My dad's face when he came to greet and fetch me for the ceremony and my mom's beautiful and complete relaxed, happy face throughout the day.
The moment when the flowers (finally) arrived! and they turned out more gorgeous than I imagined
The highlight of our day was the moment I walked down the shadowed-tree covered path and I saw my husband and MY BEST FRIEND FOR LIFE standing there and I saw his face light up with absolute pure joy and excitement. The light in his smile was definite one of the most memorable moments of my life.
The exit we had with confetti when they announced us officially husband & wife.
The photohour just with my husband was so special
When we entered the reception with all the guests lighting a trail with sparklers
Also the sparklers around the dancefloor for our first dance was also such a gorgeous moment I will always carry in my thoughts
Finally spending the whole night surrouded by all our loved ones, just living in that few hours, and the last minutes of the night with our closest, nearest & dearest around the campfire sharing stories. Wa just perfect
We are still deciding :)
I designed my wedding dress and had it made by Salomie Pieters - Salomie Designs
My dress design is deisgned to capsulate me, something different, and a look of effortless beauty
The dress itself: light, airy, whimsical & a touch of sexy with a whole lot of comfortable.
Being very active and a love to dance, comfortable and cool was key, since our venue location was in Citrusdal, where temperatures reach 40 degrees easily
Basically a playsuit, with 4 layers of soft tulle over it and a slit on the left leg
Having never worn make up, besides on my Matric Farewell, i asked my 2 bridesmaids and life long best friends
Mienke du Plessis & Jeanne Meyer to do my make up as they are makeup enthusiast and one of them work in the dermatology industry.
I wanted my shoes to be a statement, and match my bouquet, so i went with a berry shaded velvet strappy heel, and they are gorgeous, ordered them from Superbalist.
Lingerie was only a seemless from La Senza, as my dress was made to fit my bodyshape exactly.
I fell inlove with my ring the first time I saw it, and put it on.
My ring is from Shimansky : My Girl HALO ENGAGEMENT RING:
ROSE GOLD (because it compliments my olive skin amazingly gorgeous) MY GIRL DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RING WITH MICRO SET DIAMONDS
Teardrop earrings - Lovisa
Garter - Bridal & Co
http://cederkloof.co.za/
We got married at Cederkloof Botanical Retreat just outside Citrusdal
We wanted to have a "weekend getaway" destination as we could see more of our guests and get to spend more time with everyone we wanted to celebrate with.
We searched for quite a while and then my parents took us to go look at the venue, and as we walked into the place we knew, it was absolutely gorgeous and everything we've been looking for, as being adventurists and outdoorsy we had 3 requirements:
- obviously beautiful location/scenics/austhetics
- outdoors
- enough space for everyone
The Retreat, is beautifully situated in a kloof beside a citrus farm and committed to restorative land management, to creating spaces and opportunities for healing practices and to protect and support the restoration of the plants, animals and people. They have 10 houses with enough space to host most of our family and friends and each house came with a jacuzzi, aircons(highly important!) coffee, etc.
Further the most guests lodged just 6km away at The Baths, Hebron and By die dam
Both my husband and I are cyclist/adventurist, so in terms of health & fitness we do a lot on the regular allready.
To top your average 70km cycle rides , we set a "holiday" goal as I wanted to push myself to new limits on the bike, so we did longer and further rides for our "shredding for the wedding" bodies.
We called it a holiday goal because our wedding was in January 2019 and you can imagine after all holiday feasts how nervous one can get about weight gain before the big day. However, we rode +-250km a week on a bike.
I swim 2-3 times a week and changed from running once/twice a week to walking 10000 steps or more a day
For getting leaner and protecting my knees, doubling up on lean muscle build rather than cardio-ing myself to death.
I have always eaten very very healthy so did not change anything in my diet
I have a very sensitive/ eczema prone skin and being somewhat allergic to make up it was quite bit of a tight spot.
As sweating and daily training also aggravates my skin condition you could see how this made a bit of a problem
So I stuck to moisterising my skin as much as I could to prevent dry eczema forming and also from breaking out.
I also started drinking Purple Protein collagen that really helps my skin and had 10min UV ray exposure once a week
Otherwise an occasional gold mask or collagen mask
The dresscode was smart casual in White
We wanted light, airy, laid-back and fun.
We wanted the day to be like us and our relationship, fun & relaxed
2X Peacock chairs for bridal couple - Muse Concepts
Lighting decor - Baie Goeters
Tent - Kardoesie
Lights- Kardoesie & Citrusdal school
Sparklers for entrace - Quirky parties
Artisinal ice creams with our name & date on - Las Paletas
Our table names were all of our favourite mountainbiking trails around stellenbosch, that my dad had our farm staff make out of wire which just added that touch of personalisation in the fine details and everyone loved it
Las Paletas will stun guests with their selection of gourmet ice cream on your special day!
Steph (the groom) wore a gorgeous blue suit from Fabiani (he bought 3 nights before the wedding)
He got red suspenders from Fabiani
Blue & floral bow tie form H&M
Sneaker kicks in the same berry tone as my wedding shoes - Adidas
The groomsmen all wore blue pants with each their choice of colour sneakers
2 had white shirts on and the other 2 had light blue.patterned shirts on
Each groomsmen also choose his own style on his bow tie
The dresscode was White with splash of colour
So my bridesmaids could all choose any dress/pants/etc the wanted as long as it was white
My sister wore a dress she had made
Mienke wore a white catsuit from Poetry
Jeanne wore a white dress she owned
Each wore large colourful tossle earrings
Mienke wore light pink/nude heel
My sister wore a floral print shoe
Jeanne wore elegant strappy flats
I got them all a gorgeous big floral crowns, matching my bouquet, Steph & my shoes, which looked beautiful on the white canvas.
All florals were from Flowers in the Foyer - Stellenbosch
Jan Oosthuizen
Jané (Ulla) van den Heever - Jané Ulla photography
She is amazing!! I would urge anyone to get her, her work is amazing, she is relaxed and makes you so comfortable in front of a camera, and the previews of photos we've seen are absolutely breathtaking, her work is just a cut above the rest
Boland weddings - Videographer
Was a wedding gift from my sister and her Fiancé
They are the friendliest and such amazing people, cannot wait to see the end product. Their response were amazing and feedback was quick and easy to work with. Super happy
Myself
My mom - Annamari Nel
My mom's colleagues -
Hanlie van Zyl : who did all the table and hanging arrangements at the venue
Charlene van Staden : coordinated the whole day & evening of the wedding
My husband (Steph) works for Specialized Za
And us being cyclist didn't want anything different to who we are so
seeing as we all stayed at the venue the travel was merely a few steps so
our "transport" were: 2x Men's S-Works Diverge bikes in my favourite bike paintjob : Chameleon that changes colour from where you stand
Steve Oldroyd from Hebron - and his food and place is amazing! He is absolutely awesome at everything with bringing food together with a twist
A MUUUUST!!
I designed all the stationary for the wedding and had it printed at Wizardz
We did not have dance lessons ( I grew up afrikaans, so sokkie is pretty much compulsory)
Steph grew up English and LOVES dancing, so we went to a few farm sokkies and he found his new love for dancing
Our sound, lighting, smoke machine and DJ came courtesy of Silk Music - they are amazing, everything was perfect and was a great service. Could have asked for better
Las Paletas will stun guests with their selection of gourmet ice cream on your special day!
