Mark and I have known each other for over 12 years, but only really saw each other at mutual friends gatherings every few months or so. A few people had tried to pair us up with no success, the timing was just not right. At least not until the 31st January 2016 when I bumped into him at a local Pick 'n Pay, after chatting for a bit we parted ways and that left me thinking about him in a different way. It's hard to explain but suddenly I wanted to get to know him better. I subsequently arranged a coffee date, threw a few hints at him, so did one of my best friends who is very good friends with him as well. It didn't take him long before he figured it out. We spend the next month just getting to know each other better and a month later on the 2 March 2016 we began dating. Because we are older it didn't take long for us to realise that we wanted to get married. We looked at rings, booked a venue all before we were engaged. It was then time for me to sit it out and wait till the right time came to propose.
I am an over thinker, so I knew a proposal was immanent, so almost looked for it around every corner. I knew by then what made Mark nervous and not sleeping was one of them, and that week he seemed not to get much sleep. Very often the two of us would plan surprise dates where the other would have no clue as to what we were doing. The Saturday that Mark proposed was no different. He told me to be ready at 9 and that he was going to take care of the rest of the day. I had my suspicions that this would be the date that we would get engaged and now I was becoming increasingly nervous. We went to go and order take away sushi (my favourite) and I noticed the blankets and bags in the back of his bakkie so I knew we were going for a picnic. We landed up going to Kirstenbosch and it was a beautiful sunny winters day. We found our spot on the grass, lay out the blankets and suddenly out popped the most beautiful bunch of pink roses (also my favourite flower). Then I knew it was on. We "relaxed" a bit, ate some sushi. At just the right time Mark popped out an envelope with a letter in it. It was a 6 page hand written letter telling me how much he loved me, how his life had changed and that he already knew on our third date that we would get married. Once I had read the letter he got down on two knee's and asked me to be his wife. Of course I said YES!
Mark and I are both very easy going people who just wanted our day to be a fun filled day for us and for all those who attended out wedding. I loved all of our day including the things that went wrong. A girl always imagines what it will be like when her dad walks her down the aisle, you think it will be smooth and romantic. My walk down the aisle was funny in hind sight. I had a huge dress on that was difficult to walk with so I had to kick the dress out the way to walk (not very elegant), there was a slight breeze which blew my veil right into my eyelashes. I had bee's in my veil and all this while trying to look smooth and elegant while we walked down the aisle.
I will never forget my dad's face when he first saw me. It was truly priceless!
Standing at the alter and marrying my best friend, his face and the love I saw in his eye's is one I will never forget!
At the end of our ceremony we did something that was very special to both of us, we did what is called a unity cross that represents us coming together under the Lordship of God, who joined us in marriage.
Once the photo time was over it was just pure fun for us and all our guests. Everything was just as I dreamed it would be and better. Dancing with my husband for the first time, while he just kept whispering into my ear "I love you Mrs Button" "I can't believe you are finally my wife" We had moments like that through out our wedding and I love that it will always be ours to share.
Oh yes we did! We were blessed with an incredible gift of free accommodation in the Seychelles. Mark and I are both beach people and so it was the perfect place for us. We were on the smallest and most beautiful island called La Digue. We hired bikes and rode them all over the island to get to all be beautiful beaches. We snorkelled every day and made the most of visiting the other islands. A big highlight was swimming with a sea turtle. It was as romantic as a honeymoon should be!
I had always dreamed of a very tradition princess look. So I wore a Bride and Co princess style dress. I had an up style, with some extensions to give my thin hair some volume. A good friend who is a fantastic hairdresser did my hair for me. My make up was done by a friend who generously said she would do it for me. Although she does not do it professionally she seriously should. I am a total bling girl which you can see from my photo's so my shoes had to go with the look. I wore a beautiful Anella wedding shoes, they had beautiful bling straps that went over my feet, leaving the once side bare. My beautiful necklace was very loud and proud and very sparkly, my earrings and necklace were both bought at LOVISA. The bridesmaids and I all wore dainty little infinity bracelets. I wore Georgio Arani, AQUA perfume. My garter was an exquisite navy blue lace garter. My something borrowed was a ring with diamonds that have been in our family for over a hundred years. Overall I was incredibly happy with my look and felt like I achieved my dream of a traditional princess look.
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We were married on the most beautiful wine farm situated in Stellenbosch. There is wild life on the farm. The most beautiful gardens and lake right there. We got married in the garden and then moved into their lovely downstairs hall.
I was on a strict healthy eating plan to make sure I weighed the perfect weight to fit into the dress, not to big and not to small. I had 4 crowns put onto my teeth to give me a more streamlined look. I made sure I took extra care of my skin, exfoliating and doing face masks for the last 2 months before the wedding. I had all the waxes and spa treatments leading up the the wedding. Had the perfect set of nails put on, extra lashes to give my eyes a fuller look.
We had a peach and light grey colour scheme. Hudson's are brilliant because they do all the flowers and decor on site. We chose everything before hand, had a mock up table to make sure we liked it. We used peach roses and baby's breath, as well as some grey foliage in the flowers. The bridesmaids had 3 peach roses and baby's breath in their flowers. The venue has great lighting and ambience in that they have a beautiful glass ball chandelier. The newly renovated hall also had loads of beautiful fairy light looking lights in the ceiling. We did however add our own touch to the decor, we had a welcome to our wedding wooden board with vinyl writing on it. We had a ladder with the letters spelling love down the ladder and the venue added flowers to finish it off. To end the night we had send off sparklers which made for a grand exit. We had a great DJ who played exactly what we asked him to and that meant we had a great party celebrating our new marriage. My aunt is an incredible cake maker and she made the exact cake that I asked her to make. It was a four tear cake that had ripples in the icing. We had peach dry frozen roses arranged in bunches in different sizes around the front of the cake.
The groom and groomsmen wore light grey slim fit suits. Mark (the groom) wore the full suit with a waist coat and a white shirt. The groomsmen wore no jackets, so just the pants, white shirt and waist coat. They had their sleeves rolled up. All of them wore peach ties which were ordered from ETSY. They also all wore different happy socks which were bought in Paris. They also all wore a peach rose button hole.
My bridesmaids and maid of honour all work peach coloured infinity dresses made by a dressmaker in Table View (where I stay). there was 4 of them in total and they had 2 different styles which i let them choose themselves in the end. I saw a basic look online that I liked but in the end we i let them choose a style that suited their body styles. They all wore a grey band of material which went around the top of their waist. They look absolutely elegant and beautiful!
The Original Infinity Dress can be worn 27 different ways, making it the perfect bridesmaid dress for all figures!
We used Mark's pastor, Roger Haynes of Common Ground Table View who did the legal side of things. But during the service he did the sermon and my pastor Mike Emslie of St Matthews Table View did the actual vows on the day.
We used Sarah Fouche of Sarah Fouche photography to take our photo's on the day. She was great at capturing moments during our special day and the usual portrait type photo's. We are very pleased with our photo's.
Hudsons Wedding venue have an on sight wedding planner that works to put all you have chosen in terms of decor and flowers together on the day. We also could just drop off our extra touches and she made sure that everything went were it was meant to go.
My mother, Coleen Douglass, did a lot of coordinating. I simply told her what i liked and between the two of us we sourced places and she made contact and made the payment.
all in all it was a very stress free wedding to plan from my side and that made the actual wedding day stress free and easy to go along with. We made all the plans between Hudsons, my mom and I and then we just let the chips fall were they may. But everyone did what they were meant to do and the day was pretty much flawless.
We got ready in the venue where Mark and I would stay that night. it was a beautiful 5 star guest house. This was situated 2 km from the wedding venue. We used my dad's Mercedes to drive my dad and I, my uncle drove us, and a family friend drove his BMW to get the bridesmaids to the venue.
Hudson's prepared our food for us. The food was incredibly delicious and enjoyed by all our guests. My aunt who is an incredible cake baker made our cake for us. We had a 4 tear cake - chocolate on the bottom,then vanilla, then red velvet and lastly a banting carrot cake on the top. we had a lazer engraved wooden Mr and Mrs, with the bride and groom leaning against a tree. the cake was then covered in marzipan and after that royal icing was used to create a ripple type effect around each layer. We then placed an arrangement of peach roses around the sides on the cake. Because our surname is Button, she made us button's to go down the back of the cake that were peach. Her and my other aunt took care of decorating the cake table and purchased hand blown glass baubles that were scattered on the table. Our cake was delicious and enjoyed by all!
A friend who has her own design company called THE DESIGN BOUTIQUE designed our save the dates and invites for us as a gift. The rest of the stationary I recreated her look and used that. It was a peach lace effect with a grey background. We used paperless post to send out the majority of our invites so only needed to print a few for those who didn't have emails.
We did not take dance lessons. We did a bit of rehearsing of the song and dancing to it. Our first dance was a song by Life house and is called YOU AND ME. I also had a father daughter dance to a John Mayer song called DAUGHTERS. We didn't have a live band but used a great dj called, DJ JOE. He was great and played what I asked him to, which meant that we all had a great time dancing on the dance floor.
The Original Infinity Dress can be worn 27 different ways, making it the perfect bridesmaid dress for all figures!
Anella has put together a collection of the most gorgeous bridal shoes. We will help you find YOUR perfect wedding shoes to complete your journey to feeling like a Princess!
