I don’t know where to start is such a cliche but so true :) wearing my late mothers wedding dress that my grandmother (now 86 years old) made for my mom 35 years ago, and she was there to witness it ! That was incredibly special! Also the 3 min long first dance with my husband, it was like the world stopped and it was just us, and when I look at the photos I’m overwhelmed because it captures exactly who we are and what he is to me, a cheeky bugger that I adore that swept me off my feet :)
We went To indigo fields for two nights in Nottingham road and then we stayed in an amazing of farm house and a teepee for the next two nights as we’d blown our budget at Indigo! :) winning this competition would be amazing for us as we don’t know when we would be able to afford something like that.
I would call my “look” classic and sentimental :) My mom was killed 17 years ago and to not have her there was awful (even though I am so blessed with an amazing mother in law) I have to be honest the wedding dress shopping this here in durban is a little dismal when you don’t have a big budget to work with, and then the light bulb went on! I was going to wear my moms dress! So we kept the skirt in its original form, all handstitched my my grandmother 35 years ago! And a very precious woman in my life, Di Glenday, restored the top half for me , she only used a meter of lace that we managed to match and the rest was all reused from my moms dress! It was magical! I wore baby’s breathe in my hair as she did on her wedding day :) my darling hair dresser Irda Retief, nailed the style I was going for and my make up artist, Chantelle McAllister also made me feel exquisite! I wanted the focus to be on my eyes (and particularly my lashes! Lol!) which my lash tech Courtney Shaw blew me away with!
My veil and earrings were my maid of honours (Cara Noble) from her wedding day and I was blessed with my classic strap heels by my dear friend Cristina! My make up and hair were gifted to me by my darling brother and his wife! All of these blessing from so many special people in my life all added up to a very sentimental and special feeling for me!
We are all about “local is lekker” so our wedding service was at our church , Grace Umhlanga and our reception was at S43 in station drive, so no need for extra costs on accommodation, etc.
My skin was cared for by my dear friend Lindy Bouwer, I had 3 weekly peels amongst other cool stuff that she did to me, I left it all in her capable hands.
My nails were just what my husband loves, done by my special Zunandi Groves, she even sourced a Superman sticker for me to wear on my ring finger as I call Nick “my Superman”
Life is too short for strict diets and exercise, I didn’t want to be stressed about my weight nor did I want a body I couldn’t maintain, so I at as healthily as I could by saying no to processed carbs, empty calories and less alcohol, also avoided as much wheat as possible. And I trained at the Northwood Boys Gym with a guy called Matt x3 a week (doing more rehab stuff) as I was diagnosed with a hip condition 6 weeks before our wedding which put a huge halt on my usual running and gym stuff! So I invested in the sessions to keep my mind focused and the results were great and it taught me how to maintain myself post wedding :)
My aunt, carolynne speirs, Is the most incredible floral artist and she gifted us with al of our flowers for our wedding, it was just amazing! Simple, elegant and done with so much love! We used fairy lights inside the Protea wine bottles which looked fab! Our base plates were rented from Megan Kahn at Plan Ahead Events.
My darling dad built us our custom made stage for our bridal party table and my husband made a fairy light curtain for us to go behind it. The lighting and decor at S43 is incredible on its own , so we didn’t need to do much more :)
I had absolutely nothing to do with my hubbys suits, he really knows how to wear a suit so it was totally his plan and I must say it was so exciting to see what he (and the boys, including my dad, son and brother) were all going to look like! It was top secret :) but the looked amazing (especially Nick! Wow!) in their suits from Suit Yourself, and my son even had his bow tie made out my bridesmaids fabric which was just so cool!
Spoilt again by another talented friend, Anais Dancet, she made my bridesmaids skirts for our wedding gift and they were exquisite! My sister in law helped me decide on the design, I wanted the girls to be comfortable and also to be able to use their outfits again, so it was just perfect! The girls bought their own tops and I wasn’t fussed with the shoes they wore. I bought them earrings at a Lovisa sale and i glitterd up a pair of tommie takkies for each of them to dance in with their names on, but I left the shoe laces behind where we got ready, so that was a fail!!!! Oops!
The very special Wayne Taylor from Grace Family Church Umhlanga
Our photographer was next level amazing! He was soooo chilled and captured everything about our day with such ease! We were blown away by our pics, Darrell Collins you are awesome!!!!
Our video was done by BigFoot productions and my husbands cousin did our photo booth for us at cost price which was another amazing blessing!
Nope! We just rolled with it, im super organized and we knew exactly what we wanted :)
My brother drove my dad, son and I to the church and it was just so special having those moments with them :)
S43 did all the catering and it was sooooo delicious! Food was very important for us as there is nothing worse than being hungry at a wedding and our guests were stoked! My maid of honours friend, Bianca, made our divine decadent chocolate cake and I bought ice creams on sticks from Gattis for dessert which the guests loved while jolling on the dance floor :) then we were spoilt rotten with Lindy Chocolate cake pops from my dear friend, Rowena Naidoo, owner of KupCake Heaven in Umhlanga:)
We did everything online as I am not a fan of waste, plus it saved costs so their were no paper invites and even our menus for the table I uocycled from wood off cuts I got for free at Mica Durban North, I painted them with gold glitter and printed an A5 size menu onto it for a whole R26 :)
They say you marry some one like your father, and I hit the jackpot with nick! My dad is the most incredible dancer and my favorite thing is to dance with him. Lucky for me I now have a husband who knows how to throw me around the dance floor too so no dancing lessons needed :)
Our DJ, Craig Haughey, was top drawer and the dance floor pumped all night!
