We met 17 years ago in grade 1 - we dated since 2010 (grade 11) - got engage in 2016 and Finally got married in 2017. What an amazing journey.
There are so many memorable moments _ do not know where to start.
The most memorable moment of our wedding day has to be:
- Seeing my husband's face as I walk down the isle
- Saying our vowels in the presents of God, our family and friends
- The moment my father came to fetch me from the car to walk me down the isle
- The reaction of our quests - watching the photo session with the groomsmen and bridesmaids after the wedding - when all the groomsmen pulled out their pistols for a photo.
- Getting ready for the day with my bridesmaids in the salon - and all of them simultaneously just staring at me walking out the room with my wedding dress on.
- Our fake run away: driving to the wedding venue (early) I whispered to my sister in law driving the car that she should not enter the venue but pass by it - this made the rest of the bridesmaid's eyes really big as they got a scare for a second, when I said that I hope that all of them has packed a night bag.
We went on Honeymoon right after the wedding.
We spend the Honeymoon night at Botha's Geluk (what a coincidence as our surname is Botha) situated between Nigel and Balfour.
Sunday morning we started the road-trip to KwaZulu-Natal - spend the night at Monzi Safaris Tented Lodge in St Lucia.
Our final destination Honeymoon destination - Ballito. In Balito we stayed at the La Montagne Hotel for the week. From there we set of on day adventures - uShaka Marine World, Crocodile Creek, Jeffreys Bay, Microlight over the see ext.
I went for an elegant natural beautiful look.
I designed my own wedding dress based on pieces of dresses I fitted at boutiques that I liked. My mermaid princess cut wedding dress was a pure white made off lace and net - the top part was covered by a soft flower print lace decorated with little beads and pearls and the bottom had big flowy net frills. Dress maid by my Mother in Law.
Hairs and make-up done by Beauty At Picasso in Nigel - smokey eyes with natural makeup and my hair was lose curls (half way up) decorated with small with flowers made by me and my bridesmaids from the wedding dresses material.
I had two pairs of wedding shoes - one for the wedding and one pair for dancing. The Wedding shoes was silver glittery high heals with thin straps across the ankles and the dancing shoes was white open toe flat shoes with small white material flowers on the toes.
As accessories I wore a pearl bracelet and matching earrings that complemented the lace of the dress. Lingerie was white lace.
My wedding bouquet was made by Casablanca Florist - Nigel, and consisted of white Casablanca Lillies
The wedding ceremony and the reception was held at Gracefieldbarn situated outside of Nigel on a farm.
As the venue is close to our house and our parents' houses all the quests that had to sleep over - slept at one of the 3 houses. A breakfast (hosted by my parents in law) at our house was held the next morning for all the quests that had to sleep over.
The following formed part of my bridal beauty regime leading up to the wedding :
- Drinking at least 2,5 lt of water a day for two weeks before the wedding
- Not eating take-a-ways in the two weeks before the wedding
- Hair coloring and cutting a week before the wedding
- Waxing on the Wednesday before the wedding
- Nails done on the Wednesday before the wedding
The chapel and trees under which the starters was served were decorated with hanging hand made (by my mother) stuffed hessian hearts with a lace band and some with pink ribbons in. The starters were served on round wooden bords my father made for the wedding.
Our wedding rings were brought in with a small wooden ox wagon that my father made - in the same manner that my husband did with the engagement.
The Friday before the wedding my Bridesmaids and I went to set all the tables as I wanted to do. The reception hall had round 10 seater tables covered with with table cloths and chair covers. On each table a hessian runner with lace on the sides (that one of my bridesmaids made) where placed, set with white crockery and silver cutlery. On each runner a wooden word were placed that represents something important to us in our relationship (exp. Love, Time, Respect, Communication, ext.). Two small holders with a pink Casablanca and Gip flowers in each where placed at the ends of the wooden words. On each plate a small laxer cut white box was placed tied with a hessian string and a personal name tag - with cookies in as a "thank you" gift. We had a long table so that our parents could sit with us. Our table was set with two hessian runners, the same flowers as the other tables and "Mr & Mrs Botha" cut from wood. The venue was perfect as it has a large window cross just behind the brides table and the dance floor in line with our table. Next to our table the cake table was set up and in the back of the venue to serving tables.
The Groom wore a chino pant with a dark brown belt and shoes, a white shirt and a pink tie.
The 5 groomsmen (all best friends of the groom) wore the same chino pants with dark brown belts and shoes, white shirts and a hessian and pink lace (from the girl's dresses) bow ties.
I had 5 bridesmaids - 3 of my best friends and then my sister and my husband's sister.
The bridesmaids wore soft pink knee length dresses made by my mother in law. The dresses had a pink lace middle belt and lace straps with a cut out heart on the back - I designed the dresses from elements of different dresses I liked. With the dresses the wore pink sandals with flowers on and pink flower earrings.
There hair and make were done by Beauty at Picasso - dark bright eyes and an up-style hair do.
They all had a bouquet with one white Casablanca and Gip flowers - made by Casablanca Florist (Nigel)
Ds. Guillaume Rocher (Herformde Kerk - Nigel)
Kobus Pienaar from Lizkor Photography captured the special moments of our beautiful day on camera. He did amazing work with the photos and the wedding album. My personal favorite is a photo he captured of my husband's loving face when we exchanged rings. He allowed us to lead the photo session - telling him exactly what we want and then just gave us some guidance on how to execute the pose. Because we know him personal he captured our personalities perfectly.
We did not have a videographer or photo booth at the wedding.
I did not want to make use of a wedding planner a I knew exactly what I wanted our perfect day to look like. the day had to have a lot of personal touch to it that one can only obtain by being deeply involved with everything every step of the way.
We are blessed with creative and talented family and friends that helped realized every vision I had for the wedding.
For me it was really important to share as much as I possibly could with my Bridesmaids and have them (girls that really understand me) with me every moment - therefor my wedding car (the car I arrived with at the wedding) was a 7 seater Honda SUV that we could all fit into.
There were no need for a Wedding Car (for us) as the chapel and venue is walking distance from each other and we had the photo session on the premises.
We went on honeymoon with my husband's Isuzu bakkie - on which some of the guys wrote "Pas Getroud" on the back.
Tannie Annetjie (a family friend that does wedding catering) prepared the food for the wedding.
The wedding cake was a three layer white carrot cake decorated with pink Casablanca flowers and small white flowers made from icing. We also had 6 other different (chocolate and vanilla) smaller cakes - also decorated with a white layer and a pink Casablanca flower. My Husband's grandmother baked and decorated all the cakes.
Our wedding invites was hand made by my Husband's cousin. The invites were printed on pink paper, bordered by brown with a hessian ribbon on top, placed in a laxer cut white envelope with a personalized name tag for the invite holder, also printed on pink with a brown border and fixed to the envelope with a hessian string.
The "thank you" gifts were white laxer cut boxes (bought) tied with hessian string and a personalized name tag printed on pink with a brown border. In the box were two heart shaped cookies (I baked) decorated (by my husband's grandmother) with pink icing and little white flowers (some as on the wedding cake).
As part of the wedding we had a Wedding Newspaper - handed out to quest in the chapel to read our relationship story and the sentimental value behind certain aspects and decor of the wedding. This newsletter also contained the table seating and the thank you list. I designed this newspaper with same help from my Maid of Honor. The newspapers were printed by Casablanca Florist.
The table center pieces were cutout wooden words - designed by myself and made by Bananaboo (Nigel). These words represents things of importance for me and my husband in a relationship (exp. Love, Time, Friendship, Respect, Communication, ext.). This now forms the focus point wall in our living room
The party and dancing was filled with laughter and fun - and carried on until the venue closed.
We did not go for any dancing lessons as we both love dancing and do it often. We just wanted to be ourselves and dance the way we always do.
Music and lighting was done by one of our friends that DJ at weddings.
