The day was so perfect, but here are some of the moments that stood out for me:
- Walking down the beach aisle and seeing my husband's face when he looked at me - we fell in love all over again;
- My bridesmaids never saw me in my dress prior to the wedding day, so the look on their faces when I put my dress on and my 4 year old niece telling me I looked pretty was priceless;
- Having the chance to celebrate our special day with family and friends that travelled from near and very far;
- My mother walking me down the aisle to give me away;
- Our first dance. Brendan and I always feel very comfortable dancing with each other, but this was a special dance - our first as husband and wife;
- The bouquet toss. My bouquet was made to split to smaller pieces when tossed, so more than one person got to catch a piece of the magic;
- The garter that got stuck in the ceiling and the boys quickly getting together to help my brother in law grab it;
- All the fun, laughter and special memories made
We did not go on honeymoon as we had families visiting from overseas and the time spent with them was too precious. Also, my gorgeous little sister got married the weekend after my wedding and I was part of her bridal squad. It was very special family time.
Brendan and I wanted a wedding totally different from the 24 we attended previously. We wanted a simple yet elegant beach wedding. After we saw the beautiful bouquets, my bridesmaids embraced a mermaid theme of their own. Our hair was done by the talented Claudia from Plush Hair and Nail Studio. She used a crimping machine to give my bridesmaids the mermaid look. I had romantic curls and an Alice band braid - gorgeous to say the least, I loved our hair.
Makeup was done by a local talent - Githe Meret Koertzen. This woman was incredible she made me my family and the Bridesmaids look and feel amazing on our Special Day she was patient calm and kind and made me calm down when i needed it,she can make you look simply gorgeous by just accentuating your own beauty with a radiant and flawless and unique natural feel to it .Our makeup was breath takingly beautiful.I could not decide on a dress so I had pictures of a few dresses and combined the parts that I liked from each. Rika Ferreira, who is also a friend of mine made my dream dress - having my dress made by a friend was another personal touch that I will always cherish. It was a plain, pure white dress with subtle bling and my veil was covered in pearls which fitted well with the rest of the décor. I did not wear shoes on the beach - only an elegant piece of foot jewelry.
My shoes for the reception where we did our first dance was pointy, sparkly heels.
My lingerie was a present received at my Elegant Breakfast at Melissas Bride and Co bachelorette party. The jewelry I wore was from Lovisa with the exception of the beautiful bulky diamante bracelet - this was my "something borrowed".
We stay in a coastal town with the most beautiful beach kissing the shore .We had the gorgeous beach ceremony in front of Diaz 15 House on the bay. One of our guests played guitar and sang "Over the rainbow" as my bridesmaid took their position. I walked down the sandy aisle while he was performing "Can't help falling in love with you" by UB40.
After the beach ceremony, we headed to Mentors Country Estate for our reception .This Exquisite venue
Mentors Country Estate in the Eastern Cape has a beautiful elegant and and unique layout with massive amounts of space and a traditional Stone Chapel with various reception halls to choose from made Mentors our Perfect Venue for our perfect day .Their Professional and Experienced In House Wedding Coordinator Githe was there to make all my Fairytale Wedding day dreams come true .We celebrated with family and friends and danced the night away.
Our guest that did not want to brave the drive home stayed over at Mentors Country Estate.They had accommodation for bigger aswell as smaller groups.
I did not have a strict regime. I try to lead a healthy lifestyle and so a year ago I joined a gym and started working out 7 days a week initially. I reduced it to 3 days a week not long after. I had to skip the gym as the wedding drew closer as I wanted to make sure my dress fitted perfectly on the day. I drank a lot of water to make sure I have flawless skin. I also did a very natural tan called Fake Bake by Lizelle at Skindeep. I did not use anything for teeth whitening and I did not go for spa treatments.
My décor was truly a team effort. Since my engagement, my very creative mom and aunts collected and decorated every single shell used on the day with shimmer and shine paint, pearls and diamonds. It added a personalized and unique touch to our wedding. The spectacular lady that did my decor was Priscilla Potgieter from Droom Dekor. My flowers (also done by the Droom Dekor team) were Denbrobium orchids. My bouquet consisted of pure white flowers (with the beautiful shells in between) and on the wedding table we used orchids in vases with floating candles.
Two sets of chairs were used - more casual Wimbledon at the beach and elegant glass Tiffany chairs at the reception hall. My lighting was gorgeous - ice white lights in the roof which gave a beautiful blue and frosty look. This complimented the theme very well. The attention to detail was so special for example guest names that were written on sea glass. We loved every aspect of it, especially the personal touch.
My handsome groom wore a royal blue suit from Markhams.
It was a must that all the groomsmen wore white button down shirts and stone colour chinos from Woolworths. Their shoes and belts were from Markhams. We spent quite some time planning the look of the groomsmen - even their hair and beards were trimmed at the same Barber who also happens to be my business partner.
My bridesmaids wore lovely mint floral robes made by Johan Wolmarans as we were getting ready. I wore a white satin Victoria's Secret robe.
For about a year we knew one of the top elements we'll use as part of the wedding décor would be pearls,and diamante, diamonds are found deep down under the ground covered and protected which made it such a spectacular element and pearls are found deep down at the bottom of the ocean covered up and protected in a beautiful shell which was our third WOW element, so we decided on pearl bodice dresses with aquamarine as the colour. This worked very well with the theme. My two sisters and two of my cousins were my bridesmaids - two wore half pearl and two wore full pearl bodice dresses. Their dresses were made by House of Hoiden, run by 3 young and very talented women.
Ken Du Pisanie officiated our wedding before God. He officiated my older sister's wedding in 2013 and my younger sister's wedding a week after ours. So this is something special we share as sisters.
Two years ago, Brendan and I entered a "win a wedding" competition and we made it to the Top 15. We had to meet a panel of judges, which included our photographer Renske from RDK.
After seeing her work on her Facebook page, I promised myself that she is the only one that I want to use for capturing my wedding photos. She is a phenomenal artist that can make simple things look absolutely breathtaking. Having her come down to capture our beautiful moments on the beach meant the world to me. In my opinion, choosing the right photographer is one of the most important tasks for a perfect wedding and we could not be more happy with the choice we made.
As weeks and months passed We still look at our Picture Perfect photos and every day we are Greatful and happy that we chose Rdk as our Wedding Photographer ❤️
Gauteng Award Winning Wedding Photographer, RDK Photography captures every magical moment of your special day with a touch of elegance and passion!
The wedding planner we used was the lovely Priscilla Potgieter from Droom Dekor - she made sure that it was smooth sailing (excuse the pun) at the beach ceremony and Githe Meret Koertzen was on the ball in making sure everything was in order at the reception.
The transport was left in the capable hands of one of my dear friends Francois Du Rand. He was my sidekick for the week and organized transportation for my beautiful bridesmaids and handsome groomsmen. Brendan and I drove in a fancy Mercedes.
Our canapes and lamb and vegetable main meal was prepared by Ian and his team at Mentors Country Estate and it was absolutely delicious.
My beautiful wedding cake was made by Riette from House of Bakes. It was plain white with shell detail - and the best part was that it tasted even better than it looked.
I had a very unique, musical save the date done by Droom Dekor. My wedding invitation was hand-made by my talented mother which was really extraordinary. The menus and the rest of the stationery was done by Droom Dekor.
The reception was everything I've ever dreamed of. We love to dance and I wanted a sexy romantic, gaze into each other's eyes kind of dance. To make this happen we took a few dance lessons, practiced and that moment when I was in Brendan's arms all the worries of what can go wrong melted away. We danced to Ed Sheeran's Perfect. All the lyrics describe our love story and it's our song. We had a great DJ (Anton) and he knew how to keep the party alive and kicking. We had so much fun that we stayed on for another hour after the venue was due to close. Even Brendan's 77 year old grandmother was a regular on the dance floor.
Gauteng Award Winning Wedding Photographer, RDK Photography captures every magical moment of your special day with a touch of elegance and passion!
