Standing at the alter smiling at each other like idiots while everything around us just faded into the background. I don't remember half of the ceremony, I just remember his smile!
We didn't go on honeymoon but we did go to Durban for a week with family who had come in from Oz and the U.K.
Every girl dreams of being a princess but I had always had a special obsession with Disney. I got my fairytale in the form of a Beauty and the Beast themed wedding. The hair, the dress, the accessories - everything was inspired by the fairytale.
We got married at Avianto. We exchanged vows outside on the river in their amphitheater and held our reception in the ball room. Family and the wedding party stayed the night at the hotel so we could all share breakfast together the next morning.
I actually had very bad luck when it came to beauty treatments before the wedding. Now I'm not really a fan of all these beauty treatments, I never get facials, paint my nails at home, dye my own hair, pluck my own eyebrows etc but I wanted to look radiant on my wedding day so I treated myself to a facial - this decision almost derailed the whole wedding!
I contracted a staph infection from the facial and was horribly ill for the entire 2 weeks preceding the wedding and the week holiday with family afterwards. I started to feel a bit better after that but it took 5 rounds of antibiotics and more than 2 months for the infection to fully clear. Apart from being horribly ill the infection also caused large very painful abscesses to appear in various places on my body but mostly on my face and neck so on the day of the wedding my amazing make up artist had to cover the Damage. Cara has some mad skills though so the day was saved but I can't say I felt the very picture of good health on the day!
I wanted the room to look like the fairytales I remembered as a child with our own little African twist.
We had carvings of "Cogsworth" and "Lumier" (characters from Beauty and the Beast) made at the African market and ordered "Mrs Pots and Chip" online.
Our wedding favours were beaded roses also made at the African market.
We even made our own enchanted rose! We've kept all these items in our home as decor, beautiful reminders of that day
The groom wore a stunning custom blue suit by Frank Bespoke with a burgandy tie. The rest of the wedding party wore wore dark gray suits with matching burgandy ties made at TOB's Tailor in Linden
The bridesmaids looked absolutely stunning! They wore beautiful rose/champagne coloured sequined dresses my mom found at YDE. I loved the dresses so much I even bought one for myself!
All the food and beverages were supplied by the venue.
The cake was supplied by Cake Extreme.
