Definitely the moment I walked down the aisle, it was like time was standing still! I walked in with a cover of “shallow” played by Jared’s cousins with saxophone and a guitar, just thinking about it give me goosebumps!
The second biggest moment was when my dad and my brother in law popped up dressed with some of the items of the traditional costume of my hometown to pour the cider (a traditional drink that side) so we could toast right after the ceremony. They bring both costumes and the cider (sidra in Spanish) on their luggage.
Other important moments where the speeches given during the ceremony by my sister and brother in law as well as Jared’s older brother.
Right after dinner my sister and brother in law played the video they had made with clips from my family members that make the trip to South Africa for the wedding with messages congratulating us.
Finally my family had custom-made miniatures of my dogs, “Godo” and “Duna” and they include them in the wedding cake as surprise so they “could be part” of our day too.
I have always been in love with Cape Town so right after the wedding we spent 5 days around the Cape doing all those things you have in your bucket list but you never get a chance of doing when you are down there.
Right after that, we took a plane to beautiful Pemba and after a 45 minutes flight we arrived at Anantara Medjumbe where we spent 10 amazing days.
I was looking for a natural look that will give all the attention to the dress but especially that would make me feel like myself on our wedding day.
Hair and makeup was a bit challenging, since in RSA bride’s make up is much more colorful than in Spain. I got in contact with Wilna Allpass and after a couple of trials working hard, we were able to get to the look I was looking for: natural makeup and a loose braid. On top of the braid I was wearing a hair piece custom made by Tocados le Touquet that included among other things apple tree flowers since the apple tree it’s very common in my hometown.
I had the dress custom-made by a designed in my hometown. His name is Nicolas Costura and I can only define his dresses as a moving piece of art. I went to his atelier in Gijon and we worked together in the design. Once that was sorted, and giving that the dress had to travel in a carry-on bag all the way to George, he selected the fabrics that will take the trip without much damage. The result was stunning and he packed it so nicely that once taken out of the bag it did not even need ironing! I finally used my sister’s veil as my something borrowed.
The shoes were custom-made by the wonderful team of Salo Madrid. They are a small shoe shop in Madrid where you can design your own shoes selecting different shapes, colors and fabrics. I had decided the shoes were going to be my “something blue” and based on that we chose the shape that I liked the most, the heels….. The result was so beautiful that Nicolas, my wedding dress designer, fell in love with them and decided to incorporate some buttons to the dress, same color as my shoes, that where one of the biggest hits!
Since I was looking for a simple look the only jewelry, I was wearing where white gold and diamond earrings that were my parents and sister’s wedding present as well as my beloved engagement ring.
I am a qualified makeup artist based in George, Western Cape and I also do wedding hair styling for brides. I do location work in the the Garden Route area (Knysna, George...
We got married at Brenton on Sea. It was early 2014 the first time I visited that area and I fell in love with the bay and the beach. If anyone had told me at that stage I was going to get married there I would had never believed it, the venue was still under construction at that stage!
The ceremony took place on top of a cliff overlooking the sea and with the beach in the background.
Right after that guest moved to Brenton Haven Beachfront Resort where we hosted the dinner and danced until the early hours of the morning.
The resort had plenty of rooms and the whole Brenton on Sea has plenty of accommodation available of all price ranges, you only need to make sure your guests book in advance.
Most of our guests stayed at Brenton On Sea Cottages. It was within walking distance to the venue and they were extremely helpful and accommodating to our guests needs. Since most of our guests spent the whole weekend there, on Friday night we organized a pre-wedding braai where we cooked delicious boerewors rolls. It was a huge success! We were a wedding with a mix of guests from Europe and South Africa, and it work out great on breaking the ice
All the rentals for the ceremony and the deco for the venue were done by Plates and Things Event Hire, a local company who did an outstanding job!
I gave them a few ideas of the style that I was looking for, beach style since we were by the sea and with a touch of rustic greenery. Not only the absorbed all my ideas but they improved them, add new ones and we able to find solutions for all the challenges we found on the way (specially the chances of having a windy day).
Jared was dressed with a Hugo Boss suit. He was wearing the Hugo Boss watch that I gave him as engagement present and a pair of socks that were a present from my parents bought on a trip to Iceland.
We decides to mix Spanish traditions with South Africans one and since we do not traditionally have bridesmaids and groomsmen in Spain, we decided to stick to that side of the tradition.
Jared’s aunty Juliet, who did a magnificent job, performed the ceremony. We wanted to have someone close, who knew us, and where were we coming from. We both agreed about it in advance and we were very happy with the decision taken, as it was a huge success.
Since she is not a registered marriage officer, we counted on Gavin Brown that did all the formal paperwork and assisted us with the process with immigration and home affairs.
Finding Ruan Redelinghuys was such a relief! Since none of us lives in the Garden Route, we did tons of research online to find the service providers for the wedding and Ruan was one of the best discoveries we made. During the ceremony and the couple shoot he was assisted by Steve Delboux and they both made a wonderful job. It was not uncomfortable at all to have him around during the “bridal party” so we could behave as it was only us and the pictures talk by themselves. Stunning work and very natural.
We did not have a photo booth but we set a signature book with an instant camera and some items for the guests to take funny pictures to take home and to stick in the album as a memory for us. The result was amazing!
The food was made by Brenton Haven and it was all delicious. We worked very close with them on designing the menu to incorporate some Spanish treats so the locals could get a taste of the Spanish gastronomy and kept some very traditional South African recipes. It was hard in the beginning, at the end of the day they were cooking completely new dishes and we were trying to combine two very different styles of food but the result was great.
We agreed different menus for the people with special dietary requirements and everything worked great.
Brenton Haven also made the wedding cake. They made a white three-layer cake following the instructions given from my side. All the deco for the cake traveled from Europe and the fondant shells were made in Italy by a pastry shop called Alexandra’s Candy Lab. The deco of the cake was put in place by my father and sister just a couple of hours before the wedding.
We designed the stationery for the wedding with a Spanish company called La Tienda de Olivia. We were looking for a stationery that combined the sea/beach theme with the travel one, since guest were from all around the world and Jared and had lived in several countries over the years. They exceeded our expectations and we made all the stationery in both English and Spanish following the same design.
The tables were names after some of the most relevant countries we had visited together over the years and this allowed us to make a very original seating plan with a world map.
We printed invites, fans for the ceremony, seating plan, table numbers and nametags for the main table.
As I already mentioned before, Jared’s cousins performed music during the ceremony with a guitar and saxophone.
For the music after the ceremony, we hired DJ Mickey D who played some chill out music during the drinks before the reception and much more after dinner. They bring they own equipment and lights.
We send them some guidelines for the music but they did a great job combining Spanish, Afrikaans and English music to keep all the guest happy and on the dance floor until the early hours.
I am a qualified makeup artist based in George, Western Cape and I also do wedding hair styling for brides. I do location work in the the Garden Route area (Knysna, George...
