The bedekken was beautiful and the part of the whole day I was looking forward to the most. I found our ceremony incredibly meaningful. Our Rabbi kept us calm and had a beautiful message. There was "ruach" - wind or breath - a great energy. Wind isn't always a bad thing on a wedding day. Our flowers and decor were stunning - I could not have imagined it better. Thanks to Charm and Perfection.
We had a big beautiful Jewish wedding which means we had a big beautiful hora! I must say, I was terrified to get flung on a sheet and picked up on a chair but at least I can say I have done it and barely lived to tell the tale. We had Shtick Around supply props filled with eco friendly confetti. Natan and Scott were our hora leaders - absolute pros!
Our speeches were short and sweet, very moving. We had fantastic food, Annalize Catering is super highly recommended. This was the first wedding I have ever been to where the wedding cake (Lionheart) and all the desserts were absolutely demolished. Not a drop left.
Neil and I only practiced our first dance for an hour the night before and I do not think it showed - we looked like pros!
I just loved being with all my family and friends. We all boogied till the very last song. The Wedding DJs - specifically DJ West just nailed the brief. All ages on the dance floor even in the wind. Truly special.
Our coordinator Charmaine from Charm and Perfection needs to be mentioned. She made everything run on time, we knew exactly what was next, she kept us calm. She is just wonderful as a human being, calmly sorting out any issues that we had right from the start.
Thailand! We left 12 March, quite soon after our wedding for our dream honeymoon in Thailand. We started in Koh Samui, one of my favourite places. Had fantastic service from all our hotels there, also had three days in Koh Tau. We have done snorkel trips, massages, beers and fruit on the beaches and just exploring the towns. We came to Khao Lak which is 2 hours from Phuket. Such a different vibe, more jungle and on the main land. The resort has the largest pool I have ever seen and a beautiful beach right there too. We went for a full day tour of the Khao Sok lake and hiked through the jungle. We saw elephants, monkeys, insects and of course bats in a cave we stopped at. Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.
Unfortunately, due to sudden policy changes from the Department of Transport, we are still stranded in Thailand. We were due to leave on 26 March to head back to Cape Town and were told while bags were going through check in, that we can no longer board the flight. So it is a weird one, especially with no idea when we will be able to get home. At least we are together :)
We went with a "modern romance" theme. My dress was satin with a full skirt, mesh inserts on front and sides with a bow at the back from the romance part. My dress was by Robyn Roberts. Marnel Toerien made me look super hot with a smokey eye and kept the hair neat and sophisticated. My shoes were by Steve Madden - bling rose gold but with a short block heel. I changed into Aldo flat Form sandals for the hora. I was meant to change back to the heels for the first dance but ran out of time. Ot worked out pretty well though. Lingerie is not a huge priority for me - I got pretty blush pink panties from Woolworths to match our colour theme. My garter got lost so my bridesmaid managed to get a hot pink bride to be garter that actually worked out well. My favourite part was a pair of earrings I got in Israel on our trip in October last year by the brand Gas Bijoux. They were gold discs hanging down with small crystals in them. Very unique looking. I had my nails done at Urban Beauty Lounge - my regular spot. I had white and nude ombre with gold sparkles on my ring finger.
Being a part of your celebration in some small way makes my work so much more rewarding.
We got married at Belair Pavilion in Paarl. Such a beautiful venue. Belair has beautiful grounds - lots of spots to take photos (Kusjka du Plessis) and video (Salt Video Productions). We had a choice of what area we wanted to use for the ceremony and our needs were accommodated. We booked all the accommodation on site for family and Diamant next door had a few rooms booked by more family and friends. All are beautiful rooms at Belair plus we had breakfast included at Fairview next door.
I am a bit busy to do lots of treatments, I just did a facial a few weeks before (Ruth Burlka in Gardens, I was an existing customer) and grew my nails so kept up gelish treatments for about 8 months to ensure good nails - I was a nail biter haha :) I also tried a spray tan for the first time, for my bacherlorette (which was the best night ever) and then did it for the wedding too. We go to gym anyway so just tried to keep that up.
For nails and spray tan - I go to my usual spot at Urban Beauty Lounge.
I did have my eyebrows microbladed last year June/July at Brow Haus. Nicole is highly recommended!
All our decor, flowers and furniture was done by Charm and Perfection. Charmaine and Roxanne did a fabulous job at making everything spot on according to the brief. Far exceeded our expectations. Our colour scheme was blush pink with peacock/emerald green and a touch of ochre. Gold was our metal. We had a chuppah covered with flowers in the new ceremony area amongst the trees.
Carl at SS Flooring provided our checkerboard dance floor. It looked gorgeous!
Neil wore a beautiful peacock green skinny suit from Edgars. His dress shirt was from Zara and brown leather shoes from Aldo. No neck tie, kept it simple. He had Pringle of Scotland socks on. And a fab mustache :)
All groomsmen got their own navy suits, some of the guys already had a navy suit so it was easy. We did a no tie situation - just a white shirt. Brown shoes if possible.
My brother walked me down the aisle, I asked him to wear a blue or navy suit with a pattern to let him be a bit more special. We got a suit for him from Woolworths and had it tailored. It was blue with a large check style pattern.
My sister was my matron of honour and lives in PE so we got her dress made with L Designs. It was emerald green with a plunging neckline covered with mesh. She also had a slit on the side. My sister is a mommy so we kept it sophisticated but also a bit sexy with the neckline. The back part matched the front.
For my bridesmaids, we got the fab Meg Taljaard to design and make the dresses. Two different fabrics but in a similar blush pink family. Casey wore a darker pink satin dress. It was a wrap dress. And Roxanne wore a lighter pink assymetrical dress. It has a nice flow.
Rabbi Greg Alexander. Made the day so wonderful. We also had appointments beforehand with him.
We had Kusjka du Plessis as our photographer. We had an engagement shoot with her a few months before the wedding. I love the mood her photos bring. She is a sweet heart and did a great job. You can tell that Kusjka knows her stuff and loves what she does. We have our preview so far and we are blown away.
Instagram @kusjkaduplessis
Videographers were Salt Video Productions. Karina and Niel did video and drone footage. Such a fab husband and wife team, we really had fun all together. We got a preview on Instagram and we just keep watching it over and over - it is just produced so well and really relies the vibe we were going for.
Instgram @saltvideo
Link to preview: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ZFAH_JEFA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Charmaine! Charm and Perfection. Highly recommended. Zero stress with Charmaine, she is cool, calm and collected.
None.
Oliver at Annalize Catering. Endless options for food. Our menu was incredible. Oliver is such a talent and all his chefs really brought their A - Game. The presentation of the canapes was well thought out. The canapes were so varied and melt in your mouth delish, we got a couple in our honeymoon suite during yichud. Every guest has said it was the best food at a wedding - or best food ever even. There was something for everyone. Vegetarian, vegans, meat eaters, banting stuff - everyone was happy. We did family style buffet where all the food was on our tables. Works out so well that way. The desserts were also completely devoured.
Lionheart did our cake. We had two different flavours, two tier.
Layers of anthurium pink and off-white with emerald green accents and dramatic gold.
Raspberry & pistachio marble cake with dark chocolate hazelnut ganache filling and toasted coconut Swiss meringue buttercream.
Dark chocolate mud cake with salted caramel filling and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.
They handcraft all their menus and pride themselves on finding the perfect solution for each specific event.
I designed the stationery and Sharyn Seidel made it print ready. CityPrint in Sea Point printed it out. Was very happy with the result.
No dance lessons. We dance quite often together, especially with all the weddings we have been to recently #pros. We learned our dance the night before, spent 1 hour doing it in Neil's mom's lounge.
We got Hora leaders Scott Roberts and Natan Sklair to give our hora extra energy. They really brought or hora to the next level.
DJ West from The Wedding DJs did a great job with sound for the ceremony, speeches and dinner and then for the hectic party we had afterwards. Our brief was to mix some new songs with a ton of nostalgic music from our youths and everyone went wild until cut off at 1 am.
Being a part of your celebration in some small way makes my work so much more rewarding.
They handcraft all their menus and pride themselves on finding the perfect solution for each specific event.
