I remember getting out of the 1930's Ford Phaeton at the entrance of the Eucalyptus forest where I was going to marry my best friend. I crossed a little wooden bridge and walk down a pathway while a slow romantic version of the Wedding March was played by a celloist and pianist. I walked down the isle with my dad...what a privilege it was. It was magical in the forest, with the sun only shimmering through, a light breeze and the background noise of birds singing. I felt so close to God. I decided to not look at any guests while walking down the isle but to only look at my handsome groom as I could not wait to marry him.
My mums friend wrote a poem about the weekend of the wedding...it is in Afrikaans but I am going to share it cause it sums up our wedding beautifully.
"WELKOM BY ONS TROUDAG
Donderdag was ek reeds daar
Alles voel so onwaar
Hier is ek tussen my hartsmense
Vir lank was dit my grootste wense
Vinnig word nes geskrop
Aan Allesverloren se deur moet ons nou gaan klop
Vir my lyk als vreemd en leeg
Maar in die bos, daar kon ek my hart nie opweeg
Die atmosfeer was heilig en rein
Waar effense sonstrale deur die bome skyn
‘n Rustige bruid probeer tafels red
O wee, die stoele is ook verkeerd, nou’t ons prêt!
Marcus en Trudie spring vinnig in
Die troue wil begin!
Planne word beraam om chaos te keer
Van “naked bulbs” het ek vinnig geleer
Min word geslaap
Hoe gaan ons nou maak?
Vrydag is ‘n nuwe dag
Vol geprop met Sy krag
Van die uitgesoekte gaste word nader ge’UBER’
Trudie het dit manoeuvre
Want om 2 boere die stad in te stuur
Sal meer kos as net ‘n bier
Danksskoene word sorgvuldig uitgesoek
Wraggies is daar nog tyd vir Mug & Bean koek!
Tafels, stoele en liggies is nou op hul plek
Elkeen se plekkie ook netjies gedek
Wit servet met roosmaryntakkie
En ‘n verruklike nougat in ‘n sakkie
Die blomme prag
Het my na my asem laat smag
Bloekomtakke en rose hang van chandeleur
Wat ‘n romantiese atmosfeer!
William skrik vir ouma Miemie se grimering
Maar kom, die troue wil begin!
Ame en Wilmien so dierbaar en mooi
In hul blommemeisie rokkies getooi
Die bruid was ‘n bietjie baie laat
Dominee Daniel is uitgehonger om te praat
Die handsome bruidegom, Marcus
Na hy sy bruid sien, was hy eers gerus
Al te netjies in sy pak van Airforce blou
Met blink bruin skoene, kan ek onthou
Statig het hy vir sy bruid gewag
Ure afgetel vir hierdie dag
Beeldskoon is sy op die blommemat
Pappa sal haar tot by Marcus vat
Haar rok van Chantilly kant
Met pionies in haar hand
In Nice het sy dit uitgesoek
Nie te sien in enige boek
Trourok tot op die grond
Met Opari skoene afgerond
Swarovski juwele kon jy nie mis
Kom papa, gee haar nou ‘n kus!
Frikkie so trots gelyk met sy donker pak en grys das
Baie goed saam sy grys hare gepas
Trudie vir haarself gelyk soos ‘n Chinees
Amper gaan sy deur as nog ‘n sussie, kan dit wees!
Pragtige perels om haar nek
Sy’t gesorg vir elke ding op sy plek
Die 2 sussies het ook die oog geraak
Immers ‘n ontwerper het hul rokke gemaak
Zoe de Wet het almal verbaas
Sy’s mos upper class!
Roosblare word in die bos gestrooi
Marna en Marcus, so mooi!
Voorgeregte uit die boonste rak
Met ‘n yskoue gin kom ons in rat
‘n Bonus was verseker die koffie bar
Hele aand was die vrouens daar
Daar heers ‘n feestelike atmosfeer
Die dansvloer kon niemand keer
Heildronke word ingestel
Net te veel om te tel!
Vlamgeroosterde Griekse lamsboud
Smullekker vir jonk en oud
Hoender filo pakkie op die bord gekry
Het jou laat uitsien na nagereg soos Creme Brulee
Troukoek is ook gesny, 3 lae opmekaar
Chocolate ganache, malva caramel en lemon curd, so waar
Die gaste kon net nie ophou kuier
Tot na 12 om die tafels geluier
Frikkie en Trudie, baie geluk met ‘n spog geleentheid
Nie verbaas om te sien jul foto’s is wereldwyd
Dankie vir die aan Marna gedoen
Jul verdien meer as net ‘n soen
Hierdie was ‘n naweek wat ek altyd sal onthou –
Marcus en Marna wat trou!
Welkom by ons troudag!
Vir die volgende sussie kan ek nie wag!!!"
We have both traveled the world quiet a bit and decided we didnt want to travel to far as we only had 8 days for honeymoon. I didnt want to know where we were going so my husband organised everything. I accidently found out we are going to Mauritius a few weeks before because our reverent didn't know it was suppose to be a surprise.:-) Mauritius was beautiful and very relaxing as we decided to have our phones off while being on honeymoon. Spending time with each other and having a break from everything else was just what we both needed. We went to walk with the lions at Cassela park and it was truly amazing. My husband talked me into doing the Canyon Swing...where you fall for a good few meters and then swing across... It was almost a very short marraige as I'm not very fond of heights. (-:
I worked on a Yacht as a masseuse for 4 years and just after we got engaged our yacht was in Italy.
I had some time off and decided to take the train to Nice, France, and go dress hunting. It was a long day and a lot of walking. Just as I was about to give up after spending 11 hrs on my feet I saw there was one more shop close to my hotel.
I decided to give it a try.
As I rang the doorbell of this stylish bridal shop, an old French lady answered the door. Like the French are...She was straight to the point and told me she couldn't help me. As I was about to turn around, she asked me what I was looking for and where I was from. She then looked at her watch and said she's got 15min for me to try on ONLY 1 dress. The dress was a beautiful dress...but something was missing. She saw my wondering face and said she has got one more dress. She then went to the back and brought me this amazing brand new Pronovias dress made in Spain. It was everything I wanted in a dress. I could not stop staring and felt like a real bride. Off course I had to ask my mum's advise ( which was back in SA at that time) so I left the shop empty handed. Mum loved the dress and just said, "Its your dress". Back at the Yacht my roommate also said its definitely my dress. A week later I went back and they took my sizes and ordered it for me. Eight weeks later I had them pack my wedding dress into my hand luggage, folded like it was a little parcel! The dress and I then flew home while I had nightmares about customs opening my hand luggage and this big dress that just popped out and me not being able to fit it back into my tiny suitcase.
I have always been a hopeless romantic so romance was definitely a big part of my wedding day.
My hair was done by my hairdresser from Stellenbosch, Ilke, at Le hair lounge. I just wanted a soft romantic look.
My make-up was done by Eveline Francis and she did a fantastic job. Being in the beauty industry myself I just wanted my make-up to be natural and something that didn't change me. I still wanted to look like me...;-)
Shireen Louw the wedding photographer has launched a range of wedding shoes called Opari. They have the most beautiful shoes and Shireen was awesome helping me decide which ones to choose. I chose the Victorias. They were classy, romantic and very comfortable.
Lingerie was from my favourite Victorias Secret store in Dubai. my Garter was handmade by Didi Couture.
The bracelet I wore was an elegant Swarovski bracelet I bought in Italy. My mum gave me the Swarovski earrings I was wearing.
For a little handbag I decided I wanted something different and bought a beautiful floral clutch from Forever New and just modified it a little.
I have always heard about Riebeek Kasteel Valley and how beautiful it was. My sister and I went to look at wedding venues in the Riebeek Valley.
It was a Saturday morning and a beautiful day. As we walked into the magical forest chapel at Allesverloren Wedding venue I just KNEW that was where I wanted to get married. I could just imagine the atmosphere walking down the Isle...birds singing, the sun shinning through the leaves of the big eucalyptus trees...peaceful and Godly...I found my wedding venue.
Our guests stayed in Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West. The guesthouses in the areas were well worth the weekend getaway. My bridesmaids and I stayed at Katarinas Guesthouse in Riebeek Kasteel. I can definitely recommend it.
Oak trees, vineyards, mountain views, excellent cuisine, award winning wines and a purpose built reception venue all add up to the perfect place to host your wedding reception.
Being a Beauty Therapist myself I have always had a good beauty regime, but had to do a few treatments to boost my skin. A good friend of mine, Dr Ledivia Strauss from RivitaHealth skin care clinic in Val de Vie, suggested I do a Dermapen treatment combined with a skin peeling. She did this treatment for me 9 weeks before the wedding. My skin was amazing. Skin Renewal has also always been one of my favourite Skin care clinics. I went for a Mesolift facial and also had a deep cleanse done a week before the wedding.
I try to exercise regularly and just try and balance a good healthy lifestyle.
I had an Ombre French manicure done by Bio sculpture gel and also a reviving pedicure.
Because I wanted a romantic look, my florist, Ilse Louw, from Blomstories in Wellington, created a romantic and soft look for my tables. I also wanted to bring in a little bit of a rustic element. We hired raw wood tables and used them without table cloths. Victoria ghost chairs rounded off the wooden tables beautifully. We had glass underplates and plain white napkins along with a soft grey candles. Ilse used "woestynrosies" in the chandelier arrangement we had in the middle of the reception hall. It was something different because the "Woestynrosies" were hanging down from the chandelier along with the lush greenery, fresh roses and Peonies. Ilse used Hydrangeas, garden Roses and Peonies along with other greenery as our wedding flowers. We had naked bulbs hanging above our tables and a fairy light curtain behind our bridal table.
We hired couches in a light grey, dusty blue colour for our pre-drinks, for Goeters hiring in Wellington. and Also hired a beautiful flower carpet for the ceremony to fit perfectly down the isle in the Eucalyptus forest. We hired our carpet along with a few things from Classy Hire in Paarl.
I am a coffee fanatic so I decided to get a Barista for the wedding as well. Shaun from The Boston board room made our guests a big variety of coffees, lattes, teas and even Iced coffees. It brought in a different element into our pre-drinks and guests loved it. We also had a Gin bar and the live band playing at the pre-drinks. All these extra rented elements made it something different.
My husband wore a tie I bought him before we even got engaged. I was walking in Italy and saw this beautiful deep dark blue tie and just knew I had to buy it for him. It fit perfectly with his Airforce Blue wedding suite which he got from the David Jones collection at Woolworths. He wore a light brown belt which matched his brown shoes as well.
Groomsmen wore navy chinos, white shirts and navy blue ties along with a brown belt and shoes. They got their wedding attire from the Woolworths collection.
My sisters were my bridesmaids and I decided to leave the design of the dress in their hands and only gave them the colour I wanted which was Dusty Blue. They had there dresses designed by a young designer and it ended up not being what we wanted. We then had to do some damage control 5 days before the wedding. So Didi Couture in Durbanville came to the rescue. She did and amazing job.
Motivated by "all things beautiful", the work of Didi and her team is sure to leave you enchanted.
My husband's Godfather, Daniel de Kock, is a Reverent and it was really special that someone we know well could officiate our marriage. He made our day special by entertaining our guests with a little bit of light humour in our ceremony.
I grew up with my dad and mom making home videos of us kids and I never realised when I was little how special it was. Being grown up we treasure those videos of being little. Time is something you can never get back, but when you have pictures and videos at least you captured a little bit of the moment.
When I went to look at venues I stumbled into one of my old friends from my Stellenbosch days. It was definitely meant to be as she was a wedding photographer. It was really nice to have someone you know taking pictures as I am not a big "poser". :-)
We had Inecke Jonker from Inecke photography as our photographer.
A wedding video was as important as pictures because it captures the emotions as well. Jacques from Guava graphics was our videographer. He has a really calm nature so he fit in really well with the relaxed vibe we wanted for the wedding! :-)
Since being a little girl I have looked forward to planning my wedding so I decided to do it myself. My mum was great with giving advise and helping with a few things on the day. The venue we got married at had amazing staff and they were really helpful as well.
Off course I must say...for the first time I understood why brides turn into Bridezillas. It can be stressful planning a wedding, but it was an honor and its so nice to see how things all come together.
I wanted my parents dog Zoe, the Wirehair terrier to be the ring bearer. She is like one of my sisters so she had to be part of the wedding. I must say you do think about her running away in the middle of the ceremony, but I had nothing to stress about, she was a star. My husband forgot a little bit that he had to call Zoe to bring our "fake rings". So when the Reverent said that we can exchange rings he immediately turned to his groomsmen and took the rings. I then stood there just whispering to him, "Zoe...what about ZOE"!! Zoe then must have heard me and came running from the bench where she was sitting next to my dad (I have to admit, I thought Marcus called Zoe...but I only found out this week that no one called her and she must have heard me whispering her name and then came running towards me. What a miracle that was.) She made a little round while Marcus pretended to take the rings from her collar and then ran back to her seat next to my dad, like she was trained. She was a champ;-)
We wanted a classic car for our bridal car. Classic Vintage Cars in Brackenfell gave us a beautiful 1930's Ford Phaeton. It was a real classy car and it felt like we were back in the 1930's.
Allesverloren has their own Chef, Bertus Bester, who made the most divine foods. We had a Harvest table as a starter at our pre-drinks and everyone is still talking about it. For mains we had Chicken Phyllo parcels filled with sundried tomatoes and feta, Chargrilled Greek leg of lamb with a yogurt mint, Honey roasted butternut, Mediterranean veggies, roasted potatoes and a Greek salad.
For dessert we had a buffet of mini desserts. Peppermint crisp, Lavender crème Brule, Lime Fridge cheesecake and Ghirardelli Chocolate mouse.
Our wedding cake was made by Kanya Hunt form Hunt house kitchen. We had 3 layers of amazing cake. It was a Dark Chocolate Ganache, Caramel Cake and a Lemon Ganache cake. The Lemon Ganache we saved and had it for my husband's birthday on 12th of December. We really enjoyed very bit of our wedding cake.
Born with a passion for baking, Kanya Hunt is reputed to make the best dessert-style wedding cakes around. These cakes are intended to be used as dessert or as part of dessert ...
Oak trees, vineyards, mountain views, excellent cuisine, award winning wines and a purpose built reception venue all add up to the perfect place to host your wedding reception.
We live on a farm in the Northern Cape so we had to do our stationary in our local town Upington. We used Suneldo Drukkers. I wanted a natural look for the stationary so we decided to do it on brown paper with black print. For our ceremony we stuck our programs to an little wooden spatula so people could use it as a little fan as well.
We had a menu for every guest which looked beautiful with the white napkin on the glass underplate.
My mum wanted me to be surprised on Saturday so I wasn't allowed into the reception hall on Friday. George Ezra's song, Paradise, played while we greeted our special family and friends, our "hartsmense", for the first time as Mr and Mrs la Grange. Our reception was everything we imagined. It was romantic, classy but still "down to earth".We opened the dance floor straight after we got welcomed by the our MC so the party started early.Seeing that we love "langarm" we didn't take dance lessons. Our song was Tarren Lamb's, "Eks mal oor jou" and it was the perfect first dance as a married couple.
I danced with my dad after we opened the dance floor and then we went to each table and said hi to all our guests.
Our DJ was Gideon Spence.
For the pre-drinks we had a live band of 2 guys playing guitars, Du toit and Paul. They were a real hit and the guests said they felt like they were somewhere in Europe listening to a band while having drinks.
Our wedding was beautiful and really special it just went by to quickly. Everyone told me it goes by quickly, but that was an understatement. I want to have it all over again...and again and again. <3
Motivated by "all things beautiful", the work of Didi and her team is sure to leave you enchanted.
Born with a passion for baking, Kanya Hunt is reputed to make the best dessert-style wedding cakes around. These cakes are intended to be used as dessert or as part of dessert ...
Oak trees, vineyards, mountain views, excellent cuisine, award winning wines and a purpose built reception venue all add up to the perfect place to host your wedding reception.
Nothing gives me more satisfaction then making a bride or girl more beautiful then she already is.
