This was the best day of our lives. The day we started writing our own Chapter...
We both were invited to a mutual friends "braai evening". We were introduced to each other and from there on we were taking as if we knew each other for years. We spend time together as friends for about two months, to get to know each other, which was a bit to long for him, but he said as long as I am happy he will wait. We saw each other every day and then I had to leave for a while and I had to say goodbye, after that kiss I knew I was falling for him and he was falling for me.
It is quite a funny story, but I found out that he asked my parents for my hand in marriage and he had to change his plans so that I would not know it is going to happen. We were at a church braai with all our close friends and the pastor was just finishing of with the sermon. We were busy praying on our own and the next moment I heard the song "I think I wanna marry you" from Bruno Mars, as I open my eyes, the man of my dreams stood on his one knee in front of me, holding the most beautiful ring. I was so amazed and shocked, all I could do was cry. In that moment he didn't ask and I didn't answer because we knew how we felt about each other.
We had a "braai" evening at the same venue that we met, the night before for all the guests. It was very special because it was the first time me met and the last time before becoming husband and wife. The second special moment was when he send me flowers and a hand written letter that I still have. The most special moment was when we read our vows to each other, we decided to wright our own vows and it was so special declaring our love to each other before our friends and before making the biggest promise of our lives.
Yes we did. We left the morning after the wedding, to Pilanesberg National Park. We stayed at 'The Black Rhino Lodge' and it felt like we where braking away and staying on our own in the Bush. They treated us like royalty and everything was sensational.
I loved the traditional weddings which includes the white dress and vial, but changed the style of the wedding dress. It was a longs leave dress with an open back, going down in a fitted "A" line. My dress was made by Evette's. My hair is curly, so I embraced the curls and it was stitched up to show the back of the dress. I had a flower crown on my head made out of 'Angles Breath' and 'Blushing Bride' flowers. I only wore my grandmothers pearl earrings for jewelry with Mulberry colour high heels and natural make-up with a smokey eye and dark lips.
We got married at "The Blue Barn" outside East London in the Eastern Cape. Some of the guests stayed the night but everyone arranged their own accommodation.
Me and my husband enjoy to gym together, but about a month before the wedding we started to work a lot harder to reach our goals for the wedding. I had a facial a week before the wedding and tanned on the sunbed a few times (because no one is brown in the winter).
Our venue is rustic and did not need a lot of decor. We wanted out wedding to be something else and it was. We made a logo to represent our wedding and it was used on the invites, gifts, on top of the cake and throughout the wedding. Our flowers was only "Proteas", all different ones and we also used "Penny Gum". We had a very natural look and used Brown, Navy Blue and Mulberry as our main colours. Our tables was naked wood with Grey shafon runners and Penny Gum on top of that. We had 4 long tables with Mulberry napkins. Each guest had their name engraved into a piece of bark to show their seat and their gift was a wooden chopping board with our logo engraved in the corner. Our table numbers was baby photos of us at the age the number was describing. The whole theme was wood and nature.
The groom wore a navy suit with a white long sleeve shirt and Navy tie with a Brown belt, we bought all of it from Woolworths Studio W. The Groomsmen had to buy their own white shirt and navy pants. They all wore the same brown leather shoes.
I decided on a Mulberry material and gave each of them enough to make their own dress. They chose their own styles and had their own shoes.
We used Ricardo Liut Photography. He was just amazing. We had an engagement shoot with him as well and he makes u feel so comfortable. We did not have a lot of time for the photos after the service, but he made it happen. I only thing you take away from your wedding day is the photos and we are glad he was responsible for that because he captured every moment beautifully.
We did not have a photo booth but had a Polaroid camera instead. This was our guest book. The guests took photos of themselves an placed it in the book with a written message from each one.
Steph Fletcher did all of the arrangements at the venue. She felt like my wedding planner because she solved any problem and made any request happen. She did it with so much love and she is this calm beautiful person. My other planner was my mother, I made most of the decisions but she made everything happen. She either did it her self, got someone else to do it or got my father to do it. Without them I woul not have been as calm as I was.
The Blue Barn prepared the food and cake. For the first course we had a Harvest table outside , while we were taking photos. The Harvest table had crackers, cheeses, biltong, veggie snacks with dips etc. For main meal we had PIZZA!. Everyone loved it. We had different flavors and you could choose your own flavor slice by slice it was served with side salads. You could eat as much as you possibly can and there was still some left. For dessert we had Ola Magnums and the wedding cake. Everyone was feeling like a kid, with a ice cream in the hand.
The Wedding cake was beautiful and had three layers; lemon, red velvet and carrot with cream cheese icing. It was a naked cake with hand crafted flowers on top.
I designed everything myself.
The Party was amazing. Everyone danced and enjoyed themselves. We were the last ones to leave. We had a DJ and his music was timeless. We didn't need to take dance lessons because we are Afrikaans and we love to "sokkie". We actually danced the night we met and that was one of the big reason we ended up together.
