Planning a wedding during covid, at every turn Covid said no, but we pushed through to make our special day happen. It was hard not having some of our closest people there, but we had them on zoom. I cannot have asked for a better day, it was perfect, even the weather held up the entire wedding day.
I was woken up at 6am with a loud bang on my door from my friend shouting 'you getting married today'. The excitement was unreal.
Walking down the aisle, crying my eyes out, seeing my husband cry was such a highlight for me. I never thought I would find love, and it was so surreal knowing I was able to walk down the aisle to a man who chooses me daily.
We have booked for Bali, but due to borders being closed we went off to CT, the most beautiful city in SA.
Wherever Vern and I are we have fun and never get bored, so CT was next level because we had even more stuff to keep us occupied LOL.
We went Wine tasting, Gin tasting, market shopping and just so much more. We stayed at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay.
Gosh, where to start.
My hair and make up was done amazingly by Natascia Conversano. She made my hair in an up style with a diamante/pearl head band at the back. My make-up I wanted to go natural, but with my eyes popping, being bold.
My wedding dress: I got it made and it came late, 2 weeks before our wedding. It was awful, it was 2 sizes too big and looked like a sac. I cried for hours. My mom and I then went to VIP Brides in Hillcrest and one of the first dresses I tried on before I ordered one to be made, was there. I tried it on and instantly knew it was the one. My mom knows me so well so could see how I felt about it and knew too. The sleeves were off my shoulders, the top section was diamante and just stunning, then with a blush pink waist band to the waist was the added piece which made my dress pop. I then had a straight tight fitted plain beautiful white bottom half with an amazing see-through train. My dress was the biggest topic of conversation for the day and night.
I wore white sandals from Woolworths, lace white underwear, and baby pink/diamond earrings which matched my engagement ring which I bought from Lovisa.
The Place, Claremont, Salt Rock. It was a forest/garden wedding, which is what I have dreamt of my whole life. Our guests stayed over all around Ballito and Salt Rock. We had our ceremony and luncheon at The Place, and had our after party at Fiamma Grill. Fiamma Grill is my husband and my favourite place to go on weekends.
I had skin peels with Lindy every month using RegimA skin products (amazing by the way). I had lazer hair removal with Skin & Lazer in Verulam. I trained everyday, but toward the last few weeks, just ate well as I had no time to train. I do my nails monthly, so made sure those were done, as well as my gel toes from Top to Toe in La Lucia.
My mom was my Saving Grace. She helped with every bit of decor. Our colours were sage green and blush pink. She bought blush pink draping which we used on the tables, trees, arch and chair backs. We made all our own decor, using wine bottles with plants inside and candles out the top. The other wine bottles we used hessian lace and stuck our table numbers in white onto the hessian lace. Both my parents helped set up the day of our big day and can't thank them enough.
We then had green and pink tea light candles, and gold votives. Then we hired hanging hearts of all sizes from Desire to Hire, which we hung all over the venue (stunning). Another big topic of conversation.
We hired 5 square glass mirrors for the centre of each table which we decorated with the votives and candles.
We bought the flowers from Flowers on Florida Road. My mom designed my own bouquet which had my colours and white included.
We had a garden and forest wedding, but because of me being so stressed due to weather we got a marquee last minute in case, from Bheems. It was a day wedding, so we had the perfect day light as lighting.
I used a lazer company to design a chocolate box with : P.S I love you, Kit Kat I will never take a break from you, 5 star you are my rockstar, Bar-one you are my number one and Smarties you give colour to my life. I then wrote on little chalk boards: Read me, open me, eat me and inside was a huge amount of each chocolate for guests to choose from and indulge in. From the same lazer company we then got a board made of all our steps that got us to our special day, from our first date, first kiss, to our favourie things to do together.
I then had a sanitize station which read on a chalk board: True love is sharing my last sanitizer bottle with you. (We had to incorporate Covid LOL).
I also then decorated a tree with all photos from when my husband and I were babies to toddlers to teens and then to adults, and then with us as couple, it was so cute. I also had a frame with a white rose and reserved it on a seat in the front of the ceremony for my husbands late parents.
Ah man, my groom looked so divine. He wore a grey suit with a white shirt, and added a sage green bow tie with a sage green handkerchief in his top pocket. He also wore funky bright coloured socks which make great photos. What a gorgeous husband I have. He hired his outfit from Bride and Co Umhlanga.
Groomsmen came as guests in the end, as Covid just seemed to say no to everything we wanted with the different speeches from our President each week, but they still were our bridal party at heart. They wore Blue suits and white shirts with brown shoes and a brown belt.
My husband's other two groomsmen were not there, but because we didn't have the big 'bridal party' in the end because of Covid reasons and only witnesses, we will have a one year anniversary so they can all be there for that.
Due to covid we didn't have the traditional 'bridal party'. I had asked 3 girls to be my bridesmaids, but in the end they were guests. My sister and best friend were unable to attend in the end, so it would have been heart breaking to have 'bridesmaids' persay if two weren't there. Thank goodness for Zoom as they got to watch the whole ceremony.
They would have worn a sage green wrap dress if I had bridesmaids. There is a zoom picture in our gallery sent from them, from their view on our beautiful day.
I did however have beautiful satin pink matching robes from Cotton On that my mom bought as gifts for us. I also got bride and bride squad shirts made for each of us.
Richard Olivier from Harvest Church.
Jade from Capture It Photography did our engagement shoot and was fabulous, so we knew we wanted her for our wedding day too. She cracks jokes all day to make you feel less stressed and more relaxed and was excellent. She was punctual and so good with her email responses too.
Sean from Weddings to go was amazing too. He was also so punctual and light hearted, making us feel so relaxed.
They both were great.
We had smoke bombs too which made great pics.
We were told that we were by far the the easiest couple to shoot, as we were so natural and listened well. LOL
When we first started planning our wedding we did, but due to all changes in covid, we had to change everything from the caterer, to the venue, to no wedding planner. My mom and I did everything ourselves. We had to change this all 4 weeks before the wedding. Shout out to my mom.
My dad drove us in my moms car. My husband was driven in his car with his brother and friend too. Our places we got ready at were both very close to the wedding venue.
Lizette from Ballito made our cake. We had a chocolate cake with donuts on it. Our guests started eating it before dessert time, it was that good.
Our food, we wanted to be different and not do the normal wedding buffet or plated food, so we had divine canapes and then had a mongolian barbeque with a whole bunch of sauces, ingredients and a choice of beef fillet (which was SUPER tender) and then chicken. The caterer Micky Munn from Kitchen Confident then placed everything on the wok and cooked it in front of each guest. This made for such a social time for the guests, and everyone raved about the food all night.
I was so thrilled as food is a big negative topic of conversation at a lot of weddings, so I felt so good we chose well for our wedding.
My mom and I did it ourselves.
Because we had a very small and intimate wedding, after our photos my hubby and I came into the reception to a very upbeat and awesome song, and then went straight into our first dance. This took everyone by surprise, which was so great, as no-one expected a first dance.
There is nothing better than having everything flow and not keep guests waiting and letting them get bored by dragging everything on, so we started off with our dance. We danced to a thousand years by Christina Perri.
Our DJ was Jose from New Age Entertainment. My uncle sang and played guitar whilst we signed our registry and again another song when we cut our cake.
