Due to Covid my husband only arrived in South Africa 10 days before the wedding.
The day of the wedding was the first time he saw the venue.
He told me, "Thank you for giving me my dream wedding"
Having my mom walk me down the isle, just made the day more special.
Click on the link to share this moment with me.
https://youtu.be/R-EJOPztlX0
Saying yes to the man of my dreams, the man I prayed for all my life.
Our first dance was magical, especially because my husband is no dancer and we practiced 2 days before the wedding ❤️
Watch him dazzle me for our first dance.
https://youtu.be/ufJX1vqKyw0
I have been an expat for 23 years and it was my husbands first time in South Africa, so we decided to travel around our beautiful country, starting with the serene mountains in Magieliesburg, then venturing to mesmerising Cape Town and ending our trip in Durban with its heat, sun and waves.
Being Muslim, we had a nikkah first.
For the ceremony I wore a white and gold abaya with a chifon scarf.
For the ceremony, I went vintage.
I wanted the fairy tale gown and the extra long veil because yeasss, I am a little extra.
For the first dance I wanted to be bold my dress was lace with ostrich feathers on the sleeves. I had lived in Taiwan for 13 years and red is worn at weddings and is a symbol of luck.
I taught in Saudi Arabia for 9 years and one of my ex students had given me a farewell gift. It was a string of pearls. I wore this with pearl earrings to match.
Casablanca Manor in Pretoria.
It was a dream come true.
Kobus the owner will make all your wedding wishes come true.
I'm a salsa dancer and instructor , you dance and keep in shape without really making an effort to keep in shape because its so much fun. Again, Covid. We were thus not able to dance.
I really procrastinated with this.
Literally 20 days before the wedding I started working out, playing for muscle memory to do its magic.
I looked up toning exercises on YouTube just to eat and pick it all up on our honeymoon.
Teeth whitening : I am a natural girl and anytime I feel i need to have my teeth whitened, I brush my teeth with tumeric. Yes, you read correctly.
Dentist might disagree, but it works!
Skin routine:
Every brides Nightmare :
A month before the wedding, I burnt my face with hot oil! I have pictures to prove it. 2 visits to a dermatologist and natural skin masks with honey, tumeric, lemon, nutmeg and cinnamon and drinking lots of water my skin healed miraculously.
I wanted to be surrounded with white elegance.
We had different types of white flowers filling the room with crystals and chandeliers.
Flowers were even hanging from the ceiling.
All taken care by the Casablanca Manor team.
Islamic Ceremony
The groom wore a white thobe trimmed off with gold edging.
For the Ceremony
He wore a white tuxedo with a black pants and then changed into a red suit jacket with a white pants for the first dance.
My very own James Bond
I searched the Internet for different looks.
Each of my bridesmaids have different personalities and body shapes. I wanted each one to be comfortable and to choose the style that they were most comfortable with and loved the most. The only things I wanted to be uniform was that the dresses were long, red and similar material.
The dress maker was amazing. He made it exactly to the liking of each girl.
Lynette Strydom.
This lady is absolutely special. My husband isn't South African, so paperwork is stressful. Before you can get legally married you must appear before the Immigration officer who gives you official permission to marry after they have established that you are both eligible to get married legally and that it is not a marriage of convenience.
Rix Studios
Brad and Madelein were amazing at shooting for my wedding. They made us feel comfortable, we were laughing the whole day.
We took pictures in a mosque and both Brad and Madelein were very respectful of our faith.
They made sure to ask us as to what was acceptable when we were in a mosque before the day of the shoot
We drove to the venue with our own cars
I still have dreams of the food Kobus Vermaak from Casablanca Manor prepared for our day.
As I said, everything we agreed upon, Kobus went extra mile.
The guest were all more than happy with the choices they had.
We opted for stations.
Morrocan, Italian and South African potjie kos.
Kobus surprised us with a succulent leg of lamb.
Kobus Vermaak from Casablanca Manor.
I am a salsa dance teacher in my free time. My husband is however not a dancer at all. My husband is also based in Glasgow, so only had 2 days before the wedding.
He pulled it off in grand style.
My crowd was so diverse that I wanted to play music that everyone likes. I made a Google list and everyone entered the songs they wanted to hear on the wedding day.
