Our wedding day was beautiful; filled with love and warmth which thawed out the cold misty weather; characteristic of the beautiful Natal Midlands.
There are three moments that stand out in my memory which I would say were my favorite.
The first was the moment the chapel doors opened, and I saw my fiancé for the first time in his wedding attire; looking so handsome, full of love and deep emotion. He smiled at me the entire walk down and welcomed me excitedly to the end of the aisle. I absolutely loved our wedding ceremony. Every moment of it was perfect.
The second highlight were the reception speeches, each one of them full of love, beautiful memories and exciting wishes for the future. Each so unique and personal, I had happy tears and goosebumps throughout them all.
Finally, our first dance. We had selected our first dance song more than a year before our special day, and had listened to it many times before this moment; it was etched into our memories. Stuart (my Groom) had decided we should have a choreographed first dance, as he was concerned his lack of dancing experience might leave him uncertain of what to do on the day. We went to six dancing lessons with the talented Alyssa from Five6Seven8 Dance Studio, and learnt an entire choreographed dance. Neither of us had any dancing experience, yet the talented Alyssa moulded us into dancers and choreographed the most beautiful contemporary and waltz mix dance to a condensed version of our wedding song; "I get to love you" by Ruelle; in just 6 lessons.
Our honeymoon was booked for 12 October 2020 to the Maldives. With the restrictions on international travel due to COVID-19, our flights were canceled and we decided to do a local trip.
Being South Africans, we were embarrassed to say we had never visited Kruger National Park. We found an incredible special on at Nyati Safari Lodge, which is generally targeted at international guests (specifically Danish tourists). With the unfortunate decrease in tourism to South Africa, we were able to visit this most incredible lodge as it now fell within our budget.
Nyati Safari Lodge exceeded all expectations. The food was absolutely beautiful; diverse and always cooked to perfection and served at the right temperature. The cocktails and wines were tasty and always served with a welcoming smile. The wildlife was incredible; with us managing to see bufallo, hippo, crocodile, lion, wild cat, hyenna, genet, giraffe, zebra, elephant, serval, legavane, tortoise, and hundreds of wild birds. Above everything though was the absolutely outstanding, out-of-this-world service we received. Specifically from our personal tour guide, Brandon Pyke.
This was by far the best vacation we have ever taken. We are planning to reschedule our Maldives holiday for our 1 year wedding anniversary on 10.10.2021!
I went for simple yet elegant and loved every part of my wedding attire.
HAIR
Tenacity Hair and Beauty
I had a beautiful up style. Ryan made my hair look thicker than I thought it ever could, with a beautiful curl based high bun. I absolutely adored my hair! I used a hair piece which I had worn as a bridesmaid to my cousin Chloe's wedding in Australia on 04.01.2020.
MAKE-UP
Tenacity Hair and Beauty
Natural brown tones; smokey-eye effect
WEDDING DRESS
Bridal Wardrobe
Enzoani Juri - mermaid styled, low back, lace bodice in crepe and lace fabric
SHOES
I have two pairs! Rose gold, diamante heels from Aldo for the ceremony, and beautiful white wedges from Forever New for the reception. I still wear both! I love them.
LINGERIE
Bras n Things; Woolworths
Woolworths provided the perfect seamless underwear for the day, and Bras n Things gave me a sexy red number for after the wedding!
JEWELERY
Lovisa; Bridal Wardrobe
I wore rose gold chandelier earrings from Lovisa and a rose gold elegant bracelet from Bridal Wardrobe.
ACCESSORIES:
Bridal Wardrobe
My beautiful lace garter matched my dress perfectly and my fluffy white bolero kept me warmer during the photoshoots!
Bridal Wardrobe is the leading stockist of all Enzoani Collections in South Africa and caters for the modern bride who wants to be at the forefront of the latest designer trends.
We got married at the most beautiful, elegant, and professional, Providence Country Estate! This wedding venue is just streets above the rest. It is a one stop shop. We got our decor, flowers, catering, wedding cake, alcohol, beverages, accessories (such as umbrellas, blankets, and lawn games) plus accommodation for 54 guests, all through Providence.
Providence Country Estate is run by a family of four. Bonnie Fletcher was my direct contact person in preparing for our special day, and her warmth and true desire to help us have the wedding of our dreams within our budget was second to none. Her helpfulness, ability to find good pricing, and advice on how to best use our budget made our wedding affordable AND perfect! Bonnie organised all the decor, flowers, accommodation, and general admin that a bride is more than likely to forget in the final weeks before her wedding.
Fern is a Cordon Bleu chef and you could taste it! She cooked and baked everything we needed for our special day, including snacks the day before, snacks the morning of, breakfasts for each night stayed (3), our incredible Canapes, mains and desert, AND our gorgeous wedding carrot cake! On top of that both Fern and Bonnie's gentleness and kindness made the entire wedding weekend feel calm, well taken care of, and flow perfectly. Fern's attention to detail, specifically with regards to the bride on the day, just made everything feel so under control, and easy. Rory helped us source alcohol and drinks, and we were able to get two incredible kegs of beer, plenty gin and tonic, and a whole lot of bottled drinks.
Everything ran so seamlessly throughout our entire wedding weekend. I could not be more thankful to this incredible family and team that made our dreams come true!
I got my nails done by Mikayla Bristo from MB Nail Studio in Durban. She did the best French ombre I have ever had. I absolutely loved my nails! I got my toe nails done by Sam from Strawberries & Cream in the Midlands - all us girls did some pampering the day before the wedding. I did an eyebrow wax at Tenacity Hair and Beauty by Georgia (my first eyebrow wax ever!), and a wax at Sorbet Pavilion in Durban. I also did teeth whitening through my dentist in Johannesburg.
Wildflower Floral Art together with Bonnie Fletcher and the rest of the Providence team brought to life the ideas I had in my head, and captured everything I wanted in our wedding decor. We went for a pale peach, rose gold and greenery look. The feel was minimalistic yet classic. Lots of fairy lights made our wedding feel like a fairytale!
My handsome Groom wore a beige coloured suit (Edgars), with a white shirt (Woolworths), a tan belt (Woolworths), tan shoes (Aldo - the last pair in South Africa which we got couriered from our friend in Cape Town, Mark Venski) and a tan leather bowtie (Eden and Co. Quality Leather Goods). The groomsmen wore exactly what the Groom wore, minus the suit jacket.
I found the look I wanted on Pinterest before Stuart and I were even engaged. I loved the peach look with greenery, and having the bridesmaids in a pale peach chiffon dress. I had dress ideas pinned for ages. I could never find a back image of the dress I loved the most on Pinterest, so I decided to design the back myself - I wanted low backs to match my dress. The incredibly talented Marizelle from Umhloti took my ideas and custom made each dress for my four beautiful bridesmaids. They came out even better than I could have imagined.
Our marriage officer, Paul Rowney from Grace Family Church was just incredible. He eased our nerves, captured our personalities and our relationship, personalised our spiritual message, and set an atmosphere that I could not have faulted. Thank you to this incredible Pastor. You are amazing.
We also attended a virtual (enabled by the SA lockdown) pre-marital course run by the Grace Family Church in Durban, and learnt so many incredible and beautiful lessons in making a solid, workable, love- and respect-filled marriage. Thank you to Grace Family Church for this course.
Roxanne Davison was our photographer for the day. The first time I saw her photos I was mesmerised and totally in love. Her images had a lightness, and a peach hue that I just adored, and many of her photographed weddings seemed to be of a similar theme to what we had decided on. It was a no brainer - we booked her immediately!
I am obsessed with our wedding pictures and am busy designing a photo wall to put some of them up in our home. Not only was Roxanne extremely talented and professional, but her organisation, planning and coordinating skills throughout the day were outstanding. She helped coordinate the guests and bridal party incredibly well so that photo taking was never too time consuming or tedious, and that no body got bored, or was left out. I highly recommend Roxanne Davison for any wedding or event should you wish to capture just the perfect moments, in just the perfect way.
A friend of Stuart's, Ross Walker, who is a professional videographer, gifted us with our wedding videography as a wedding gift! He is so talented and helped us create a video save the date which everybody absolutely loved! He unfortunately was in a motorbike accident just before our wedding and thus could not video himself. However, a colleague of his, Jared willingly video recorded our wedding day instead, and did an absolutely breath taking job of it! On top of his incredible talent, he got our cinematic video out to us just 2 weeks after our wedding! We are so grateful for this beautiful gift!
I designed our wedding stationary and got them printed and cut at Minuteman Press in Johannesburg.
Our reception was so much fun! Our dance lessons for our first dance with Five6Seven8 really paid off, and we had the time of our lives! We had the most incredible and talented musician play live worship during our ceremony, play live music during the canapes time AND be the DJ (providing sound and lighting) for our reception. We stumbled across this incredible musician at the Zwartkops Raceway in Johannesburg. We were immediately certain that he would be the musician at our wedding! We spoke to him directly and he offered to DJ as well as play live music. He was just amazing!
Bridal Wardrobe is the leading stockist of all Enzoani Collections in South Africa and caters for the modern bride who wants to be at the forefront of the latest designer trends.
As you start the final phases of the preparation of your wedding day, wedding dance lessons come to mind. At Five6seven8 our focus is Your Wedding Dance, from bridal party...
