We knew of each other as we both work in the fishing industry. We were set up on a blind date 10 years ago by my uncle and from then our love journey began.
Darin & I have a unique and very special relationship. It is very untraditional in all spheres. I have been married before and brought 2 beautiful princesses into our love relationship. They were part of my package. Darin too has a son. Together we have a truly special little princess Ella Rose who is 4 years old.
From inception our relationship really stood the test of many times (manic and demanding businesses as well as family responsibilities….) This only made our love stronger and convinced us both that we are soul mates.
Darin has always spoken about marriage but both being entrepreneurs, owning our own businesses and parenting 4 children it really distracted this from happening.
It’s so funny, but turning 40 this year…Darin from the beginning of the year has been talking about it more than usual. I continuously joked with him by saying …. "normally when people turn 40, they go through mid-life crisis’s and want to change their partner, but you are the complete opposite.”
After our Summer holiday to Madeira with our girls, we went away to the Mount Nelson for a weekend and then Darin made it very clear that he wanted to officially be one …. by the end of this year.
We only had 6 weeks to plan. It was such a stressless experience due to the great help of the Ann Mann Celebrations team, Jana and Nadine.
Well both Darin & I did not want to be under all the unnecessary pressure which comes from the word “Wedding” and the high expectations that are too associated with it. So, we decided to invite guests to Darin’s 40th James Bond celebration. Guests were asked to dress cocktail. From this theme Ann Mann Celebrations was inspired to create a sheik, stylish and untraditional wedding.
My first most memorable was the facial expressions of our guests, when we made our main entrance/walk in, to our unexpected ceremony.
On arrival everyone was blown away by the gorgeous set up, the amazing Harvest table, Oyster station, the Poker table which had personalized money of our faces on it and Champagne/Bubbly corner, but they had no idea it was a wedding.
We welcomed them and chatted until we received the que from our planners to disappear with our children down the emergency staircase.
Guests were queued to come in for speeches. Then we made the main statement ….. the black carpet was rolled out, the waiters made an arch of sparklers, the music changed to our entrance song – upbeat song “Rick Ashley – together forever”. Darin walked in with his son, followed by my princesses then I. It was a true surprise that rocked the guests and really set the love mood for the entire evening.
Secondly, Darin & I decided that we were not going to follow up on RSVPs. Whoever was meant to share this special moment with us was there!
Lastly, just as guests had settled into the party we had another surprise. We did not have a wedding cake but had Chandelier ladies come in to serve the sweet treats.
My dress was inspired and created by Chris from GalluzzieGini. It really was important to me that I just let go and trusted all the talented people helping me with this special event. I trusted them to do their magic. My princesses where given free rein to choose their own style, and this too was made by Chris. I just loved the fact that Chris never frowned about their choices, he just embraced their choices and made them feel just as special as their mom.
I just love black & white, gold and velvet with the pop of the bright colours of the flowers. This too fitted in with the theme!
Thousand Years by Christina Perri. Another element of surprise…. was that we had this sang live by a Local vocalist Francesca.
Be consistent with your planning, be confident in your ideas, be courageous to break tradition and have that element of difference!
NO as we are broke from paying for our own wedding. We were also blessed to have travelled twice this year, but hoping to slip away to Mauritius next Feb. That’s the beauty of our love fairytale …..we don’t do things by the norm.
The entire event met all my personal “high” expectations. The stylish décor ambiance created by Ann Mann Celebrations, the exquisite harvest table & hot bowl foods/ Oyster station by Ollie, our chandelier ladies which displayed the desserts, our main entrance, personalised poker tables and most importantly the epic party vibe.
An exquisite venue space in Cape Town, Rooftop on Bree is the perfect location for any event and function.
They handcraft all their menus and pride themselves on finding the perfect solution for each specific event.
AfrodizzyActs is an Entertainment Agency. We have branches all over South Africa, in Zimbabwe and in the UK. We started out in South Africa in July 2010 and AfrodizzyActs has j...
