After 2 years of long distance dating and 50 return flights .. we got married in our "happy place" - Still Bay!
We've known each other for 14 years.. as friends, and our paths crossed again just over 3 years ago. Timing in life truly is essential.
From our engagement to the day of our wedding was 5 months - we did not want to wait any longer :-)
We planned everything ourselves - with the help of our amazing family and friends and cannot express how everyone has Blessed us during our wedding journey.
I.e; our wedding photographer, a well renowned international photographer, offered to do our wedding for free!
My make-up artist, Donna Kennedy Meyer, was another gift from one of my brides maids, all the flowers for our wedding was free... our wedding contract.. accommodation ... and our pastor.
I can honestly say; the wedding was so much more than I could have hoped for. But most importantly was that we could share this special day with our super special family and friends. At the end of the day; that is what's most important, and as our pastor said - "Today is the Best day of your life... and tomorrow is going to be the best day of your life".. The best is yet to come!
The most memorable for us was how priveledged we are to share our love and commitment to each other with our family and friends.
Everyone helped with the wedding preparations and was part of our wedding journey - we are extremely grateful to have such amazing, true friends!
Further was the sermon and the speeches. Most people had (happy) tears :-)
When asking our family and friends about their favourite moments, they said exactly the same.
We went to Bottelierskop Game Reserve for a few days, but hoping to go on our "official" honeymoon in July this year!
From the beginning, we wanted everything to be classic and earthy. Simplistic and striking.
Everyone wore black and/or white and the men were allowed to wear jeans.
Dress: I selected my dress from a picture on Pinterest. My mother and I purchased the material and a lady in Paarl, Griet, made the dress.
Jewellery: Besides my wedding ring I wore no earrings or jewellery.
Make-up: Natural, but my eyes were a bit darker than usual for the pictures. My make-up artist Donna Kennedy-Meyer used a maroon colour on my eyes. Something I would have never chosen on my own. But I loved it so much, I am now using it daily!
Hair: My hair was lose. The wind was super strong.. so it looked like I had a natural fan on most of the pics..
Shoes: I bought these last minute at a local store - they were exactly what I was looking for; with a closed toe and ankle strap; and they were on sale!
We got married on the amazing and highly romantic olive farm Kleinbergskloof, which rests on the banks of the majestic Goukou River in Still Bay.
Kleinberskloof (www.kleinbergskloof.co.za) took our breaths away the first time we set foot on the premises. We always wanted a weekend wedding, as the day goes so quickly and we wanted enough time to spend with each other, family and friends.
Many guests arrived on the Thursday, and we could spend quality time with them before an after the wedding. This meant that my husband and I could spend more time with each at the wedding.
It was also a long weekend - so we had a spit braai on Sunday 24 Sep - fittingly for braai day!
Everyone stayed in Jongensfontein and Still Bay.
I went for a chemical peel, and added 5 cm longer hair extensions.
Beside this, I just tried to look after myself, as I have always done, and most importantly will continue to do after the wedding.
We loved the simplicity of the beautiful venue, therefore little extra decor was needed.
Everything is white, with white cement floors, white modern chandeliers and a backdrop of the river at Still Bay, with cows and sheep on the green grass stretching from the river all the way to the venue.
All our guests wore black and/or white as we love uniformity and it looks great on pictures.
I decided to rent glass pots, and then picked fynbos with my brides maids and mother on a local friends' farm.
The decor had to be something we would have in our own home.
We hanged large green fynbos bushes from the ceiling and used olive leaves as confetti.
A dessert rose was placed on top of each menu and fairy lights was draped around the balustrade.
The men wore skinny G-Star jeans, with white shirts and waist coats which were custom made.
They were all fitted in long flowing black dresses, which worked extremely well, especially as all of them have blonde hair, and I have dark hair with a white dress :-)
Their make-up was done by Corlene Jansen van Rosendaal - also as a gift!
Adrian Quinlivin from 3CI church in Pretoria. This was one of the biggest blessings we could hope for!
When my husband was still living in Pretoria, he was a member at 3CI church where I also attended frequently when visiting him. We contacted 3CI to ask if Adrian would consider ministering our wedding... even though we were not officially part of their church anymore and they immediately said yes!
Another blessing was them refusing us to pay for anything - their travel costs, accommodation and ministerial services.
The sermon was one of our favourite parts of the wedding, which fortunately we have on video and will treasure for the rest of our lives.
Our photographer was the amazing and international renowned Albert Jansen van Rosendaal from KOKO Productions who is not a wedding photographer of trade, but wanted to shoot our wedding as a wedding gift.
As it unfortunately was really cold and windy on our wedding day, it was impossible to capture scenic and close-up pictures of my husband and I so we arranged a second shoot with Vanessa Coreia from Minina&May Photography.
I did my own hair and make-up for this, and wore no shoes... very relaxed, just us.
Jaun Buys of JPB Media produced our wedding video.
the entire wedding was planned by ourselves, which was quite stressful as one can imagine, but also fun and something to remember forever.
Kleinbergskloof's chef Crispin Olmstead prepared the food.
We had a Harvest Table during our pictures and for the main decided on platters brought to each table with a range of Spier wines, as they are one of my clients.
We had no wedding cake, but a chocolate browny tower for dessert.
Mathilda Truter printed, a friend of ours did an amazing job of the design, layout and printing of a simplistic theme throughout all the items.
My husband is in a wheel chair, and he says dancing is not good for his "street cred" (-;
We decided I should open the dance floor with my father - we chose "Michael Bublé - I believe in you."
We had a DJ and hand selected some songs before the wedding. Everyone, young and old(er) stayed till the end!
