Shoo... I don't really know where to start, I feel like the whole day was memorable for me, I am even smiling right now while typing because it was such a special day! But if I had to choose specific moments, my Top 6 would be as follows: 1.When I woke up the morning of my wedding day- I woke up next to my cousin Lee Anne (she's from Cape Town -my Favorite place), I was smiling and the first thing she said to me was are you ready and I replied I cant wait :)! 2. When I was getting ready and they were doing the video and the photos of me, there was a moment my mom had to put on my shoes and it really was so touching because she told me that the first thing that came to her mind while doing this was her putting on my shoes when I was a little girl and now she was putting on my wedding shoes.. 3. Another special moment for me was when we did the father/daughter reveal (actually brings tears to my eyes right now) we both held back tears (horribly failing at it too) but laughing at the same time! 4. Definitely walking down the isle with my dad towards my husband, we both (my husband and I) had tears in our eyes and the moment my dad gave me to Alvaro was special, the two men shook hands and my dad even winked at Alvaro, I even have a picture (so cute)! 5. To have everyone special to my husband and I be there on the biggest day of our lives and to celebrate that happy moment with us. 6. There were 1000 mistakes on our wedding day and yet it did not bother my husband and I, I loved the fact that we made the day about us (Truly about us) not worry about the small things!! Cutting the cake, our first dance, everything- it was like it was just the 2 of us in a hall with 200 people! When you experience this then you know this marriage was meant for us :) !!! Like I said I have 100 special memories of the day but then I guess I'd be here forever LOL!!
YES :) we went on Honeymoon ! My husband and I had the most amazing Honeymoon we could have asked for! We went to Mozambique Massinga Beach Lodge( I suggest you look it up) for 7nights -straight after our wedding! We were treated like Royalty! Let me start off by saying the staff, management and the owners of the lodge really made our stay out of this world! It started the moment we landed, we were greeted by our friendly driver at the airport, we climb in the car and we had ice cold drinks served to us. When we arrived at the lodge we were greeted by the owner, manager and a little rolled up cooling towel to wipe our faces! It didn't stop there- we walked into reception and we were offered a fancy cocktail in a coconut! Our bags were taken to our room while we were served with a light meal. When we arrived at our room, it was like heaven! The bed was -IM SURE- super triple King sized (you could fit 4 adults comfortably in that bed LOL)! We had a front view of the ocean with our own private splash pool the bed the bathroom and the toilet all had the same view (can I just say WOW)! If you want private and free(nudge nudge) go to this place!! THE FOOD-OMW... the most delicious food ever, we ate 3 times a day and there was nothing left on the plate at the end (crab, dorado, tiger prawns, soups, fruits, chicken ,meat...oooo and don't forget the fun RR drink (we had lots of fun with those) ..the list is endless!! Just a quick mention of all the goodies that they provided us with for being honeymooners- we had private dinners, fancy wine out in our room, the bed turned down for us every single night, dinner served to us the last night of our stay in our room, picnic in a cave on the beach(what an experience), snorkeling @ fingers, fishing @fingers were a 10kg King Fish was caught, riding bicycles on the beach, the list is really endless. They even cater for you on the days that it was raining. The Weather was also amazing regardless of the rainy days. We always had something to do!! We loved it so much we are going to make it an annual trip for our Wedding Anniversary :)
Wedding Look: At first I had no idea what I wanted to look like, no saved photos of looks or dresses, I was really up for anything that came my way. But then I started trying out a few look and found that I wanted a Spanish/Latino vibe. I am a Huge fan of Jennifer Lopez (JLO/Jenny from the block) my husband even calls me JLO from when we first met 5 years ago- you get my drift LOL. That's why I went for the tight bun, and tight fitting wedding dress.
Hair: My hair was done by a lady named Tanya from Pretoria- she has been doing my hair for as long as I can remember. We went with the Bun look from the beginning, the reason for this is because my dress was open back and had such beautiful detail that it needed to be seen :P.
Make-up: I let my amazing Make-up artist Dyllan Morris do his thing. As a person that does not wear make up often and does not know much about make up, he was able to do what he wanted with me. Can I just say that it looked amazing :)
Wedding Dress: Shoo this was my Favorite... I will be that person that would wear her dress in her house just because I feel like it! 947 PLEASE have another wedding dress challenge or someone so have a proper excuse to wear my dress again!! I got my dress from Euro Bride and we had it chopped and changed from what it originally looked like. I loved it the moment I put it on. It was so comfortable and elegant and everything that I wanted in a dress! With the long train and a long veil(seamless plain veil), I felt amazing and beautiful in this dress!! No Regrets
Shoes: Shoes where actually easy for me. I went for more comfort than look. In actual fact why it was so easy was because my mom and two aunties went and found the shoes for me :) !
Lingerie: I had a Lingerie party and I used one of the many beautiful items that I received from my lovely family and friends as my wedding lingerie :).
Jewellery: Lovisa is my best friend! Affordable and still looks soooo good :) ! I just rocked big earrings and a bracelet, plain and simple. My dress really had it all, I didn't need much elsewhere.
Being Catholic we had our Ceremony at Lynnwood Catholic Church. It was really beautiful, we had the church decorated in white, and don't forget that white carpet that just topped off the decoration. Walking down the isle was the most memorable moment for me. Growing up it was the church we as a family always went to. I had my Holy Communion and my Confirmation at Lynwood Church and then I was lucky enough to get married there too. :)
The reception was held at Diep in die Berg. Funny enough I also had my 21st in the smaller hall there- which is now their awesome restaurant. Chantelle and Nombuso from Diep in die Berg made my day so special, they were on the ball all the time. My guest were so satisfied and had a blast ! The venue had such stunning spots for us to take our photos.(I LOOOVE MY PHOTOS).
This venue does not have accommodation available, but this was not an issue for us as all the family and friends stayed near by in any case and my Husband and I had a place to stay for the night that was around the corner called Villa Amor :).
Villa Amor was also a really cute place to stay at, private and they have beautiful gardens to walk around in.
Being a plain Jane in the Beauty side of things, I had lots of help from my one Maid of Honour Cassidy* Glam Green Girl*.
she suggested a few things I do to make my hair grow and keep my face pimple free. She always gives me such amazing 100% Natural and Animal Cruelty free products to try out- as I have a super sensitive skin that gets red and breaks out if anyone looks at it ...LOL... ok not that extreme but you get my drift.
Teeth-
I used charcoal a few times a week to brush my teeth leading up to the wedding-it makes a huge difference.
With Health and Fitness-
*I drank a lot of water (at least 2l of water a day),
*I took vitamins everyday, this is thanks to my husband as he is a strong believer in vitamins which helped me in the end (THANKS BABY)- Centrum Multivitamin and B12+ Folic Acid
*with eating I made sure I had my veggies, protein, fruit and my good fats (avo and peanut butter)- I'm not one for diets- I really don't believe in them (personal opinion). I ate what I wanted just in small portions and I tried my best to avoid junk food(MCDS and STEERS) .
* NOW ON TO FITNESS- ladies if you have not hear of Functional Personal Training by Mandy get hold of her now ! she is on Facebook and Instagram(0761827694). BEST training I have ever done. I have lost 6kg with her. Never have I weighed less than 60 since the age of 15years old but now at the age of 24 and because of her training I managed to weigh less than 60kg and it was just in time for Our wedding . I still train with her to this day and so does my family.
Getting married was the best thing I did for myself. :)
Spa Treatments-
My husband and I did a weekend at the Ingaadi Spa, we got treated like royalty there, it was the best thing we could have done for ourselves. It gave us time to be a couple again and forget about the wedding stress and to just be us again. It was nice to not think of wedding planning for those 2 days at all. I recommend you do this before your wedding with your significant other just to get your sanity back and remember why you going through the stress.
The way I would describe my décor : Elegant and Soft. The wedding colours were White, Blush and Rose Gold with a glass element - white being the main colour . I had flowers for my center pieces Roses, Orchids with candles and fairy lights. the table cloths and the napkins were white , were my underplates were rose gold just to break the white, we had every guests names made in rose gold Perspex and our thank you gifts were white pens with our monogram on them and the traditional 3 white and pink sweet covered almonds attached to the pen (its a Portuguese thing) - AND DONT FORGET TIFFANY CHAIRS !! Those were my absolute FAV!!
By the Main Table- there was a Rose gold Sequence table cloth with glass under plates, more candles(obvious LOL) and rectangle bouquets on the edge of the table. with a sign that said MR AND MRS PEDROSO. My husband and I sat on white King and Queen Chairs (very comfy I might add, totally recommend for the ladies getting married :) ).
There were blue lights around the venue lighting up the pillars, which gave the venue a fairy tale ambiance .
Most of the décor was done by our good friend Maria Balanco :) ! Thank you 100 times over!!
My HOTTIE Groom wore a royal blue suit , that he chose all by himself(very proud :) hehehe) and a white shirt with no tie. He also wore Brown shoes with a brown belt and a brown and black watch(which I bought as his wedding gift :) ).
Oh and let me not forget the funny fish socks and groom underpants !!
His Groomsmen wore light grey suits with white shirts, brown shoes and also no ties. The suits were rented from Euro suit in Parkview, my husband suit was bought.
As you can see my husband hates ties LoL, I wonder what gave that away *wink*...
I originally wanted my bridesmaids to wear the Sequenced rose gold dresses, but obviously when you want something it only becomes available after your wedding is done(uggghhh CAN YOU SAY FRUSTRATED).
Anyway moving along- in the end I chose blush dresses for my ladies (which they all looked elegant in). I chose the colour and I had my ladies choose their own dress style, so that they all felt comfortable and beautiful :). they also chose their own shoes and jewelry - I just requested the colours to be rose gold :).
With regards to hair, i just wanted a soft curl, they all have such beautiful hair (no jokes) that I thought it would suit the outfits xx
I was super lucky to have the bridesmaids that I had, they all are so special to me and I love all my beautiful ladies!! xx
We found a lady that imported dresses and she altered them for my ladies as well :). lots of fun
The Priest that married Alvaro and I is super fantastic. His name is Father Bogdan from Lynnwood Catholic Church! He is polish and has such a cool accent, it makes our wedding ceremony all that more fun to watch. He guided us through the Whole process and was always willing to help. I could not have asked for a better priest to have married us :).
Thank you Father x
I have the most amazing video from Mighty Fine Productions and I will have it for the rest of my life ! I cant express how amazing it is to have something like this to look back on . The day goes by so quickly that everything becomes such a blur, but when you have such amazing videographers there on your special day you can relive that moment for the rest of your life !!! I cry every single time I watch it because it brought those special moments to life (the moment I saw my dad and the moment I saw my husband cry) Watch the trailer of my wedding day below:
(https://www.facebook.com/mightyfineproductions/videos/1404595892973315/) "Nadia and Alvaro"
My photos were just as amazing as our video.Our photographer Nadia (yes the same name as me lol) from NB Photography. She caught all the special moments and every moment of our wedding and she captured how in love my husband and I are. Her work is beautiful. She also did our engagement shoot and she makes it so fun and easy to work with her.
I was always told if you don't have anything nice to say, then say nothing at all. And that is where I leave it.
My family and friends were my best planners in the end :) especially my mother! Love you mom xxx
We were going to use my dads car. BUT my dad went and surprised uS by getting a MX6 BMW in white to drive us around for the day, and the best part was the driver was a friend of ours from BMW Menlyn. WAS SUPER COOL. I am a car fanatic like my father so you can imagine my face when I saw the car pull up in the drive way to take me for church !!! Whoop Whoop !!!
We also organized a Chrysler Limo for my bridal party, they had a JOL in it- champagne , music and party lights !!
The venue's Chef made the food @ Diep in die Berg.
Can I just say wow, We had nothing but compliments about the food and how great it was. From the starters all the way to desert. VERY TASTY.
You know a wedding was a success when people compliment you on your music and food ! BOOOOM:)
My wedding cake was made by Jess and Jada. It was very tasty and I had 4 amazing flavors': Caramel, carrot, Red velvet and chocolate mouse. MMMM also a big hit amongst the guests!!
My website and monogram was designed by the lovely Chels from My Big Event- she was a real star and I am so glad that I found her on Facebook. She really captures that idea in your head and makes it come to life !
My church programme was made by Amelia from La Luna Invitations she also made my idea come to life.
My Church programme was also a fan- very clever when you sitting in a hot church on a summers day !!
The Reception was lots of Fun. We had a Dj from Up A Tone Events his name was Daan.
He really did a great job in keeping the party alive to the early hours of the morning! He organized more lighting for the venue and he organized a fog machine for our first dance.
The song I had playing for our bridal party and the bride and groom to walk in to the venue was : Lady Zamar - Collide (you can just imagine the dancing and smiles on everyone's faces )
We had a 30min dance lesson from a really great family friend Ricky (which was also our awesome MC). He should us a few move that we could do for our dance and it really turned our great. My husband and I had so much fun and it felt like it was just the 2 of us at that moment on the dance floor!!
Our Wedding song was: Take My Breath Away by Berlin (From the movie Top Gun-my husbands fav movie of all time)*so yes this actually means he chose our wedding song* (which I loved).
