Wedding dress: Meisie Du Preez meisiedup1@gmail.com
Hairdressor & lashes: Jenny Hartlief from Jenro Beauty www.jenrobeauty.co.za
Make up artist: Karla Jordaan, a student make up artist https://m.facebook.com/kaycmakeup1997/
Nails: Yolanda from Fabulous Ten https://www.facebook.com/Fabulous-10-1453740228193153/?ti=as
Photographer & Videographer: Meisie Du Preez & Pierre Du Preez meisiedup1@gmail.com
Wedding planner & venue: Jorika Visser from Fort Simon https://www.facebook.com/fortsimonvenue/
Fairy light curtain for the chapel: Marius/Trevor from Fire Lighting & Eric from Lighting Solutions https://eclightings.wordpress.com
Chairs: Chairs 4U www.chairs4u.co.za
Balloons: Marie-Lu at 4Kidz Party Hire www.4kidzpartyhire.co.za
Decor: Jorieta Lange from Function Hiring 4U www.functionhiring4u.co.za
Lawn games: Dayna Bawden from Strawberry Events www.strawberry-events.co.za
Food cateror & flowers: Jorika Visser from Jorika Catering Services https://www.facebook.com/Events-by-Jorika-568085029965472/
Wedding Cake: Robyn Ter Morshuizen from Shake 'n Bake www.shakenbake.co.za & https://m.facebook.com/shakenbakecakes/
DJ: Riaan Groenewald from DJ Dean SA www.djdeansa.co.za
Minister: Marius Breytenbach from Stellenberg Dutch Reformed Church https://www.stellenberg.co.za
On my way to the Chapel: That mixed feelings of excitement and nerves when driving all the way to the chapel on my way to finally getting married to the love of my life. Not seeing him for a week before the wedding just made the moment walking down the aisle feel like seeing him again for the first time, my heart was pounding so fast that I had to force myself to take big breaths in order to remain calm.
- Walking into the Chapel and down the aisle with my dad: The moment when I walked down the aisle of the chapel with my dad, having Ed Sheeran's song Photograph, (the Violin cover by Daniel Jung) to set the mood whilst seeing my husband and his face filled with emotions was truly something special and an incredible moment that I will always remember.
- Entering the Venue: When we were walking into the wedding venue and I saw my husband’s face when he saw how breathtaking the venue and all of the decorations looked.
- The first dance: We had an intimate and loving moment when having our first dance. It truly felt like it was only the two of us in the venue, dancing to our special song.
- Cutting of the cake: We had a fun experience when cutting the wedding cake. We pretended as though we were having a sword fight with one another just before we cut into the cake.
- Throwing the garter: We all had a big laugh as my husband was busy struggling to find the garter on my leg. It roughly took him about 10 minutes just to figure out on what leg it was due to incorrect guidance of his best man. The crowd really broke out in laughter when my husband tried to find his composure and provide us all with a justification of why he was taking so long to remove the garter saying "Sorry guys, I haven’t seen my beautiful wife for a whole week".
- Throwing the bouquet: It was such a funny and spontaneous moment when I accidentally took the wrong bouquet to throw. The wedding planner had a small bouquet made for me to throw into the crowd, but being swept up in the spur of things I completely forgot about the bouquet and took my wedding bouquet to throw instead. Due to my wedding bouquet being one where the flowers where kept in place and inserted into tiny little holes all of the flowers just completely spattered all over the floor once it got caught by one of the women in the crowd, we could honestly not stop laughing.
Yes of course we did!! It was truly the most exciting moment for both of us, because neither of us had ever been overseas. We went to Bali and had a great time partaking in all of their nighttime live events. We bought some nice clothes, ate from the local cuisine and did some amazing water sport activities, even swam with the dolphins.
I got most of my ideas on Pinterest, and because I loved the "rustic look ", I based my wedding dress and my appearance on the feel of the venue with its rustic castle style and vibe.
My wedding dress was designed and made by Meisie Du Preez and was a tight fitted long sleeve dress with a drag. It had crystal beads embroidered on tulle fabric and diamonds string back on the spine. I would say a vintage Victorian style dress with a modern twist.
I had a large unfinished piece of veil over my face that gave an extra blurry and dramatic effect to my appearance.
My shoes were flats (pumps style) in an off white color, which matched the color of my dress and the shoes were also very comfortable to walk and dance in.
My earrings matched the Crystal glass in my dress and expressed the Crystal glass in my dress even more.
My hair was based on a Victorian style where my hair was loosely and softly curled and taken up nicely into a bun and topped off with a beautiful fresh flower-crown.
My make-up was very natural and had all the neutral warm colors to it. I also had some natural light lashes glued on top of my own lashes, to give that extra wow and dramatic effect that accompanied the style of my dress.
Our wedding was held at Fort Simon, located in the beautiful wine country of Stellenbosch. This beautiful and romantic castle-style venue has a view of a picturesque vineyard valley that creates the perfect atmosphere for a romantic occasion.
No, the guests did not stay the night. We chose a wedding venue nearby, where mostly all of our guests reside, so that it would not be necessary for them to stay the night.
For fitness my sister and I went walking 5kms and hit the gym at least 3 times a week (when possible). For health I just tried cutting out carbs and sweets. When I felt like cheating on my “diet” I allowed myself to do so over weekends and just started the week fresh and healthy again.
I had no skin treatment, only did my usual facial washing and also had no teeth whitening done.
I started going for tan can sessions a month prior to my wedding and had 6 sessions done in total.
I had my hair and make-up trial done a month before my wedding.
I had a hollywood wax done 3 days before my wedding and also had my French acrylic nails done 2 days before my wedding.
My husband and I were living together before we got married and I wanted to be married out of my parents’ house, so I suggested for me to stay at my parents’ house for a whole week before the wedding. I wanted my husband to only see me again for the first time at the pulpit of the Chapel before we said “I do”. The idea was to have the emotions run even higher after not seeing each other for a week and therefore for the entire moment and event of getting married to be even more special for the both of us.
In the week before our wedding day, my bridesmaids and I had a rehearsal of how we were going to walk into the chapel and how the dresses, hair, nails and make-up of the bridesmaids were going to look. I took leave from the 19th of October, so that I could finish up with the last bit of the wedding décor, which I did myself. I dropped all of my DIY décor off at the venue for the wedding planner to put up and also had my nails done.
The day before my wedding, I went to pick up the wedding cake and dropped it at the venue. The evening before my wedding it only was us girls, my sister, my mother and I. We had a baked cheese cake for dinner and watched a sad dramatic romantic girly movie, “Love, Rosie” and cried our eyes out and went to bed early.
The morning of my wedding I listened to some music, ate an omelette, took a nice shower and then started doing all of the prepping before heading to my best friend’s house along with all my bridesmaids. We had snacks, music and champagne whilst I had my hair, lashes and make up done. The lady that designed and made my dress, personally came to dress me on the day of the wedding so that we could be sure that everything was perfectly in place.
My inspiration was to be different from all the other friends who were married. Most couples usually go for the modern clean cut, white and glass look and so I decided to go rustic instead. The venue was ideal with its castle appearance, stone walls overlooking the vineyards, trees and mountains and with a pool at the entrance to the reception area which finished the picture perfectly. The swimming pool that was lit up in the evening also had a beautiful and elegant effect and added extra flair. The chapel was rustic with undisturbed wine stained walls and wooden benches for the guests. It was definitely the perfect venue for us and we immediately fell in love with it. Another plus point was that everything, the venue & chapel was all at one place which made it easy for the guests to walk from the chapel to the wedding venue.
Our color scheme was berry pink, dark navy blue and dusty dove / blue gray. Our decor was perfectly integrated with the rustic look of the venue. Quote boards (self-made) were placed along the dirt road for the guests to view. The wooden barrels, candles, wooden benches, balloons in the color scheme, dried berry pink bougainvillea's as confetti, fairy-lights and willow branches, pre-drinks in wheelbarrows, seating list were presented inside a wooden frame, wood stumps with proteas, rustic bird cages and rustic semi-naked decorated wedding cake was all fitting in nicely to the rustic wedding theme and rustic wedding venue.
They hired suits at Mr Suit Hire.
The Groom had a dark navy blue suit, a white collared long sleeved shirt, light blue tie, light blue handkerchief, a wooden Groom name badge and wore a watch and had dark black shoes.
The Groomsmen had light dove gray pants, a white collared long sleeved shirt, dark navy blue bow tie, light blue straps, a wooden Groomsmen name badge, dark black shoes and a dark black belt.
They all wore infinity dresses, two had dark navy blue infinity dresses and the other two had dusty dove gray blue dresses. They had berry pink lips, natural make up, nude painted nails and sand brown nude flower sandals. They wore their hair loose having a plat each with small white rustic flowers with green leaves stuck into their hair. They were each given a single Berry Pink Tiger Lilly flower with a light blue ribbon as bouquet.
Minister Marius Breytenbach from Stellenberg Dutch Reformed Church. He delivered the most amazing short and sweet speech.
Meisie Du Preez that designed and made my wedding dress and her husband Pierre Du Preez took our wedding photos and wedding video's. They are kind, loving, adventurous and fun spur of the moment people and that truly reflected throughout our wedding photos and wedding videos, which made it to be the best authentic wedding fairy tale story to watch.
Jorika Visser from Fort Simon Venue had her own wedding planning business and catering services, so we made use of her services.
We had 2 white BMW's (one was our own white BMW and one was our friend’s white BMW) both had dark navy blue ribbons and balloons.
The drivers were one of our friend’s two sons, the one son drove in front with the bridesmaids and the other son drove behind with me in the car.
We used Jorika Visser's catering services, her food was absolutely devine and there were more than enough food for the guests to help themselves to some seconds. We had nice wholesome hearty food that fitted in nicely with the rustic theme. We had the following to eat:
Canapes (Self- help): French mini pizza bites, home baked breads, variety of biscuits, homemade jams, variety of cheese, biltong snacks, olives, steak cups, sweet chilli chicken strips, prawn surprise.
Main Course (Buffet style): Braised leg of lamb with gravy, chicken and mushroom pie, savoury rice, grilled seasonal veggies with feta, caramelized pumpkin fritters, Potato layers with mushroom bacon onion baby spinach and cheese sauce.
Dessert (Self -help): Double up Choc mouse in mini jar, Casata ice cream in mini jar, Red Velvet cake in mini jar, Rum truffles, mini strawberry lips Milkshakes.
We also had a delicious and moist semi naked rustic decorated lemon curd vanilla cake made and decorated by Robyn Ter Morshuizen from Shake 'n Bake for dessert.
I made my own wedding stationery, got the designs from Google and added and typed it onto a word document, printed it on nice rustic natural colored paper that I bought and cut it out.
No, we did not take any dance lessons. Riaan Groenewald was our DJ and did our sound and lighting. We got his contact details through all our friends that got married who made use of his services and highly recommended him. I did our own wedding invites and in the invites we requested each of our guests to give us a song request that they want to hear on our wedding day. I typed out all the guest song requests and gave the list to the DJ to also play during the course of the night to make sure that there was at least a song everyone wanted to hear.
We had an awesome party! As bride and groom we danced in the middle of the dance floor in a circle formed for us by our guests. Everyone loved the party and they dancing so much that we impulsively decided to pay the DJ for an extra hour to play some more music. We had the venue from 3pm to 12pm and we only left there at 1am due to us just having too much fun.
