Highlights and memorable moments of our day: Louis delivered a fantastic speech. He had nothing written down and is not known by our friends and family as much of a talker, but he seemed to have a bit of an adrenaline rush going. Two of my long-time friends who were dubbed 'friends of honour' protected him from water-gun fire. It is a silly Afrikaans tradition that friends of the groom distract him while he makes his speech. Louis did not want this at all but a handful of guys still came prepared. My friends of honour jumped up with their gift blankets and formed a protective wall.
I wanted to wear 'vellies' to the reception after having worn wedges to the ceremony. We drove out ahead of our guests from the church to the reception location. We stopped at the turn off from the tar road and waved at our guests as they passed by. This was the closest that the photographer would get to a 'couple shoot'. When we were about to leave after all the guests had passed, I remembered that I wanted to change my shoes and Louis said to me; 'it's ok, pass them here.' He then put my shoes on for me. We have some blurry cellphone pictures which my parents and the wedding car driver took, but I loved this moment for the fact that it was pure, unplanned, uninterrupted and depicts Louis' special love for me. I feel so blessed.
Where we went on honeymoon: We are both School teachers so we waited for a couple of weeks to go on the honeymoon Louis had booked for us. He used his savings to get us tickets to Mauritius. It was his first time overseas and our first time traveling together. We had a fantastic time taking in the local culture on our tight budget. Right after the wedding we took a little trip up the West Coast that I had arranged and booked for us. We laughed so much, Our first night on what I called our Minimoon was spent at an eco-friendly camp with long-drops :D
My wedding look, hair, make-up, wedding dress, shoes, lingerie, jewellery, accessories: By far the most important part of my whole look was the stunning veil with colourful flowers which my mom embroidered by hand for three months. My hair and make-up was done by my bridesmaids. My nails had been treated for months by the lovely Euritha from Sorbet Tygervalley. I have very thin nails, so I just had plain transparent gel done. I wore red wedges to the wedding ceremony and changed to leather 'vellies' with frilly white socks for the reception. I had a lovely clean white dutchess satin wedding dress with a low-v neck and pockets. I wore my mom's pearl earrings and my best friend baught simple white frilly undies for me because she forgot hers on her wedding day, so I had baught hers for her.
We were married in the Hopefield church and held the ceremony on a farmstead called Bootwater just outside of town which belongs to family of Louis'. Our wedding was over a long weekend so many guests stayed in Hopefield or Langebaan, some camped in the area. My bridesmaids and I got ready at Couvaloup and Louis and the guys stayed in the hotel.
My bridal regime, health, fitness, spa treatments: Honestly, I did as little as possible. Louis has always felt strongly about me looking like the person that he knows every day. I tried to work out a little but when winter came nearer I grew less and less dedicated to getting up earlier than school hours. My hair was very long and I dislike dying it. I kept extra costs down and I simply focused on my nail treatments at Sorbet Tygervalley.
Zahn Rust of Bulb flowers Cape Town, a dear friend of mine made my floral dreams come true. The one aspect that I wanted not to be budget with was flowers. I wanted florals and cour as much as possible. She did our bouquets, table flowers and church arrangements. We used To-nette's candle holders and little puter vases. I also baught some old vintage medicine bottles from a second hand store in Ceres which added to the look. Marilou arranged for tent and seating outside. I hired ghost chairs and rustic tables from Baie Goeters as well as a photobooth from Retro Photobooth. Louis made gifts for the men, bullet keyrings, and I had blankets branded with our logo for thw ladies. This was done by a corporate gifting company. Each had a cute tag. Them men's gifts read: 'manne, die koël is deur die kerk.' The ladies' read: 'to have and to hold in case you get cold.'
Goeters specialises in the utmost imaginative creations of beautiful décor and lights for weddings and events.
‘Live your dream wedding with To-Nett’s’ For more than 30 years our inspiration has been our clients!
Louis initially said that he was going to buy a suit somewhere, no biggy... we just had to find his size. He is nearly 2m tall. 1 week before the wedding, after we had found a dashing suit at Eurosuit Louis called me to say that he was going to have a suit made. I nearly flipped. All he said was: 'Jana, you can get angry at me and we can fight or we can sort this out.' I decided to laugh off the initial frustration and take him back to Eurosuit to return his suit but asked him to try it on one more time. Turned out he just was not used to wearing a suit and thaught that it was too small for him. He was so handsome in is dark navy three-piece. His groomsmen were comfy in chinos with a white shirt and suspenders. Louis also gave each of them different brightly coloured rugby socks.
I had three stunning bridesmaids who wore pink floral bodice dresses made by my cousin, Lara Blevi; three friends of honour who wore blue infinity dresses that I baught for them and three of Louis cousins wore green wrap dresses that I got for them from Spree.
Our marriage officer was my family's childhood 'dominie', oom Cronje du Plessis from Ceres.
Louis and I are not very comfortable in front of a camera. We decided to ask friends and family to bring their phones and cameras and hoped that some of them would capture nice moments. One of my 'friends of honour', Dominique made an immense amount of effort and took some lovely pictures. Louis had a conversation at a sport day with a parent from the school where he teaches and she was so upset that we were not getting a photographer that she contacted other parents from his class. They got funds together to gift us with the services of a photographer that she knows. Brynn Gale would have had a tough time with all of my requests but she did a marvelous job, I can't wait to see her pictures. I asked her not to walk around at all during the ceremony and did not give her a couple shoot time with Louis and I. We wanted to be with our guests all day. We did not want to make moments for the camera. Moments had to happen, and she and Dominique could capture those.
I did all the planning myself. My mother and Anneke, owner of the reception venue made it all come together on the day. I am forever indebted to them. My mother-in-law, aunts, cousins, bridesmaids and friends of honour helped on the day too.
My father in-law arranged the wedding car for us. We were the first couple to make use of this specific car which is rented out and was driven by the owner, a Hopefield local lady. The stunning vintage blue rambler complimented my blue theme initiated by the blue forget-me-nots on my stationary.
I tried to include friends and family as much as I could. My mother-in-law was in charge of the wedding cake. We chose to have his favourites, lamingtons, and my favourites, palmiers. The lamingtons were made by a local lady from Hopefield and we baught the Palmiers from Limno's. The catering was done by a family member of my mother, Marilou Marais of Avec Mari.
I did all of my own stationary. It is a passion of mine and once again, keeping expenses as low as possible. My father wrote our wedding invite just like my grandfather wrote my parents' invite. https://louis-en-jana-trou.weebly.com/ I included forget-me-not flowers in my stationary designs as a symbolic gesture for guests to remember how important they are as witnesses and supporters of a relationship for the years that follow.
I put together a very specific playlist myself which included songs requested by guests. I asked my cousin and one of the groomsmen to be the DJ's, but they suggested rather getting a DJ who could be at the computer the whole time. Andrew, my maid of honour's boyfriend set up the speakers of his event company as a gift and arranged a DJ from Langebaan about 2 days before the wedding. I later realised that he was a rather young kkd wearing a flat cap and branded t-shirt. He did'nt paly our walk-in
Goeters specialises in the utmost imaginative creations of beautiful décor and lights for weddings and events.
‘Live your dream wedding with To-Nett’s’ For more than 30 years our inspiration has been our clients!
