Walking down the aisle with my dad towards the one person I want to spend my life with, that moment will always be etched in my mind. Our wedding was a very emotional day. We both had been praying for so long for God to send us that one person He knows would be a perfect fit.
Having Gerrie's dad marry us on this perfect day, with perfect weather and at the most perfect venue was definitely something we could not even dream of.
What will always stand out is how everyone just jumped in and helped to bring our vision to life, from soon to be in laws helping to setup the venue, my mom doing all the flower arrangements and having my sister and closest friends by my side throughout the day.
A very special moment I will always remember was our opening dance. There was so much emotion in that one moment. Being married to my best friend after all we had to overcome to get to this day.
Everything was just perfect!
Gerrie's sister blessed us with a week at Kagga Kamma in Ceres Karoo. What an experience. Quad biking, spa days and rock art filled our careless days! We were upgraded to the honeymoon suite and was treated like royalty!
I always knew that everything about my wedding look would be more bohemian, fairy like, almost like something from a fable.
Pinterest was of course a great place of inspiration and I loved this one picture of these perfect forest green platform shoes. The only problem was this was an American site, where would I get this in RSA. Superbalist to the rescue! I found almost the exact shoes online and at a bargain price! We both decided to wear more casual shoes for the reception and I bought these cute avo and cream coloured Mary Jane leather shoes from Fênzy.
Next up the all elusive wedding dress. I had some ideas in mind but could not find that one perfect dress. Going for a more Bohemian look I knew I was not going to find my dress in any retail store. Luckily one of my dear friends is an excellent dress maker and I asked in her help. After I sent her several ideas she sent me a picture she came across online and I just knew this was it! Lien made my dream dress to fit me perfectly!
After all the boxes above were ticked it was time for hair and make-up. Rietha and Wil-Marie have been my go to hairdressers for close to 10 years. I showed Wil-Marie a picture of this bohemian braid effect and she outdone herself. Rietha did my make-up and was not scared to go outside her box to give me the look I knew would match the rest of my look for the day. I picked up a love for crocheting and the hairpins for both myself and my bridesmaids are handmade by yours truly.
I wanted to bring in some elements into my wedding look that would remind me of my grandparents and decided on my grandma's cameo broach to be incorporated in my hand bouquet as well as a diamond necklace I got from my Grandpa on my 21st birthday. Now I needed some earrings to match this unique piece of jewelry. I phoned my friend Vera from Veers jewelry design and she created the perfect earrings to not only match my necklace but also pick up the colour of my shoes.
Everything came together perfectly in the end!
The most beautiful venue anyone can imagine!!!
I came across De Uijleness online and immediately fell in love with the log cabin at their Nightjar venue. With my love for wood, water and lights this would be perfect.
After taking my soon to be husband to see the venue it did not take much convincing.
I got in contact with Staci and our date was set!
There is enough space for our guests to stay at the venue and this just brought it all together for our idea of the perfect weekend wedding.
Having a braai with our guests on Friday evening, the big celebration on Saturday and a hearty breakfast on Sunday morning. All at this idyllic venue.
With two equally unique and different wedding venues on the farm to choose from and surrounded by glorious countryside, you will be blown away.
From day 1 I decided that the wedding added enough stress, and I sticked to my daily routine.
I kept to drinking a lot of water throughout the day while sticking to my daily skin routine of a good hypoallergenic face wash as well as eye cream and SPF day moisturiser in the mornings and Bio Oil at night.
René from Nails by René gave me the full hand and nail treatment for this special day.
After deciding on the log cabin we knew that we would be sticking to a more bohemian, fable theme for our decor.
We bought A LOT of candles from the candle factory in Brackenfell as we wanted a lot of dancing light at our wedding. We also found the most gorgeous geometric candle holders in store and knew this would work with the rest of the decor we had in mind.
We knew we also wanted to bring in elements of my love of photography as well as pay homeage to Gerrie's grandpa. Janine from Liqerish laser-cutting and printing designed the most perfect vintage camera center pieces for our tables as well as the coolest letter box in the shape of a 1970's VW Kombi that was made from pictures of the Kombi Gerrie inherited from his grandpa. Gerrie decided to add an element of fun by choosing table names that are written they way you should pronounce it (seeing as we had a lot of guests from the Northern parts of the country). Janine designed these amazing table names that would hang from the ceiling. She also created our coasters that would be given as wedding favours.
Sticking to our wood, water and lights theme we decided to only add some greenery in the form of penny gum leaves to our tables. I always knew that tulips would feature at my wedding. The Flower scene in Hermanus supplied us with the greenery and tulips and my mom created my hand bouquet. After seeing the ceremony area she spoiled us with some more wild flower arrangements that just brought the venue to perfection!
We were privileged to have garden furniture at the venue which just gave this homey feel to the overall look and feel we were going for.
Christien and Nel from Husband and Wife team sorted out the rest of the details we had in mind. Lawn games, fairy lights and the best support any bride can have in the planning process. Nel was an absolute champ coordinating everything on the day!
From day one Gerrie kept repeating suspenders and page boy caps.
We missioned into Woolworths one Saturday morning and found Gerrie's suit at their Trenery department. Gerrie freaked out over a pair of brown leather shoes that he found in the same department and we just knew this would be his shoes for the reception. Gerrie had the privilege to wear his name sake grandpa's formal shoes to the ceremony.
We found the page boy caps in chocolate brown at Woolies the same day as well as navy bow ties for his groomsmen, forest green ties for him, his dad and my dad as well as brown suspenders at this little mens wear shop in Tygervalley.
Gerrie's groomsmen wore the same colour pants as Gerrie as well as a crisp white shirt.
I had such a laugh when walking down the aisle to see all his groomsmen having their caps on backwards, it definitely broke the tension.
All the groomsmen accessories were gifted together with personalised beer that had every groomsman's name on the label, packaged in the NetFlorist boxes we bought the beer in.
I had this idea to get dresses for my bridesmaids in forest green but this turned out to be a mission.
We searched online stores for weeks until I came across these beautiful short navy dresses with 3/4 lace sleeves. I showed it to my Super C's (all three's names starts with C) and they loved it. The decision was made, and now navy would be featured in our wedding colours.
They choose the most stunning nude high heel boots to perfect their look. We were lucky to find everything in their sizes on Spree.
Wil-Marie and Rietha perfected their looks with hair and make-up.
I wanted to spoil these dear ladies to honour each one's role in my life. Janine printed personalised bags for each one, and after adding a touch of crochet to the gowns I bought them, I gifted them with the gown, crocheted hair pins as well as personalised bracelets for each lady that Vera designed with their name as focus point.
What a great privilege to have Gerrie's dad officiate our marriage.
He gave the most beautiful sermon and tied everything together with a ribbon as symbol of the unity that comes to be once two people say I do.
My love for photography can be seen on my Facebook timeline as there are so many wonderful providers out there that can capture a moment in time in such a way that it lasts you a lifetime.
Following so many photographers I usually scroll through the photos without a thought as to who the photographers are.
This was not the case with this special couple. Every single time their photos scrolled over my screen I went back for a second and third look and I just knew we must have AndStory as our photographers no matter what.
What made this so much more special is the fact that Gerrie and Reinhardt became friends when they were only 7 years old.
Melanie and Reinhardt captured each and every detail of our special day in such a way that we feel we are back in that moment every time we look at our photos.
I will forever be thankful that we had Melanie and Reinhardt as our photographers! Our photos are out of this world and I just can't stop looking through every one again and again.
Mornay and his wife are the dedicated chefs at De Uijleness and it was such a pleasure to work with these two wonderful people. Nothing was too much to ask.
I think we changed our menu probably 3 or 4 times and not once did they complain. After meeting at De Uijleness we decided to go off the traditional track and creating a deconstructed street food vibe where guests could choose what they liked and build their own boeries, pitas, bunny chows etc. The deconstructed theme appealed to both those with food allergies and those wanting a more traditional experience.
Our guests could not get enough and to this day everyone still talks about the amazing food they got to enjoy.
Everything was exactly what we imagined and the flavours were delicious!
With two equally unique and different wedding venues on the farm to choose from and surrounded by glorious countryside, you will be blown away.
Everything about our wedding planning shouts "not your traditional" wedding.
Why would it be any different with our invites.
Leandra Mouton took our engagement photos and we used this to design our own Whatsapp Save the Date. We also used these stunning photos to create our own unique wedding invitation website (using Wix) that included everything you would want to know.
All design work was done by my wonderfully talented sister Carla Nel.
How perfect can a reception be?!
John from Capricorn music was our DJ and he read the crowd perfectly.
We walked into the venue on Pharell's "Happy" and opened the dance floor with two songs that are very special in meaning to us both. We started off with "Incomplete" by James Bay, this would indeed be the first time dancing together on this song but it was perfect, the beat picking up in the song to ease into another favourite "Shut-up and dance with me" by Walk the Moon. Our wedding party joined in and the dance floor was officially opened.
Our dear friend Success did an excellent job of being our MC and she kept the party going. Everyone joined in as we put our twist on the garter and bouquet "toss" by playing two games with our single guests.
The dance floor was never empty, there was laughter in the air, fires crackling in the fireplace and at the outside bonfire.
We would not change anything! Our perfect day was just that.. PERFECT!!!
With two equally unique and different wedding venues on the farm to choose from and surrounded by glorious countryside, you will be blown away.
