One of the highlights was definitely that my husband and I lead the entire ceremony ourselves. We spoke from the heart and had everyone in tears, it was so special.
Not one person that gave a speech on the day had a phone or paper in their hand, we all spoke from the heart.
The most memorable moment for me is that Justen played my isle song on acoustic guitar (which I never knew he was going to do as he kept it as a surprise.) The song he played is extremely special to both of us and one that nobody else in the world knows.
Another highlight of the day was having our two furkids there to share it with us, our family and closest friends. We had a very intimate forest wedding.
Our venue had never done a wedding from start to finish in the forest, but everything was perfect! Even the weather played along as it was raining the previous day, but our wedding day weather was sunny and so beautiful.
I found out 4 days before our wedding that my dream dress would not arrive in time. Leaving me and my amazing maid of honors to run around looking for a dress with only 2 days before we leave to our venue. It was extremely stressful and heartbreaking, BUT in the end I was gifted with an absolutely beautiful dress that I loved. It was literally the last dress, but best dress that I tried on and I had probably tried on over 30!
My hair color was done by ET at That Cool Hair Place. I am in love with my copper locks and how beautiful it looks on our photos.
I was going for a very romantic makeup and hair styling look and Lolla from Nique On Fleek Professional Beauty 1000% nailed it.
I bought my shoes from Superbalist.
My septum jewelry, earrings and hair clips are from Lovisa. I found moon and star hair clips that were exactly what I was looking for to complete my look.
My lingerie dress was thrifted as I try to thrift everything that I wear. I am all about sustainability.
We got married in the beautiful forest at Matroosberg Nature Reserve. It was challenging as it has never been done before, but it all worked out perfectly! As soon as it was dark, all you could see were stars, soft lights and the fires from the fire pits. It took our breath away and was such a vibe.
We had a weekend wedding so all of our guests stayed over in the accommodation cabins or camped from the Friday already. We got married on the Saturday.
Just a few weeks prior to our wedding, Matroosberg was awarded the 2021 Best Tourist Attraction in the KFM Best of The Cape Awards.
We could not have picked a more perfect venue, it was everything that we had dreamed of. We saw our vision come to life.
We wanted a very minimalist look, because we wanted to use as much of the natural beauty around us as possible.
We got almost everything from our venue. We rented in champagne glasses, serviettes, black plates and a dance floor from Best Events. Outstanding service and prices, they really went out of their way to help us.
I made the black candles on the tables and Justen made the Mead (honey wine.)
Justen and I mapped out an open forest of exactly what we want where and it was so perfect. We had everything we wanted.
The Maid of Honors and I completely DIY'd our bouquets a few minutes before we left for the ceremony haha. It was so much fun.
Our bouquets were white orchids and ferns from our venue. Orchids are my favorite and ferns are very special to me.
The forest looked absolutely magical.
My husband's gorgeous green suit was tailor made by African Style House (A.S.H). They did such an amazing job.
The best men were dressed in all black and most of them already had their attire. Some of them rented jackets from Mr. Suit Hire.
Their "Hoof Tjom" wooden badges were made by Elize from Laser Cutting and Engraving.
My Maid of Honors wore stunning black dresses that I bought from Superbalist.
They each already had black shoes.
Their Maid of Honor shirts were printed by Yolande at Pixonality Personalised Printing.
Our marriage officer, Cecil, was present on the day, but he sat with our guests as my husband and I lead our entire ceremony.
We are so thankful that we got the opportunity to do it our own,non traditional way. He complimented us afterwards saying that we had him in tears and that we taught him three very important thing that day.. He did not say what they were haha so we are left with anticipation.
Our magical day was captured by the insanely talented Nadine Aucamp Photography! We have been waiting two years for this as our wedding was postponed due to Covid.
Within a few days we already had over 100 sneak peek photos and although we are such fans of her work, we did not expect to be THIS blown away by how beautiful our photos are! We are quite awkward when it comes to photos, but she made us feel so comfortable.
We have been getting non stop compliments on how beautiful our photos are.
Candice Taylor Photography was the second shooter on the day and WOW, we are so excited to see her photos.
We won a videography package from Chapter 3 and Taun did sooo much effort on the day, we cannot wait to see our video. A moment that I will not forget is that after I thanked him on the night and that I cannot believe we won something so incredible, he said to me "I'm glad it was you." I was almost in tears. It just amplified the feeling of having a really unique and special wedding.
Rosalie from No Garnish Eatery prepared our food (She is located on the venue).
Justen and I put together a complete menu from Canapes to Mains of all of our favorite foods and we are still receiving compliments of how delicious everything was. They went out of their way to make it all possible.
We did not want a wedding cake so our cake was an assortment of Krispy Kreme donuts as we are both big donuts lovers as well as "Tant Sannie se Melktertjie" shots.
We were also gifted generously with our favorite beer by Stellenbrau Breweries. It made for an epic party!
My best friend designed our seating plan and table numbers!
Our music was out of this world!
Our canape music was courtesy of the one and only Vinyl DJ Paulie. Every song was played on vinyl and you could hear those little crackles in the music, it was so special. Everyone was dancing and having a great time and he even played some guest requests.
Justen and I walked down the isle to The Beatles' song "A Hard Day's Night" that was played on vinyl.
Our main entertainment was the super talented Justin and Brian from Llevado Band. We absolutely love those guys and so did our guests. They brought with them a whole much of lighting that really helped to set the mood.
The rest of the lighting was done by Matroosberg. They even turned our dance floor into a floating stage by putting lights around it. The trees were also highlighted with fairy lights and colored spotlights. It felt like a festival.
