My sister met Jacques in 2012 and declared that she had met the perfect guy for me but sadly he was unavailable but two years later at a braai where friends were in fact trying to set me up with someone else I finally met Jacques (not knowing he was the guy my sister had mentioned years previously) and we hit it off.
In January 2017 Jacques surprised me with a weekend away in Stanford, I had been trying to get a reservation for ages and he managed to sneak this one past me [you see, I am the planner in this relationship so he really did a great job on this one :-)]. He proposed on the Saturday morning with champagne and the perfect ring! I spent the entire weekend staring at it which amused him terribly and for which he teased me relentlessly.
We did some research on our favourite venue, De Uijlenes in Uilenkraalsmond (near Gansbaai) only to find they were fully booked for the entire 2017 however I decided to send a request regardless. We were delighted to receive a response that they had in fact just had a cancellation for the date we had requested! What more could I girl ask for - a prince charming and her dream venue.
We got married on 27 April 2017 at De Uijlenes with the ceremony in the forest and the reception in their big barn venue.
Venue: De Uijlenes
Dress: Brides Mom (not a seamstress but still talented)
Decor: Bride via Function Hire 4U
Cake: Brides Mom (not a professional baker but damn she can bake!)
Lights: Husband Wife Team
Flowers: Bride & Mom
Music: DJ Leon Carstens
Catering: Mornay & Charmaine at De Uijlenes
Make-up & Hair: Kuif 53 (Yvonne Ross)
Photographs: Marlize van Zyl (MvZPhotography)
Jacques has traveled a lot for work however I had never been so when watching movies he would tease and say 'I've been there" which became a private joke between the two of us. He has always wanted to show me Venice, one of his favourite cities, so for our honeymoon we were blessed with a gift that allowed us to go to Italy for our honeymoon. To be honest I didn't believe it until I was on that plane and taking off, in fact it still feels unreal to me when I look back on our honeymoon.
We visited Venice, Rome and Florence and decided to add Munich and The Netherlands to our trip. Sadly as we got to the Netherlands I collapsed and was hospitalised with a herniated disc for six days. We are busy saving in the hopes of visiting The Netherlands and 'finishing' our honeymoon.
I'm not a girly, girl but I have fond memories of playing dress-up in my mom's wedding dress with its flowy, chiffon skirt and always knew I wanted a skirt similar to hers. One of my most treasured memories from our wedding was not only getting married to the man of my dreams or having my Dad walk me down the aisle but was the fact that my Mom got to make my wedding dress. She put so much love into that dress and I was honoured to wear it on the day. My shoes were red, probably the most daring thing I did for our wedding.
Both of us are down to earth people who love the outdoors and socialising with our close friends so when we found De Uijlenes we just knew it was the venue for us. We had our ceremony in the beautiful forest and the reception in the old barn which has been converted. The venue didn't need much decor it was so beautiful and it has a large fire pit outside under the lights - you see, my husband LOVES to braai so this made him happy! Not only was the venue perfect but it had affordable, adjacent accommodation so our friends could stay over and enjoy the weekend with us.
Sage and rose gold were our main colours and we kept the tables as wood and opted not to have tablecloths. Our decor was kept simple and we had tons of candles to create that romantic, warm feeling - my mom was afraid we would need to call the fire department during the evening LOL. We kept things minimalist since the venue was stunning and didn't need many frills. The only thing my hubby requested was for a swing on the stage after seeing this during one of our site visits.
I had worked at the Children's Hospital Trust as the Event Manager for more than ten years. My favourite part of event planning is taking a room and transforming it so when it came to my own wedding I was not letting someone else do it. I had such fun planning my wedding and setting it all up the day before. Mom jumped in to help of course :-)
To spice things up we decided to have food stalls with all our favourite foods - I love seafood and Jacques loves curries so we had various stalls and guests could 'build' their own meal. This added an element of fun to the evening and ensured everyone got to select their favourites from what was on offer.
My talented Mom once again outdid herself and made our beautiful cake and helped me with the flowers (something neither of us have ever done before).
With two equally unique and different wedding venues on the farm to choose from and surrounded by glorious countryside, you will be blown away.
