Well of course the highlight of my day was walking down the isle to my betrothed and saying “I do”. But it was also having fun with our friends and family, being together and enjoying ourselves completely and utterly! My husbands speech will also stick in my mind for the rest of time.
We haven’t gotten to the honeymoon point yet. A few mini honeymoons thus far: in Durban, lake Malawi and this coming December we’ll have a mini honeymoon in Botswana! The proper thing will need a bit of saving.
It’s amazing how things change from when you look at what style dress you want to when you try them on. I wore a crisp white princess dress ( from the Bridal Room Rivonia) with lace detail. I also had lace sleeves made as the wedding was in July in Nottingham Road (brrr!). I also had a little black cardigan! I bought my shoes (white heels) from The Fix, they were super comfortable and exactly what I wanted from the get go. My Eldest sister bought my lingerie from a shop I don’t recall the name of in Pietermaritzburg. The only jewlery/accessories I had were pearl earrings my husband bought for me in Dubai a few months prior to the wedding. My look was elegant, subtle and somewhat traditional. My eldest sister did my hair; a whispy half updo with little white flowers, and my middle sister did my makeup; a bit of eyeshadow and some masacara. Simple but beautiful! Love my sisters for all their efforts.
Bridal Room is a boutique that offers a unique approach to helping the bride find her perfect wedding gown. With staff having the knowledge and experience to find a gown in the...
Our ceremony was in the Michaelhouse Chapel. One of the most beautiful chapels I have ever entered. It was so grand and stunning, we actually had no decor done in there at all. The chapel spoke for itself. Our Reception was held at Rawdons Hotel Nottingham Road (http://www.rawdons.co.za). Another stunning venue, and the Team at Rawdons are the best! Everything was on time, perfect and not one thing went wrong! The service was impeccable! Majority of our guests spent the night at the Hotel as many of them travelled from very far (China, Uganda, Malawi, Botswana, Plettenberg Bay, Johannesburg) and so we all had a lovely (slightly hungover) breakfast together the next morning.
I have to admit I didn’t have much of a regime. I did stay away from chocolates for 2 weeks before to avoid any skin breakouts. My husband and I also tried to generally eat less carbs just to make sure we fit into the dress and suit :)
Our wedding was black white themed. We had white linen on the tables with black and white menus, thank you notes and name tags. The flowers were done by my amazing Mother (with not much prep time). They were stunning - white roses embedded in a “sea” of greenery in the centre of the round table, with tall white candles (brought from Uganda) in between. Our guest favors were also brought in from Uganda which was quite special (I grew up there).The furniture, patio cover and lighting were all inclusive of Rawdons Services and so we had hundreds of fairy lights intertwined in the vines along the patio roof. The patio also served as our dance area. The dining room at Rawdons hotel is breath taking on a normal day, and so it require very little in terms of decor. We kept it simple but elegant and there was a lovely big fire burning in the grand fireplace too. Had it snowed it would have been the perfect winter wedding.
The Groom wore à Pierre Cardin tux bought in Dubai, a black and white polka dot tie and Batman tie clip from Twill and his shoes.... can’t remember where he got them from (oops). The Groomsmen rented tuxes from Euro Suit with black ties and moustache tie clips fromage Twill.
My bridesmaids wore long black dresses. They were brought in from China by my eldest Sister. I was one of those brides that changed the colour of the wedding 6 weeks before the day. They only received their dresses 4 days before the wedding, luckily they all fit beautiful. They had minimal makeup on, a natural look with loose wavy hair clipped on one side. They looked gorgeous in my opinion!
Our marriage office was Elder McGregor an Elder in our church and close friend of my father in Law. He’s a very sweet old man. We met with him a few days before the wedding and ended up sitting and chatting for much longer than we expected. He gave a beautiful ceremony and it was very touching.
Our photographers were not professionals, but they could have fooled me. Bronwyn and James worked with my sister and took photos at her wedding (better than her photographer) and so we asked them if they would do our wedding! They were so great, and we walked all over the Michaelhouse Campus to get the photos I wanted!! I am so grateful for their beautiful photos!
Amanda, the events coordinator at Rawdons was a great help during the planning. I can’t say I did it all alone, my husband, mother in law, my mom and sisters were amazing help during the planning process.
My dad! My dad drove me in my brother-in-law’s Land Cruiser Prado. I grew up on a farm so I always dreamt of being driven to the church in a dirty Land cruiser 80 series. Obviously I didn’t realize until I was an adult that dirt and a white dress was a terrible idea. So instead it was a very clean Land Cruiser Prado (beautiful engine sound) and a 10km emotional and special moment with my dad.
Rawdons Hotel did the food. We had potato and leek soup for starters, roasted chicken and beef with roasted potatoes, grilled veggies and Yorkshire puddings with gravy.. the perfect meal for a cold night in the Midlands. Dessert was my favorite - Malva pudding with custard and ice cream, and ofc wedding cake. Our wedding cake was black and white. It was a white fondant with black silhouette images that told a love story from bottom to top. A friend of my mother-in-law made it. Not only was it epic in how it looked but it was flippin tasty.
I designed all our stationary. Our wedding invitation was actually a website that I designed, people filled out a form on the website to rsvp. The menus, seating plan, name tags and thank you notes I designed on my laptop and my mom had them printed in Uganda.
Man did we have a party!! I didn’t think I’d last as long as I did. We didn’t take dance lesson, we thought we’d just be our natural goofy selves and it was great. We danced to La Vie En Rose by Daniela Andrade - a short but beautiful song. We didn’t want to have a DJ as we already had all the music we wanted played - a combination of golden oldies, dance music and rock sing along songs. My husbands best friend did sort of take on the roll of DJ simply because he wanted to. He loved it, and the music was fabulous!
Bridal Room is a boutique that offers a unique approach to helping the bride find her perfect wedding gown. With staff having the knowledge and experience to find a gown in the...
