"I had a constant smile on my face the whole time, looking around," Hill
said. "It took my breath away."

Hill and Smith, who have a passion for the arts, decided their wedding should
be unconventional and entertaining, inspired by Art Deco, the Jazz Age and the
Lyric's color scheme of blue, white and gold.

Therefore, guests were asked to wear Jazz-Age attire — think "The Great
Gatsby"or "Downton Abbey," Smith said — and the bride's gown was designed with
the 1920s in mind. The groom's off-white tuxedo, although not exactly period,
suited the overall theme.

Before the ceremony, guests were greeted outside the Lyric by an accordion
player and a fellow in a giraffe costume. (Smith created the costume for
Halloween and said he's very fond of it.) Thirty of Hill's piano students
performed duets in the Lyric's lobby, playing ragtime and blues for more than
300 people in attendance.

To make a big entrance, Hill and Smith screened a silent movie as an
introduction to the ceremony, blending fantasy and reality. The couple described
their film during a recent interview with AL.com.

"It's a goofy movie of her as a damsel in distress, tied up on the railroad
tracks, and me saving her," Smith said. "Then in the movie, we run through the
streets of Birmingham, past Vulcan, and to the Lyric. As we're getting dressed
..."

"We're taking off clothes, and then we're putting on clothes as we're running
in, trying to get married," Hill chimed in. "The the movie burns up at the end,
as we're running into the Lyric. We have a little skit, and we both come on the
stage, and we get married on the stage."

Smith played the villain and the hero in the movie, taking on what Hill
called "a challenging dual role." ("He's a great actor," she said. "It's really
over the top.")

To tease the silent film, the couple's wedding invitations were shaped like
movie tickets that read, "Your presence is requested to help rescue Birmingham's
beloved damsel in distress, Carrie Hill, from the dastardly designs of noted
scalawag Wade Smith, before the villain can wed her."

Immediately after the 20-minute ceremony, a lively reception kicked off in
the Lyric's lobby and bar area — with a buffet (including a mac-and-cheese bar),
cake, drinks, dancing and music by the Silvery Moon Band, a jazz and swing
ensemble from Huntsville.

Some friends who couldn't attend the wedding were there in spirit, Hill said,
represented by cardboard cut-outs wearing Jazz-Age finery.

When the party ended around 10 p.m., Hill and Smith made their exit from the
Lyric in a shower of paper airplanes folded from sheet music. Their "getaway
car" was an antique vehicle Smith won at an auction that benefited Hands On
Birmingham.

"Yeah, it's all pretty wacky," Smith said. "We got everything the way we
wanted it."

Hill and Smith like to travel, so they've scheduled two honeymoons: a skiing
trip in Canada and shortly afterward, a visit to Chicago that coincides with his
40th birthday. (Smith wants to see the Chicago White Sox play at U.S. Cellular
Field.)

They'll make their home in downtown Birmingham, in a loft that sits above a
popular restaurant. And when Hill and Smith celebrate their first anniversary
with thawed-out slices of wedding cake, they'll know they've played a small but
significant role in the Lyric's history.

Thanks to Hill's accordion skills, they can claim the milestone of Marriage
No. 1 at the newly restored Lyric. In fact, they're probably the only couple to
get married there since the theater was built in 1914, said organizer Beene.

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For two arts lovers, that seems rather fitting.

"We surround ourselves with art," Hill said. "We love music, we love
storytelling, and I feel that the Lyric is going to be a great place for
performances. ... We are the Lyric, in a nutshell. Or the Lyric is us."