We had been eagerly anticipating our day to say I do but most of all proclaiming our love infront of beloved family(some travelling from far) and close,dearest friends. We couldnt have imagined a more perfect day! It hard to pick a single favourite moment as everything that happened added to the whole memory. Though my husband's favourite moment is me singing to him. I sang the Blessing, I was impressed I didn't cry. Cant say that for the rest of the guests. He had no idea I was going to sing. Irony is he gave me the idea. Ryan and I stayed and celebrated the night away with our guest. The wedding was a great success, getting through the important part, I dos! The rest of the evening was full of love ,laughter and great tears if joy! Best part everyone felt apart, it was a warm and intimate wedding.
We had two honeymoons. As I'm an educator the date of our wedding was in school term, so I wasnt going to take weeks during school but instead in the school holidays . First mini honeymoon was after the wedding. We spent the 2 night in Franschoek at a quaint place called the Corner house. It was such a treat.The hostess was lovely, she spoiled us with bottle of MCC on arrival and great hospitality. Our offical honeymoon we visited The Kruger National park. Wow! What a holiday! We were lucky to see the Big 5 and on our night drive WILD DOG. First time for hubby, visiting the Kruger and seeing Wild dog
I have always been a dress according to your body not the fashion kinda lady. My dress was made by a experienced seamtress named Magda Grove. After many pinterest pictures I came up with a an idea of a dress I wanted. A classy looking dress. The dress was made of cream bridal chiffon, and cream satin underneath. I had a long veil instead of a trail. The lace had flower pattern with pretty white bling on. The lace was only for the bossom. My favourite part was my back. The lace at the back looked gorgeous! The dress was pleeted to make a flattering look. To make the dress unique I had a piece of bridal chiffron drapped at back. I still have my dress it to lovely to give away, plus I still try it on every now and then to check if still fits :)
My shoes were gold with strip if diamante over, I've had the pair for a well just never worn it.
My make up was done by old pupil named Mia Taylor. Wow she was just fantastic, I seldomly wear make up but her work makes one look flawless. I didn't look drenched in makeup. Which
I love. Her products lasted sun, tears and sweat. She highlighted my good features. She also did my mother and brides maids's makeup and man did they look great.
My hair, I've been keeping my hair long only for the wedding. I went to Blow salon in Stellenslbosch for my hair. I had a more rustic look for my hair. I love the braid, so I had a soft side braid and low bun to hold the veil. I had some lose piece of hair in the front which I had curled. I loved my hair and it complemented the rest of my look.
My jewelery I had no clue until 2 days before the wedding. My something old I inherited from my ouma, was a gold necklace with gold pendant. My earings were small hoops which had rose gold with silver/metalic grey sand blasting on. I wore my mom's gold sapphire ring as my something blue. I had 3 gold bracelets to complete the look.
Our venue, was a HIT!. We had the ceremony in the gardens at Vredenheim,Stellenbosch. It was picturesque! We had the metal gazebo decorated with greeny. We had white chairs and white carpet for the aisle. There was no need for more flowers as we were surrounded by flowers in bloom. The gazebo is situated next to a pond,with the Stellenbosch mountains in the background. For photos we never had to leave the venue as the gardens had so many different looks we could use. The photos make it seem like we were in a different place to our guest. The guest also enjoyed the gardens. They used their opportunities to take selfies in the gardens. Some of these selfies are now profile pictures :)
um, well cant say I had a bridal beauty regime leading up to the wedding. I did however make sure I didn't drink the night before. I tried getting some decent shut eye, but was extremely hard since I was so excited! i just couldn't sleep. I did spend the last evening with my family, playing games, having a good laugh. I dont get to seem them lots so that was a treat to have them stay at same place as me for the wedding. I had my hair lighted few days before the wedding to let the colour settle. That was at the hair salon, called Blow Hair in Stellenbosch. I had a mani and gelish nails, with a pedi but normal paint, this was at Sorbet in Waterstone. I've always been a healthy person, so leading up to the big day I was still playing hockey, hitting the gym, sticking to my low carb diet.
The decor of the venue was done mainly by the Hudson design team. My husband and I aren't very flashy people, we prefer elegant and class. All the tables had rose gold charger plates, round mirror in the centre, cream table cloth and sage napkins. We had two looks for the guests tables. The one look had a centerpiece made of a rose gold lantern with a rope handle,inside the lantern had with flowers (blush,cream roses) and greenery. Surrounding the lantern was small glass fish bowls with tea light candles. The second look had a centerpiece made of large glass fishbowl. In the fish bowl was a King Protea and some blush flowers and greenery. Surrounding the fish bowl was rose gold geometric votives which had tea light candles inside.
At the reception as the guest came up the stairs we had a square cream free standing mirror which we used for table seating. our memorial table had a white table cloth, we had bought our own stand and white photo frame with the pictures of our loved ones. we had printed a message on gold paper. The venue had their own lights for the room. they also did the floor plan so that we had a decent amount of floor space to dance.
The bridesmaid dresses were made by lovely lady named Nicole Hapgood-Strickland. She has own style of infinity dresses. the bridesmaid colour was very unique. depending on the light it looked like shade of blue ro could look like shade of green. the dresses were all made eto the bridesmaid body and extra support was put in the bosom. i wanted the ladies to be themselves,picking whatever style they were comfortable with. and I wanted them to have a dress they can wear again. the bridesmaid discussed among themselves which style of jewelry to wear and style of shoe. Only requirement was gold or rose gold. Their hair also was not phased, whatever would make them feel gorgeous. As a gift i gave each of them a bracelet each with own word (Love,Hope and Joy). They were gold, rose gold and silver.
We had done marriage course with our Minister from Christ Church, Somerset West. Brian Mcmillan officiated the wedding.
I was my own planner, the perks of study conference and event management :)
There was no emphasis on arrival, I just asked my dad id could use his car for me which was decorated by my baby brother and his girlfriend. the bridesmaids We accompanied by the baby brother in my car. Simple but effective.
Our wedding cake was made by a family friend,Bonita. It was delicious!!! My bridesmaids had one job during the photos, save us cake :)
We had a three tier cake. the base was chocolate cake with ganache, middle tier was red velvet with butter cream and top was chocolate with nutella icing. we had white fondant,rose gold flakes around the base of cakes. at top we had green,blues succulents made of fondant. at the top we also had a wooden sign with R and L and heart in between the letters. the top tier we have ready, for the next year celebration :)
We are the couple that tried to cut cost, we did our own stationary(diy style). I used templates from online to make our menus,table seatings and memorial table message. I'm blessed with a very talented cousin, Katy De clerq. Who helped make us free standing boxes with the verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We used pictures of the boxes to making round fridge magnets for our wedding favours. Each table had a unique verse, and each table had to play a game to see who gets to take the box home. Katy also made the silhoutte of Ryan and I for our finger print register. Our invites we used paperlesspost. The design was was a leafy heart which was used throughout the stationery. Lastly everyone knows Cape is experiencing water shortage as a thank you gift we gave each guest a 500ml bottle of water with personalised lable saying thank you!
