Me and Leandro had quite a funny beginning. From an early age, I never use to be the dating type and turns out, neither has Leandro. I have always imagined myself with this big, rugged Boer of guy who shook the ground I walked on and then I met Leandro. We met through his friend who had quite an unlikely connection to me.
My little sister started dating a guy in her AdMaths class. Me and my whole family came to know Altus as being part of the family. One December holiday, us 5 went on a camping trip to Kruger National Park, after which his family came to fetch him and my sister to spend New Year’s at a family members house in Nelspruit. That is when I met Niel, a very good friend of Leandro.
About a month after that Niel invited me to go to Sun City with the bikes. I agreed, but only on one condition – I will go with the person that has a license. That turned out to be Leandro. We started chatting, going on dates and really got to know each other. In April 2014, we all went to Mozambique for 10 days, about a week before Mozambique Leandro told me that he does not want to date me. On the 7th of May, only three days after we returned from Mozambique, Leandro asked me to be his girlfriend.
We had plenty ups and plenty downs but we were inseparable.
I did not see it coming at all!
Me and Leandro were very close (as it should be) and started speaking about getting married very soon in our relationship. In November 2015, one month before going to America on holiday, Leandro took me to choose a ring I liked. My lack of knowledge on gold and diamond values made this experience quite interesting. As a result, I chose something so far out of the planned price range that it gave both of us a near heart attack, my perfect ring that touched my heart was a beautiful perfect cut diamond in a Protea flower setting with 2 diamond bands on each side - I gently put the ring down and we continued on our search. We left without finding anything else, in our price range, as that ring was what I wanted (but I did not tell him that). However, time went passed and even America flew by where we saw so many beautiful places perfect for planned engagements but nothing happened. During the year to come - I got excited at every turn whenever a memorable moment or perfect day for getting engaged came and still nothing happened. It eventually got to a point where I decided that it will not happen anytime soon.
A week before my birthday (18 December), Leandro called me and said that I should not plan anything as he planned a very special 'surprise' for me. The excitement came back in an instant, because Leandro does not just plan something special or romantic. He is the type of boyfriend who invited his best friend to our first Valentine’s day as well as to our first date. The morning of my birthday we went for breakfast and then he told me that we have a very busy day which included horse riding, go-carts, quad bikes, archery, and a champagne picnic later that day. The day went by slowly and the anticipation grew intensely. But alas, I went to bed that night, severely and utterly disappointed as no ring was presented.
A few days later we left for our Kruger National Park Holiday (the idea of an engagement far away; I guess I gave up on the idea for now), the heat was terrible but the well-deserved rest was marvellous. We were camping at Letaba, planned at last minute. On the Sunday, Christmas morning, we went for an unplanned drive after breakfast and eventually stopped at a lookout point. It is early morning, with no plan for what we will do the rest of the afternoon and only a beautiful day. Leandro stood behind me, holding me in his arms as we look out over the river and as he turns me around he went down on one knee. Before he could even take out the ring or utter the words – ‘Will you marry me?’ – I jumped and screamed yes. He opened the small black box and within is that perfect ring I loved a year before. It was unconventional and completely imperfect, but it was extravagant.
By the way, I was right originally. The proposal should have happened on my birthday, but the ring was not finished.
Yes - as a surprise, Leandro took me to Phuket for two weeks.
About four months before we got married, we were discussing the honeymoon and our options. We really wanted to have an island-type honeymoon with lots of extraordinary activities. The next day he had an afternoon lunch with his friends and that night he phoned me with utter shock in his voice - he apparently did not know that it is custom to have the honeymoon as a surprise for the bride? I started laughing and explained that these days a honeymoon cannot really be surprise as most places outside of South Africa requires a VISA and that I cannot actually apply for a VISA without knowing where we are going. Without further discussion, he said that he will look into it.
The night of our wedding on the dance floor - he told me that we are going to Phuket. It was everything I wanted in a honeymoon and more.
My initial idea of what I wanted for my wedding look is so far away from what I ended up buying.
I would categorize my look as timeless with the typical snow white feel to it.
I wore an off-white ball-gown, high waist wedding dress with lace and beaded corset finish. My hair was naturally dark, long, loose and curly with a touch of bling added in between the curls. Light, yet visible make-up, long dark eyelashes and nude lips with these wine red high heels to finish it off. There was not much space for lingerie but I did buy beautiful off-white lingerie for the photos beforehand.
My jewelry consisted out of something old - a tear drop shaped Swarovski necklace my dad bought be about 15 years ago with something new - beautiful amethyst teardrop earrings my mother-in-law bought me. On my arm I wore a Swarovski bracelet I won in a competition a few years back.
For the something blue - I added baby blue flowers to the garter and borrowed a petticoat from a friend.
I was lucky enough to have a mother who owned a wedding venue - Die Wildevy, just outside of Hartbeespoort.
My whole family came from far and stayed in my parent's house on the same property of the venue and most of my husband's family are from the area. However, most of the guests did book guesthouses all around the venue and some even planned on camping on our grass.
I would more lean over to stress induced chocolate splurging and late night wine treatments with my bridesmaids as two of them stayed with me.
We did go for a spa-day and I had lots of trouble keeping my skin intact with all the stress, but in the end it all worked out as it should have.
And offcourse - the teeth whitening home repair kit did come in handy during the last two weeks.
I imagined a white wedding with lots of flowers and a touch of rustic. But in the end, we decided that we needed a bit of colour.
So - our wedding was white and wine red with a touch of rustic and endless supply of DIY and whatever we had available.
The flowers were all types of white and greenery that nearly covered the teak wood tables completely. I had long off-white slender candles to endless supply on all tables with a darkish-silver under plates and white serviettes in wine red holders. No table cloths, and only a wine red velvet runner underneath the flower boxes.
My main table had a wine red velvet table cloth with lots of flowers and lots of candles in class candle holders standing with no significant purpose.
We did go all out with our DJ, we used DJ Vix - from strobe lights to smoke and anything else you can think of.
Our photographer and videographer really captured every special and exquisite moment of our day. We were truly blessed and thankful to have had Stephen Segal Productions as our photographer and Vlakvark Productions as our videographer.
Looking for a one stop shop who will capture your wedding day beautifully from beginning to end? VlakVark Productions is the answer!
Looking for a one stop shop who will capture your wedding day beautifully from beginning to end? VlakVark Productions is the answer!
