A late-summer garden reverie at Hawksmoor House, where every detail reflected Pieter and Saskia's commitment to creating meaningful memories with their loved ones.
In 2014, Pieter joined our 8th grade class in high school and we soon became good friends, often jokingly calling each other ‘liefie’ as a way to playfully mock each other. It was only in matric that we actually started dating; ten years ago now!
Pieter proposed on a stunning but somewhat windy afternoon at Noordhoek beach. Although I was on to him, I didn’t expect that he had arranged a whole weekend away for us . We basked in the joy of our engagement privately, exploring the Southern Peninsula, before surprising and celebrating with our friends and family when we returned.
We were quite overwhelmed - our initial plan was to not have a wedding, but rather an intimate getaway with just our closest loved ones at an AirBNB with a small ceremony - completely casual and comfortable. However, we soon realised we are blessed with too many loved ones for that, and a wedding it was! But despite the growing guest list, we were adamant to ensure all our planning decisions were rooted in prioritising intimacy and the comfort of our guests (and ourselves!). And as the first of our friends to get married, we definitely had to make use of resources like SA Weddings to get a clearer idea on what needed to be done, and which vendors to use - in fact, we found our lovely photographer, Damian from Curator, through SA Weddings!
As mentioned above, one of our biggest priorities was guest experience, and more importantly, ensuring our wedding was a true reflection of us. We gravitated to a venue that provided us with as much freedom as we could possibly manage, allowing us to curate every detail of our day around ourselves and our stunning guests.
After all the formalities and first rounds of dancing, we briefly slipped away from the party for with our best friends - our best man and maid of honour - and sat together on the floor of the dining room with our drinks, debriefing the day and hearing everyone’s perspective and experiences; the details of the morning getting ready separately, their perspective watching the ceremony from the crowd and our from the alter, and all the behind the scenes drama of the wedding set up that they had dealt with on our behalf to keep us calm and present throughout the day.
A late-summer garden reverie - not a concrete theme but more a concept we kept in mind throughout the planning.
After the shock of discovering how much wedding dresses cost - even second hand - I went on a mission to find a more budget friendly dress (once again, we didn’t want to spend too much of the budget on things that don’t improve overall guest experience). Lucky for me, I happened on this gorgeous two-piece - a sample dress from Anna Georgina Bridal Boutique - for all of R900 on Yaga! Although not exactly what I would have envisioned picking myself, I fell in love and the vintage detailing resonated with our vision and the look of our venue. For the bridesmaids, the girls got to choose their own dresses based on our overall colour scheme - we wanted our friends to feel comfortable and like themselves, and they all looked stunning!
We heavily leaned on our venue - the stunning Hawksmoor House in the winelands of Stellenbosch - for guidance on the decor and design. We heavily leaned into the ‘wine’ of it all - incorporating barrels, wine bottles and corks into our decor and designs. Further, the heritage of the site prompted us to add vintage elements where we could; we had spent countless weekends at the Milnerton market, thrifting decor pieces like hangers, vases and silver accents. We had a very restrained approach to our florals - minimal but sculptural - as the entire wedding took place in the already gorgeous and blooming gardens, reserving the budget for things that would more explicitly enhance guests’ experience.
Yes! As an architect and a software engineer, we definitely put our skills to use! Pieter made our website from scratch and took charge of any of the online aspects of planning, while I employed my InDesign knowledge to design all our stationery, draw up scaled plans of the venue for our decor set up and seating charts, and make endless amounts of moodboards and collages. We also managed to collect and handcut over 80 corks for the name cards and remove the stickers off plenty of wine bottles to replace with our own for table numbers and seating charts. You can only imagine the state of our house the weeks leading up to the wedding!
Nostalgia by Alice Phoebe Lou - an artist whose music we love, and have seen live multiple times. The song is stunning, fun and flirty and perfectly captures the feeling of ‘nostlagia’ looking back at the last 10 years of our relationship that had built up to that day (and now, beyond it).
At some point in the night, long after the DJ had left but the party still continued, the groom and a few friends were dancing away in their boxers; pants tied around their shoulders with their dress-shirts and ties still intact. Needless to say, the party did continue until sunrise.
Remember that you are essentially planning your own (and your future family’s) memories of this day - not just a production for a social media post. It has to reflect who you are at this point of your life - together as a couple, and separately. When getting bombarded with content around weddings, it’s so easy to forget what it’s really about, and it’s important to have a golden rule or phrase to ground yourself, instead of getting swept up with all the ideas, tips and inspiration that social media throws at you. Be ruthlessly sentimental about every aspect and try to capture as much of it as possible for yourself and your loved ones to cherish (not just to post).
We departed on the Monday following the wedding weekend, on a local honeymoon. Our first stop was the stunning Abrikooskloof Nature Reserve in Montague - an absolute perfect stay for a honeymoon; just the two of us with just enough to do to ensure we stayed entertained while getting to properly decompress after an exhilarating but exhausting lead up to a wedding. From there we made our way to Plettenberg Bay - a favourite vacation spot of ours since we were teens. We hopped from one accommodation to the next, enjoying the beaches, nature, restaurants and adventures about the garden route. We wish it could have lasted forever.
Goeters specialises in the utmost imaginative creations of beautiful décor and lights for weddings and events.
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