To say that I need to share the highlights & memorable moments feels impossible as the day was far better than I could've ever imagined, but I'll give it a try...
I am Elize and my husband is Mornè. We met in December 2014, started dating September 2015, got engaged on the 28th of September 2018 and got married on the 26th of October 2019. We planned our wedding for 1 year and 5 months to get it exactly the way we wanted it.
My husbad isn't the kind of guy who just accepts everything the bride to be wants to do on the wedding, no he wanted to be a part of the planning from day one as he felt that the wedding was just as much his wedding as it was mine and at the end all of our ideas just worked perfectly together.
Now first to give you the basic introduction to us... I, Elize, am a huge music fan, I've been playing piano since I was Gr1 and Mornè, well he is a Batman "freak", you can accomplish anything with the smallest Batman related thing you give to him and because he likes Batman, in general he prefers DC superheroes to Marvel... Now this mashup was difficult when it came to planning the wedding as I've always said that I wanted music notes on my wedding and when I pitched the idea to him, he agreed under one condition, there needed to be Batman on the wedding... I was conflicted and needed a week to think about his condition and plan everything in my head to see how we will make this mashup work without having our wedding looking like a kids party. At the end I planned and combined everything in my head and I went to him with a condition of my own... I agreed that we could have Batman on the wedding, but nothing could be in colour, everything Batman related needed to be in neutral colours like wood, brown, black etc. and he accepted my condition as well, so the planning began...
We traveled in search of everything exactly the way we wanted it, because not all of the decor hire companies had the things we wanted... I wanted square flower vases and not cylinder ones, we wanted candles in our wedding colours (Military green) and not in white, I wanted a wedding dress with sheet music printed on the fabric and not just random music notes, I wanted All Star sneakers as wedding shoes for myself and my bridesmaids and not sandals... All of these ideas was the cause of planning the wedding for so long.
We didn't just travel and buy and rent everything for the wedding, no we had to make a lot of the decor ourselves. We wanted mirror boxes, but none of the decor hire companies could provide us with enough boxes, so we made our own ones. We wanted Military chair back ties, but no decor hire company had military green colours available, so we bought the fabric and my mother made the chair back ties and table runners herself. We didn't like the pulpit the venue had built in, so my father built us our own pulpit for the ceremony. We don't like fresh flowers and I've always wanted paper flowers that was made from sheet music on my wedding, so we folded each and every flower used on the wedding ourselves, well we had help from family and friends, but everything was hand made and took a few months to finish, but once the flowers were finished, we also put the arrangements together by ourselves and one of our dear friends.
The planning took a lot of our time, but in the end it was so much more satisfying to see everything come together than if we had someone do everything for us, we could see all our hard work and long hours just working perfectly together and looking amazing.
Now to sum up the wedding day...
While getting ready for me the most memorable moments were the following:
- Seeing my bridesmaids transforming from slippers and custom made superhero gowns to All Stars, make-up and beautiful yet practical and comfortable dresses, they looked so beautiful
- Putting my final dress on for the first time and seeing the love and joy in my mother's eyes when she finished helping me, the tears of joy she had from that moment on just melted my heart
- The moment my father came to see me for the first time, he laughed and cried at the same time, I still can't explain that, but it was a very emotional moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life
- The first look photo we wanted taken (I didn't see my husband's suit before the wedding), we were bot blind folded and took a first look photo together, that was an amazing moment that I would have done any other way
- The moment my brother, who was also my husband's Best Man, came to me after the first look photo while I still had my blindfold on. He took me in his arms, whispered to me that I looked so beautiful and that he loves me unconditionally and then gave me a kiss on the forehead, my brother has been my hero since forever and having that moment caught on camera an in my heart is something I will never be able to fully explain to anyone
- The moment my flower girl, my niece, had her crochet dress and All Stars on an came walking to me for a photo, she is the apple of my eye and she looked so cute in her little outfit, I couldn't help the tears from forming in my eyes for the love I have for that little girl
The ceremony highlights:
- The moment the music started playing and my bridesmaid walked in, they looked beautiful and I knew at that moment that, that was it, the moment I've been waiting for my whole life
- The moment my father started walking me down the aisle, the tears and laughter he once again had at the same time, the way he held me tightly than ever before, I love that man so much, no amount of words will ever be able to describe it
- The moment I walked down the aisle and saw my husband in his suit for the very first time, looking at me with tears in his eyes. He looked handsome and I couldn't believe that I was the lucky lady who got to become his wife that day
- The moment I saw the minister take out his handkerchief to wipe away the tears rolling from his cheeks (we've been friends with him and his family since I was Gr5, his daughter was also one of my bridesmaids and I was like a child in their house)
- The moment my father threw over my veil and looked at me with love, the tight hug and kiss he gave me, the hug and kiss he gave my husband and the whisper "take care of her" in his ear
- The moment the minister asked the I do's and the ring bearer coming down the isle with the wedding bands and his little sign around his neck that said: "Don't worry ladies, I am still single"
- The moment the minister said you may kiss the bride, the love and happiness I felt in that kiss, indescribable
- The moment we walked out of the chapel, the way the smoke grenades just worked perfectly as confetti and the beautiful photos it would create for our wedding memories
The family shoot and couple shoot highlights:
- The family photos with our aunts, uncles and cousins
- The family photos with our grandparents
- The most memorable photo taken with my niece that we will forever cherish
- The way the videographer and photographer just worked so well together
- At the couple shoot where we laughed and had fun with our bridesmaids and groomsmen
- The memorable and funny photos taken like the photo of my husband and his groomsmen with their superhero underwear, the moment my bridesmaids picked up my husband for a photo, the moment the groomsmen "freaked out" over my husband's wedding ring, the moment the groomsmen smelled the bouquets with me, the moment the groomsmen showed some leg with me etc.
- The couple shoot just had so much fun and laughter, to describe every detail will be almost impossible.
The reception highlights:
- The moment we walked into the reception hall and everyone looking at us and the master of ceremony welcoming us as Mr and Mrs du Plessis, that moment was amazing, knowing that I am officially Mrs du Plessis, I married the man of my dreams
- When we walked into the reception hall and I saw everything coming together for the first time, the paper flowers with the small Batman logos in the centre of the flowers, the square vases filled with the water and fabric and placed on the mirror boxes, just all the decor coming together and all the guests talking amazed about all of the detail
- The speeches, oh my word the speeches had me in tears... My brother made a speech on our parents, the way he described the love they showed us throughout the years, it had us all in tears and I couldn't have said it any better. The speech my Maid of honor made on my husband (they've been friends since Gr1), the detail she put in her speech and the tears my husband had in his eyes. The speech one of my bridesmaids made on me, the stutter she had in her voice because of the tears that was forming while she gave her speech and every little detail she knew about me and remembered when she made her speech, oh my I was amazed. The speech one of my bridesmaid made on us, the married couple, she was there from the very start when we started dating, she was there with every big moment and anyone else might've given a great speech, but there was no one better to give the speech about us than her, she had us both in tears.
- The songs sang to us... My husband's cousin sang us a Shinia Twain song, From this moment and it was beautiful and one of the groomsmen played piano and sang us a Safety suit song, Never stop, both songs was just amazing and filled with so much emotion
- Our first dance, we had to get dance lessons for the dance as the song we chose (Demi Lee Moore - Vulkaan) had a very difficult beat to follow and we sort of struggled with the dance during the dance lessons, but that night we did the dance perfectly, we had each step correct at the perfect time, we didn't make any mistake and we just enjoyed the entire moment and guests were talking about the beautiful first dance we had
- The father-daughter dance... This has always been a very special moment to me on weddings, but I wanted to do it differently, so instead of choosing the song for the dance, I asked my father to choose the song for the dance and I wanted to hear it for the first time when we danced it at the reception. But my father had a little surprise in store for me, he had the DJ play a prayer from a father to his daughter before we had the dance and during the prayer he held me tight and kept telling me he loves me, then the dance started and it wasn't a song I would've even thought about choosing, but the words meant so much and we had a beautiful and loving dance
- The brother-sister dance. As I've said before, my brother has been my hero since forever and because of the bond we have I wanted not only a father-daughter dance, but also a brother-sister dance and I wanted it done the same way, my brother had to choose the song and I heard it for the first time when we danced at the reception. But my brother also had a surprise for me... He compiled a slideshow of photographs from when we were kids up until now that he had showing while we were dancing and seeing all of that moments during the special moment we had that night just made it so much more special
There is so much more I can tell you about the planning and the actual wedding, but 20 pages will be too little to capture everything on paper. The wedding was amazing and I can't explain the joy and love I felt in that one day and how we managed to plan a wedding that in the end exceeded out expectations I can't explain, but it did, it was so much more and so much better than either of us imagined and we still talk about the details and the happenings of the day as it still amazes us.
At the end the wedding was a perfect representation of my husband and me, from the beginning to the end, everywhere you looked you could see US in the wedding, the music notes and Batman mashup worked perfectly and there was no better way to call the wedding 100% Mornè and Elize than combining those two things together.
I will never be able to convince anyone that we had the perfect and most beautiful wedding ever as each couple thinks their wedding was perfect and the most beautiful one and that is the way it's supposed to be. But I can say the following... This wedding was 100% Mornè and Elize from the beginning to the end, we planned the wedding exactly the way we wanted it and we didn't miss or remove anything if we weren't able to get it, no we made a plan to make it ourselves if we weren't able to find it anywhere else. Our wedding was wonderful, amazing, breathtaking and so much more and I wouldn't have done anything any other way.
Regards
Yes, we went to Thailand for our honeymoon.
We stayed in Karon, Phi Phi Islands and Krabi where we saw and did everything our hearts desired. We visited the Big Budha, the Chinese and Thai Temple, we went Elephant tracking, we petted tigers, we went snorkeling, we went kayaking and so much more. But the thing we did the most was eating... We ate street food, we ate at restaurants, we ate sandwiches from 7eleven and we had the most amazing breakfast buffets at our hotels.
The honeymoon was amazing and so beautiful
My wedding dress:
- I bought the initial and basic wedding dress from Bride & Co in Brooklyn, I loved the top that had the folded material
- I wanted sheet music printed on my wedding dress, so I ordered printed fabric from Beyond Innovation Printing in Pinetown as I couldn't get ready to use fabric with music notes printed on
- The final making of the dress from the original dress to the dress with the sheet music was done by one of my mothers' friends who is a designer
Wedding shoes:
- I wear All Stars almost every day of my life, All Stars, jeans and a t-shirt and I am happy. So when it came to wedding shoes, I immediately said that I wanted to wear white All Stars with Batman logos printed on them as my wedding shoes.
- I bought the "tekkies" from Soviet
- The printing was done by Arty Dezigns in Pta North
Gowns:
- The gowns was custom printed and made by one of our friends, Donovan Grobler, who has a business in Waverley in Pretoria, USG
Makeup:
- My makeup was done by Biance from BB's Beauty in Pta West
Hair:
- Hair was done by Tarien Slabbert from Cutting Corner in Lichtenburg
Jewelery:
- My earings was my mothers' wedding earings that was dipped in rose gold by a place in Lichtenburg, Egloi
- My bangle and necklace was bought at Lovisa
- My wedding ring was designed and made by Liezl Kearny from Lichtenburg
We got married at Camelotte Wedding Venue
Guests stayed the night at multiple location in the Brits/Hartbeespoort area around the venue, a few of us stayed at the venue in limited rooms they have available
Nails:
- My nails was done by Lerisha from Nifty Nails in Pretoria
Tan Can:
- Tanning was done at Urban Birdie studio in Pretoria
Flowers:
- Flowers was hand made from sheet music by ourselves and the help of family and friends
Table runners & Chair back ties:
- We bought the fabric from Home Hyper city in Pretoria and my mother made the runners etc. herself
Underplates (thank you gifts):
- Nellwood Frames
Pulpit:
- Hand made by my father
Mirror Boxes:
- We made it ourselves
Square Flower Vases:
- CS Events
Cake:
- EM Cake Crafts (our own home based business)
Groom:
- Suit: Solomons Pta West
- Shirt: Mr Price
- Shoes: Shoe City
- Watch: Cosmic Comics
- Batman T-Shirt: USG
- Batman Underwear: USG
- Batman Socks: Pick 'n Pay Clothing
- Belt: Truworths
Groomsmen:
- Shirt: Mr Price
- Pants: Markhams
- Waistcoat: Markhams
- Shoes: Mr Price
- DC Superhero Socks: Pick 'n Pay Clothing
- DC Superhero T-Shirts: USG
- DC Superhero underwear: USG
- Watch: Markhams
Dress:
- We bought the fabric from Home Hyper City in Pta West
- The friend from my mother who made my final wedding dress also made the bridesmaid dresses
Jewelry:
- Lovisa
Shoes:
- "Tekkies": PEP
- Superhero printing: Arty Dezigns
My parents' minister from the Dutch Reformed Church in Lichtenburg
Photography:
- 2b3 Fotografie: Reint Dykema
Videography:
- Cinastage Studios: Zandre Rossouw
Intimate and emotionally powerful; visually striking and over-the-top cinematic; intentional yet natural.
We planned our own wedding
No transport used
Catering:
- Camelotte Wedding Venue
Cake:
- EM Cake Crafts (our own home based business)
No stationary used, we used The Knot where I designed and planned everything myself
Dance Lessons:
- Olive Tree Studio
DJ:
- Izak Smit
Intimate and emotionally powerful; visually striking and over-the-top cinematic; intentional yet natural.
