Our love story began in our final year of studies. For four year we have been walking passed each other in the design building and during our final year our classes went on a design trip to Namibia. Long story short, on the last evening of our trip a camel spider (google it) decided that it's a good idea to stroll into the ladies bathroom. When my friend and I noticed it (as we are about to go shower) we yelled and I ran out (still fully dressed off course) and basically ran to the first guy I saw for help.Later that evening we started talking and I felt safe next to him.
We became friends after that incident and it felt like I knew him my whole life. We helped each other with our final fourth year practical assignments and four years later we are still helping each other, this time with our wedding invitations.
Glad I get to marry my best friend!
Well, for the last few months before the engagement (aka 6 months before he asked me), I expected he would pop the question as we started talking about rings and marriage, but nothing happened. The disappointment was enough to let me not get my hopes up whenever we did something special. This particular day I told myself that maybe he is just not ready yet and I shouldn't rush things.
We worked at the same company (which has it's perks, but also a lot of challenges) and this particular Friday afternoon (the 1st of December 2017) he told me that he won't see me as he would like to go wash his car at the garage, but he will let me know when he is back at his flat.
We stayed next to each other, in a self catering unit at the beach, and washing his car didn't actually make sense, but maybe he just wants a clean car. After about two hours he comes back (with still dirty car window - apparently the water was very dirty that they used) and ask if I am keen for some pizza and wine at one of the restaurants close to us. Most defiantly as it is Friday and who will say no to pizza and wine.
he tells me to be ready at 6pm, and I get to his place at 5:45pm, ready to leave, and all of a sudden he starts washing his dishes. Which was very weird cause we were both ready to leave.
Just as we are about to leave I remember that I forgot my jacket and now he is freaking out cause we need to leave (and it only took me one minute to fetch my jacket).
On our way to the restaurant he takes a turn to the beach and asked if I would like to go look at the sunset. We get to the beach, this long walk-way and it's cloudy...can't see the sun. I ask him if we can take a selfie before we leave, as cloudy weather makes nice lighting for a picture. I hand him my phone and he is shaking like crazy, apparently he is getting cold, but between the two of us I get cold very quickly and I am wearing something summery. We take the picture and I turn around to look at the beach again and as he were busy explaining something he stopped mid sentence and I still remember turning around to ask him what is wrong and i found him on one knee in front of me.
my first reaction was "no no no no"then he noticed that I didn't expect anything and started laughing and then he asked me if I would marry him and all I could say was "yes yes yes yes".
He had my friend hide in the bushes with my camera, playing paparazzi as he knew how important it was to me having a picture of this special moment. He packed a picnic basket with strawberries, snacks and champagne, and bought me roses and we had a picnic on the beach before we went for our pizza and wine. It was such a special moment, and if I could go back I would not change a thing!
One of my memorable moments of our wedding day, was walking down the aisle to my best friend, and seeing his emotions in his eyes as we are standing together, hand in hand in front of the altar.
Another highlight was, after our photo shoot, when we returned to the venue, seeing all our friends and family that came from afar to celebrate this special day with us.
We went on minimoon after the wedding for 2 days (as we had to go back to work again).
We went to Pearl Moon Boutique Suites, located on the lagoon in Wilderness, Garden Route.
Will go on honeymoon during our festive holiday for 5 days, to Uitsig Cottages, located in the Hoeko Valley between Ladismith and Calitzdorp.
My wedding look...mmm...challenging...
I would say all in all the whole look was fairy tale, attention to detail, bohemian, rustic, and very down to earth.
Dress:
The dress itself has a story. We didn't have a budget for a new wedding dress (was planning on wearing my mom's dress). My mom insisted that I go fit on dresses with her. When I went home for the holiday's (I stay in George and my mom in Cape Town) she took me to Bride and Co. Before we left the house that day, I said up a small prayer, asking God that if this wedding is meant to be, the dress will be there and at the right price.
Together with my mom's and sister's help they found a dress that just looked like me. I decided to fit on (and 20 other dresses, all different styles). I narrowed it down to my top 5, but I already knew which one I want. From the top 5 I narrowed it down to top 2, and then I asked for prices. My second choice was over 15k and the dress that I wanted (not due to the price) was 2k. My first thought was "there must be something wrong with it". I soon learned that the dress came into the store on Black Friday, from their Turkish branch, only one left and been marked down as it was a previous season, and they wanted to get rid of it. To me it was God send, and I knew that no matter what might happen, this wedding is meant to be. Bought the dress, not knowing when or where I will get married (aka the long sleeve dress - and I ended up getting married in December, but we had the perfect day with the perfect weather).
Hair & make-up:
I always wanted an up style loose hair do as my dress had a lot of detail on the shoulders. My hair was plaited from the one side, with a loose up do, and the same flowers as in my bouquet. Everything was picture perfect.
My initial make up was suppose to be a smokey dark brown look and nude lip. Well that changed on my wedding day, due to the flowers that changed in my hair. (the flowers were suppose to be Gyp, but I got pink Lisianthus and red berry inside). I trusted my make up artist and she changed the colour tone of my make up to this smokey mauve and blush look. Every worked so well together, and through-out all the things that might have presented itself as challenges, i was completely calm. Hair and Make up was done by Wilna Allpass, in the Garden Route.
Shoes:
I am shoe designer and shoe shopping is always such a big thing for me. I decided on wearing my mom's old pair of leather court shoes (with laser cut detail on it). This was my something old.
Lingerie:
My bra was my Bra & Things (as i needed a no back, no strap bra that would fit with my low back wedding dress) and my panti was from Edgars (nude, same colour as the bra).
Jewelry:
I only wanted earrings, and also looked around a lot before I found the perfect pair, mother of pearl earrings. Bought it at Kay's Antique shop, in Cavendish Square.
I am a qualified makeup artist based in George, Western Cape and I also do wedding hair styling for brides. I do location work in the the Garden Route area (Knysna, George...
We got married at Kleingeluk Wedding Venue and Chapel in Hartenbos, Garden Route.
70% of our guest traveled from far and had to find accommodation in and around the Garden Route. Most of the guest turned the wedding trip into a mini holiday to make the travel worth while.
I have a very stressful job, and when I stress I usually turn to chocolates, sweets and pasta.. However, I knew m dress could not be resized, or loosely fastened around my body (as it has a zip at the back), so I had to force myself to stay clear from the sweet stuff and carbs at least for the last 3 weeks before the wedding, and have cheat days once a week (maybe twice). It was challenging (and rescue remedy helped a lot) and it was definitely worth it as my dress fitted like a glove.
For fitness I tried to walk around as much as possible during my work days and not sit still in front of the PC the whole day. I also stayed hydrated by drinking plenty of water and eating lots of healthy food.
My nails I had done by the very talented nail artist/tech, Kayla Thirion in George.
My decor and flowers were all included in the venue price.
Decor:
I am very thankful that the talented wedding planners from Weddings by CW could make my wishes come true, turning my ideas into reality. It was a combination between wood, concrete and ceramics. Every element fitted together perfectly, from the candle holders to the seating chart display, creating this down to earth, vintage yet rustic look.
We had wooden tables with a grey table runner, wooden boxes overflowing with flowers, porcelain bunnies, concrete candle holders, thick white candles, origami folded butterflies, old vintage books with thick, big ribbons tied around it and lots and lots of fairy lights. The idea was to create this romantic feeling when you are sitting in the reception area, and romantic it was indeed.
Flowers:
I made sure the wedding planner knew my love for flowers before we even started to discuss the wedding theme :).
While I studied I worked on a flower farm for 4 years, expanding my knowledge of flowers and letting my love grow for the variety that's available. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell the planners what type of flowers I wanted, only the color scheme (as they had to see a week before the wedding what they can source at the flower mark in JHB). I trusted them completely, and they didn't disappoint. The flowers looked absolutely gorgeous! Shades of blush and burgundy and dirty green, combining carnations, chrysanthemums, berries, lisianthus, penny gum, limoneum, curly willow, roses and proteas and many more.
Groom:
A few days after our engagement, we walked around in Woolworths and he found the suite jacket (a blue/greyish colour). We didn't even have a date yet, but we bought the jacket. Almost a year later, (2 months before the wedding) we bought his shirt (white) and suite pants (a spesific navy blue that fits with the dark blue tone in the jacket) also from Woolies. His shoes were tan, brogue lace up's from Bronx . His bow tie was custom made from Bridal Inn, in George.
Groomsmen:
We got the 2 groomsmen the same pants and shirt from Woolworths and had custom made office ties also from Bridal Inn (the same material as the bow tie). Their shoes were their own.
Brooches:
We bought the wooden circles at a small shop in Mosselbay and attached the clips our self.
Socks:
My hubby wanted hipster socks, but that's not over the top. We searched every shop in George, looking for something that he liked. Bought the colorful stripe socks at Woolworths and gave it to the groomsmen as part of our gift to them together with a small Jagermeister, breakfast nut mix and droë wors sticks.
I knew the wedding colors will include burgundy and blush before we decided on the date. A burgundy dress is such a nice color to me, but when one puts it next to a white dress the burgundy pops more than the white, so I opted for something more subtle, complementing the white but making it stand out as well.
My sister asked me the one day if I decided on a color yet for the dresses (as she was one of my bridesmaids), I told her how I felt and she showed me this blush pink dress she bought for a university dance but never wore, and it was perfect. She bought the dress at YDE, and the we made a trip to YDE and tried to source another one. Because she bought the dress a few months back, it was very difficult to find the same one. After a lot of phoning around the cashier found me one at a different branch.
As a wedding gift we gave each bridesmaid a rose gold bracelet with a quote engraved on it, a small gin, strawberries and cream Lindor balls and a bridesmaid fridge magnet.
Our marriage officer was a friend of ours, Ferdi Boll, from Blanco NG Gemeente.
Our Photographer was Michelle from Michelle Photography, and her husband Jaco from JVS Productions was our videographer, and sjoh do they know their stuff...
To me and my husband, the photo's and the video is the only thing we keep from our wedding day, so we knew this would be our key factor where we would spend money on. I have a big love for photography and I searched very long to find someone who's style stood out to me. Michelle's pictures looked beautiful and the fact that she works with her husband was a big plus point for us. they are both very talented and kind hearted people. They work well together as a team, knowing each other's boundaries and where to give each other space.
Two months before the wedding we did an engagement shoot with Michelle, just to get comfortable in front of the camera and to get to know our photographer. (Definitely something I would suggest to other couples, because the wedding photo's are more spontaneous and one tends to be more comfortable in front of the camera).
We made our own photo booth with some props and the guest had a lot of fun fooling around.
So far we only received a preview collection, and it is stunning!! Worth the look: http://michellephotography.co.za/christopher-sonia-kleingeluk-hartenbos/
https://vimeo.com/304483228
Yes we did have a planner, Werner and Carel from Weddings by CW.
http://weddingsbycw.co.za/
One of our friends own a vintage BMW 1962, and offered the car for me to use. Paying for a old car for the wedding wasn't something important to me, but I am very happy that my friends could help us out and offered their car to us. He even drove me and my dad to the wedding.
The food was also done by the venue. Amazing food!!
The wedding cake was a gift from one of our guest. Delicious cake!! Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...mmmmm
We did it all our self. Having wedding planner, we decide that we also wanted to make a few things for the wedding and being a couple that gives attention to detail it was very fun and exciting to work together as a couple on our invites and thank you gifts.
The whole year of being engaged we worked on ideas and made our stationary.
The reception was magical! We did have dancing lessons (even though we were both nervous with the first dance, and felt like we messed up everything, it still looked very nice on the video). We danced a slow foxtrot to "Something I need"by Ben Haenow. First time dancing together with my wedding dress on...and sjhooo was it challenging haha
DJ, Sound and lighting was all included in the venue price, so they did it all.
I am a qualified makeup artist based in George, Western Cape and I also do wedding hair styling for brides. I do location work in the the Garden Route area (Knysna, George...
