Having my dad walk me down the aisle to marry my best friend and High school sweet heart.
We went to the beautiful island of Zanzibar.
Lena from Lena Frezza Design Studio created my dream dress. We drew inspiration form 3 different dresses that I had seen in wedding magazines and tweaked it to suit my figure. I wanted something figure hugging, fit and flare mermaid style with elegant lace and delicate lace appliqués on the décolletage area. Lena came up with a beautiful design of a mermaid fit and flare style dress with a sweetheart deep neckline and beautiful flower lace that hand pearls and diamanté crystals. This was then placed on a delicate french netting to match my skin tone, and beautiful lace appliqués were added around the bust and deep neckline, coming up onto the décolletage. This was made to look as if the lace flowers were just resting on my skin, with more clustered together on the left shoulder so as to cover up the dresses join and the lace appliqués followed through over my left shoulder into a more sparse collection of flowers, so as if to look like they were petals falling. We decided on a suprise twist to the dress, we made the heavy lace and tulle skirt of my dress detachable with a soft and flowing georgette skirt underneath so that I was able to dance the night away comfortably. My dress was all lovingly hand made and the delicate lace appliques hand stitched onto the dress while on me.The veil we decided on a veil as long as the length of the train of the dress as it just tied the whole look together. it was plain tulle with no edges or lace or trimming. simple and elegant. It took many man hours but Lena is brilliant at what she does and her passion and love for her design shows in the finished product with so much attention to detail.
Lingerie was given to me as a bridal gift by one of my bridesmaids. It was a beautiful white cotton lace bra, and panties to match. My shoes I found on the online store superbalist. My color scheme was white, golds and greens so when I came across this beautiful pair of shoes that had cute bows and lots of silver and gold sparkle to match, I thought they went with the color scheme and my bridesmaids dresses perfectly, and bonus, I got them on sale :D I also bought a plain white pair of converse all stars that Gent from @customize_me_gent bedazzled with swarovski crystals and hand painted with the title wife, and my wedding date on them for me to wear later on at reception to dance the night away. I bought my Hubby a black pair to match as a wedding present, which he was super chuffed with. The jewelery we wanted to keep simple and not too overpowering as the lace dress had lots of pearls and diamante crystals on it. The earrings had a simple floral chandellier design, and I found a matching bracelet, both bought from Lovisa. My hubby gave me tear drop pandora earrings as a wedding present which I then wore together with the chandellier earrings and they went together so well. I didn't haven jewelry around my neck as it would take away from the beauty of the lace appliques on the décolletage.
The hair we wanted to stick with something soft and natural to tie in with the garden theme and the bridesmaids hair. We went for soft curls with lots of volume on top, and a beautiful jeweled braid as an alice band. We didn't want to go too busy with the hair as the dress was quite busy in itself. The makeup we wanted to make bold so as to stand out, so we went with a light smokey eye, lots of bronzer and highlighter to give me a healthy glow, and a pretty pink lip to give a little spring feel as we got married in a beautiful garden.
I absolutely loved how my whole look came together on the day, I wouldn't change a thing.
We got married in the beautiful garden at Longmeadow Function venue in Fourways, where we stayed over at the Palazzo Hotel after the wedding.
I didn't have too much of a beauty regime leading up to the wedding. I just tried to eat clean, no sweets and limited carbs, lots of green veggies and fish or chicken as protein. I did boxing once a week to tone up, and not much else exercise wise. Skin wise I had a facial 2 weeks before the wedding and then had a skin brightening mask 2 days before the wedding. I bought the home teeth whitening kit which I did twice in the week leading up to the wedding just to give my teeth that extra white shine. I had my highlights done the day before the wedding and do not wash my hair the day of so that it was easier to work with. I went for eyelash extensions so that my lashes looked lovely not only for the wedding but for my honeymoon too and so I didn't need to wear makeup while in honeymoon. I had my nails done Acrylic with a gel French with some flower and lace design in white acrylic on the ring fingers. I then had a fake bake spray tan two days before to settle in abit and give me a glow on my wedding day.
My decor we wanted to tie in and not take away from the beautiful garden that we were having the ceremony in so I decided to go with clean fresh classic colours of natural greens from the trees and grass, whites, golds and rustic woods. We had wooden doors in the garden to create an entrance to the ceremony. We had white strapping and hanging glass spheres with white roses hanging from the arch at the alter and white rose petals down the aisle. The pews had baby's breath and wedidnt have to actually do much else as the beautiful garden was enough. At reception we had two themes going on at the round tables. The one had a mirror in the centre of the table, with tall bases filled with water and orchids Lilly's and sweet peas submerged in the vases with a candle on top. We also had glass fish bowls as well as small wooden boxes filled with white roses. The other theme was a rose gold sequined runner across the table with a very tall vase in wooded tree trunk in the centre with a ball of baby's breath sitting on top. These tables also had the wooden boxes and fish bowls with roses around the centre piece. The main table which only sat me and my groom has a rose gold sequined table cloth, with a wooden rectangular box filled with baby's breath, either side of that a tall cylindrical vase with a single orchid submerged. We also had a Mr and Mrs block in front of the flowers in white wood. Behind us was a curtain of fairy lights with the glass hanging spheres with white roses inside. The patio where our reception took place has draped fiary lights from the centre of the room leading out to the sides of the room and then single blue/green spot lights lighting up the draping on all 4 sides of the room. It gave the room a very elegant and romantic feel.
The groom and his groomsmen are all very laid back guys and due to it being a garden wedding in the September heat they decided on no ties, just open collar shirts, charcoal suits for the groomsmen, a navy blue suit for the groom, and champagne coloured pocket squares to tie in with the bridesmaids. The groomsmen had baby's breath corsages to tie in with the bridesmaids bouquets and the groom had a white orchid to tie in with my bouquet. The groom and his men hired their suits from Bride and Co.
My bridesmaids I wanted to be quite neutral and natural to tie in with the garden theme. We got neutral sweet heart neckline, flowy champagne coloured dresses from the Goddess collection at Bride and Co.
We then decided on different designs that we could add on to their dresses to make each of them unique and have their own style reflect. We bought appliqués and netting material from the Plaza, and then Lena from Lena Frezza Design studio guided us and tweeked the designs and did all the additions and finishing touches to the dresses. I wanted their hair to have braids and curls and be very soft and sweet with baby's breath in it which tied in with their bouquets. Their makeup was also very soft and natural with browns golds and peachy colours and a sunkissed glow. They all looked stunning!
Our marriage officer was Marco Broccardo. He is a close family friend to both me and my Husband and kept our ceremony short sweet and fun and we loved it.
Our photographer was Keith Groenewald and videographer Michael Burger. They did a brilliant job, they made it fun and effortless to get the shots they needed and I cannot wait to see the end results. Our Dear friends Julio and Rose of snappa media did a photo booth for us which provided endless hours of fun.
I did not have a planner, I planned it all on my own as I am quite OC and a perfectionist.
A car from the palazzo hotel where we got ready to take me across the road to my wedding venue.
The food was provided by our venue which was delicious everyone enjoyed it. We had a plated potato roaring starter, followed by a buffet with veggies roast chicken and shoulder of lamb roast potatoes and selected salads. Dessert was creme brûlée espresso cups with nougat Ice cream with toasted almonds and then our delicious wedding cake was cut up and served. Our wedding cake tasted just as good as it looked, and was made by a school friend of mine at J's Cakes and Catering.
A lady by the name of Yvonne at Salt Studio did our stationary and came up with a gorgeous design of a white orchid to tie in with our white flower garden theme.
The party was Lit haha :D
Our DJ was a friend of ours, DJ Ali, who played all our special requests and we had an absolute jol.
The lighting was done by the a company called socialite.
