Our story began in 2010, I was 17 not at all interested in dating when my parents started going through midlife crisis's (they tell this story differently) this ment parties at our farm every weekend with their new friends in their 20s. So we became good friends through my mom and dad who adored him and constantly said why don't you date someone like Amilcar. I remember the first day I met him like it was yesterday he was standing in the horse stables with the sun rising behind him it was like a shot out of a movie, I walked straight passed to my Grans house telling her about this hot guy that was at my house her response "well what are we doing here" and rushed off to meet him. A few weeks later we all went camping together he sat next to me and my mom pipes up you could sit anywhere why here so you like my daughter and he responded bravely in front of everyone yes actually I do. The next night i pulled in for a kiss and he pulled away embarrassments I got into my pjs and went to sleep he came in woke me up and said I wanted to say goodnight properly. The next day I wasn't sure if I dreamt it and should be embarrassed or in love. Two weeks later he said I love you and I said thank you. There after we realized we both love each other and want to kiss each other and on the 4th of September we celebrated our 7years of dating by having the wedding of our dreams and committing to spending the rest of our lives together.
The Botanical gardens have always been a special place to us we have had a picnic date there every year since we started dating in 2010. In April 2016 Amilcar had my Dad arrange his B-later birthday there with my grandparents, parents and his mom.
When we got there his mother said she had never been to the waterfall so we walked there. When we got there my mom asked me to walk her all the way back to the entrance to get her an ice cream.
When I walked back to the waterfall I found my Prince Charming who had changed into a suit and got down on one knee to ask if I would share the rest of my life with him... I said Yes and so our journey began
Our wedding was beautiful we did a had fastening and selected 8 friends and family to bind our hands together with different colour ribbons. Each colour represented a value we believed they represented and asked them to bring those values into our marriage. What made the hand fastening special was no one knew we where doing it or what they represented to us until they got it.
Another thing that made our ceremony sentimental was that my mother gave the ceremony this gave it a personal touch as the whole ceremony was about at our personal love story.
We said personal vows to each other that we're so meaningful we will both honor our vows and the moment we said them forever.
We shared the day with family and friends that was what was special.
Another highlight besides dancing with my new husband was definitely the father and daughter dance as we filled the reception with laughter when we went from butterfly kisses into gun gum style for a true representation of our relationship.
If I had to pick the best part of the day it would definitely be kissing my husband for the first time.
We had the most magical honeymoon anyone could ask for. We did an off the beaten track road trip through the eastern cape. We are both adventurous and love nature so...
We began in the small town Graf-rienit where we did our first hike as husband and wife. We sat at the top of the valley and meditated together in the breathtaking surroundings. Next we drove to an even smaller town called Hogsback named after the beautiful mountain range. We had a cottage with our own fireplace and veranda that overlooked the forest. We did amazing hikes passed walkways with carved fairies, waterfalls and through beautiful forests. We abseiled down one of the waterfalls 36m high, the views are so beautiful they can't be described. We did a half day guided mountain bike tour where we learnt about the trees and waterfalls in the forest we cycled through. We swam in waterfalls and drank fresh water straight from the waterfall. We also did a walking meditation at the Edge laberynth (on the edge of the mountain).
We then ventured onto East London we stayed in a world class room that open onto a deck with a swimming pool that overlooked the Gonubi river. We swam in the sea, enjoyed local food and did a 7km run along the Beach.
Then back to Johannesburg where I planned a surprise day for my husband to unwind. We went to the Kloofzight spa and lodge where we jacuzzied, steamed, swam and suntanned before receiving 90 minute hot stone massages followed by an amazing lunch.
We have such a beautiful country if you are prepared to explore it and there's no one I'd rather spend the rest of my life exploring with
Ever since I was a little girl I have told everyone I am a fairy princess, and that's exactly what I wanted to be on my special day. My lace ballgown with four meter train and tiara was my way of showing the world the princess I see myself as everyday. All girls are princesses some of us just forget. My veil was handed made and beaded by my grandmother, this is the start of an air loom of something borrowed. My something old was my diamond necklace (0.16 carrot) the first gift my dad ever gave me on my 16th birthday to remember where I have come from. My something new was my fairy princess dress to symbolize our new journey. My something borrowed was my bridesmaids earrings to represent borrowed happiness. My something blue was my blue 15cm high heels. and a sixpence in her shoe, I had the image of a sixpence in my shoe to bring fertility and prosperity into my marriage.
We got married at the Forest walk in Midrand.
We have both always loved the idea of getting married in a forest and just like us it was love at first sight. We only went to this venue but knew there was no need to look anywhere else.
I didn't go on any diets. No treatments but I did sauna at the gym once a week for the last 6months and had a lot more focus at the gym than I would usually I had to look good for my just married bikini.
As you entered the chapel we made a beautiful curtain with roses and crystals, going down the isle we had big white paper flowers and we had lavender with wooden love hearts. We had a poem backdrop hand painted by my mom and 1000 origami brids that we made that hung from the roof of the chapel. Everything was hand made and inspired by the Chinese art of paper folding we had tissues for happy tears in our programs, flowers cascading out of Wooden lanterns on the alter. The bathrooms had hand made soaps and had creams with signs to encourage our guests to go dance.
While we took photos our guests could play giant naughty and crosses or giant memory match that I made to match our ombré purple and white colour scheme. The games where a huge hit.
In the reception we had purple lightning with fairy lights that was done by the venue. We had our menus printed and placed in the plates with the napkins that had tags that said thank you for sharing our first meal as Mr and Mrs De Oliveira.
Our thank you gifts where bulb glass vases with real purple rose buds with a beauty and the beast rose tag on it thanking our guests for celebrating our 'tale as old as time'.
Our table numbers were the most special as we had the same number of tables as the number of years we have been dating on either side of the table number we wrote our favorite memory from tat year with our favorite photo. One side was the grooms story and the other side was the brides.
There was loads of little things in our decor but the main idea was to make it personal and to convey our 7year love story.
They got their suits from Euro suit.
The groomsmen and groom where 100% put together by the groom I wasn't allowed to see anything until I walked down the aisle on the day.
I have to say he blew me away with how well he colour co-ordinated everything.
He said his goal was to make the Prince Charming outshine the princess.
My Made of honor had a purple ombré dress that we all feel inlove with this was the first thing we bought it was so beautiful I made it the colour theme for the wedding. The bridesmaids dresses where made by my mom to match the made off honors dress. The dresses of the bridesmaids had more black in it as the dress code for the guests was black to let the bridal party stand out. I let them choose their own hair and make up to suit their own tastes and features but each hairstyle had to have a braid somewhere to tie it out looks together.
My mom preformed our ceremony and her friend Ryan who is a marriage officer did our signing at the wedding straight after.
Our special day was captured by Hay Kay photography. She was so professional and passionate about what she does. I really couldn't have asked for a better photographer. A friend of ours is doing our video for us as a favor and we are so grateful because if I didn't have a video I definitely would have regretted it, our day was way to special not to watch on repeat.
No I did everything myself with a great deal of help from my parents and the bridal party, including the groom. That's what made my day special the amount of love that went into it was unmeasurable.
I didn't have wedding transportation as I stayed at the venue so I simply walked across.
The venue did the food for us and I had a number of people say it was the best wedding food they have ever tasted. My cake was done by my moms friend Ansi it was the most beautiful 4teired baby breath cake. Each tier was a different flavor.
I designed and printed all my own stationary
Our lighting and sound was all included in our venue. Our DJ was very good and kept everyone from 18-80 dancing.
Our dances where untraditional to say the least...
Although everyone assumed we had lessons we taught ourselves dances off of YouTube to songs that had special meaning to us.
-our first dance was danced first to Jack Johnson, Better together. This was the first song he ever played me when I was just 17.
- we then did a dance with our mothers to the country song like my mother dose.
-I think butterfly kisses is every father and daughters song so we sobbed away dancing to it but lightened the mood by breaking into gun nam style opening the dance floor.
