There were many memorable moments on our wedding day that it is incredibly difficult to choose only a few.
There were however some extraordinary moments:
- Preparing for our wedding celebration with close family members and dear friends during the days leading up to the wedding. Everyone helped in their respective ways which made the entire weekend more meaningful.
- Spending time with close family members the night before the wedding on the family property.
- Driving down to the ceremony with both my parents.
- Seeing my soon-to-be-husband's face while walking down the aisle.
- My grandfather passed away a few months prior, on the family property at the Vaal River where we got married.
My grandfather and I were very close and in his memory I had a brass plaque made with the bible verse read to him moments before he passed. The plaque was fixed on the arching tree under which we stood during the ceremony.
A few months before my oupa’s passing, Dane and I spoke of the wedding and where we would have the ceremony, and my grandfather jokingly said that the two leaning trees adjacent to the arch, were like my grandparents leaning and watching over with their “old hunched backs”. That was priceless.
- We wrote our own vows and we both ended with exactly the same sentence:
“I love you till the end of the line” - something we have said to each other since the first years of our relationship.
- I surprised my dad with the father-daughter dance by playing his favourite song: "Follow the Sun" by Xavier Rudd. We were both very emotional because I knew what the song meant to him.
We went on a mini-moon to our favourite place in the world - the Kruger National Park. We are planning to go on an overseas trip later this year to celebrate further...
I have always just wanted to look like a princess on my wedding day. The vision was to look elegant but not over-the-top. My wedding palette was white and gold which to me seemed timeless and sophisticated.
My wedding dress was from Eurobride Pretoria. I always wanted an off-the-shoulder dress with soft detail and a train that had many layers. I ended up with the perfect dress that was coincidently the dress imported for display only and I happened to be the same size as a mannequin:) The dress had no formal name so the employees decided to temporarily call it the “La Senorita Dalita” dress as I was the first person to wear it. It was definitely meant to be.
Hair and make-up was done by a dear friend, Jonice Laidlaw, with whom I had the privilege to do modeling shoots with. She captured my vision perfectly with a smokey eye and golden highlights.
I wore the same veil my sister wore at her wedding - this was incredibly special to me.
My jewellery, like most elements of the wedding, was meaningful to me.
My necklace was one of the first birthday presents my husband gave me during our relationship - it was my name in a handwritten font.
The only other ring I wore on my right hand was the gold wishbone ring my father gave to my mother when they started dating.
Our wedding venue was our family property on the Vaal River. Everything on the property was designed and built by my oupa, father and uncle.
The six family houses provided accommodation for both families (Dane’s and mine), and the original house of the original sheep farm was refurbished as a guesthouse where close friends and family stayed.
We got married almost next to the water under the willow trees and utilised the lapa for the bar and kitchen on the day.
The most memorable thing about the venue is the fact that it was my oupa’s legacy and Dane and I knew he was there with us in spirit.
As I work in the field of architecture, I live and breathe design. I had very specific visions for the overall look and feel of the wedding. I wanted everything to feel fresh, timeless and natural. And at the end of the day we really wanted everyone to enjoy themselves.
As it was an outside wedding we hired stretch tents from Tentworx, for the ceremony and reception. It was a perfect sunny day and the evening had a lovely slight breeze. The evening also truly felt magical with all the fairy lights by Tentworx.
All things Wedding provided us with an amazing combination rental with clear ghost chairs, glass underplates, gold cutlery and gold rimmed wine and champagne glasses.
Moi Decor provided us with all the gold candlesticks, motives and brass pots for the tables. The rest of the decor I prepared myself. My father designed the trestle plywood tables and the table runners were white cotton muslin cutouts, meant to be a soft natural touch as a backdrop for the decor pieces.
My mother used her artistic skills to transform plain Mr Price vases and bottles into pieces with gold touches for the white flowers, candles and fairy lights to be placed in.
Our flowers were done by the groom’s mother’s aunt, Aunty Barbara and prepared with the help of her husband, Vernon, my mother-in-law Roselee and Aunty Barbara’s son Michael and daughter-in-law Debbie. The flowers were various types of white flowers with my bouquet done with roses and orchids.
My husband and I built the steel and plywood structure behind our table, with a white vinyl sticker saying: “Till the end of the line”. This was intended to be a backdrop for our table but also a magical backdrop with white draping and fairly lights for the speeches and dancing.
The food was provided by Dine by Design and coordinated by Tentworx.
The groom and best man had tailored suits made by Wedding and Suit International.
The groom wore a navy suit with an off-white waistcoat and tie. The navy was also aimed at regal sophistication for the groom.
The best man wore a dark grey suit with an off-white tie.
My Maid of honour wore a gold and black motif dress from Forever New. It was something she chose herself so that she could wear it again.
Our marriage officer was Leanie Lemmer, a very dear friend of mine. We have known each other for 10 years now which made it even more special.
We spent time with her in the months leading up to the wedding and she captured our hearts and dreams perfectly in her message on the day.
One Fine Day was both our photographer and videographer.
Lucinda and Karel are a lovely married couple with such kind hearts and intentions. When we initially met with them we connected immediately and they captured all the moments on our special day in the same way they beamed positivity and happiness.
I myself did most of the planning together with my parents, and our on-the-day coordinator was Tentworx.
Dine by Design provided our food - a partner company of Tentworx.
Dainty Delights made our wedding cake. The bottom layer of cake was double chocolate, the top layer was lemon poppyseed which complimented each other perfectly. The cake was covered with white cream cheese icing and the cake topping was the Monogram I designed with our initials used in the rest of our stationery.
My husband LOVES doughnuts, so we had doughnuts with white icing made to eat with the wedding cake.
I put a lot of time and effort into our stationery. I really wanted to capture our journey together and how we felt about each other.
We had the privilege to do an engagement shoot with One Fine Day as part of our package and we had so much fun.
And so I used a lot of the photos from our engagement shoot in our ceremony booklet, Menu’s and physical invitations.
Our wedding invitations was a website Dane and I both created together.
We had a DJ who provided sound and lighting during the reception, however the highlight in terms of music was Bruno dos Santos who played guitar and sang during Canapé’s and while we were taking photos.
Dane and I both love Josh Groban and our first dance was a very special song called “When you say you love me”. We didn’t practice as we wanted to stay natural and just enjoy the moment.
