the main thing for me with ‘dressing-up’ the reception was that i didn’t want it to look too dressed up. for example the flowers on the tables, i wanted that to look like we got the flowers from the garden and the atmosphere needed to be relaxed – like we are sitting down for meal with family and friends at our house. that’s precisely what i got – and i LOVED it! Royal Flowers & Functions did an amazing job.
the vases, pots & candle holders i bought at different shops in south africa. the books was from a collection at my mums house & also from a store in our town. (this was used to tie in the book invitations i made). i bought so much ribbon & lace here in london that the lady at the store thought i wanted to open up my own business.
i didn’t want a runner or anything like that on my tables, so to emphasize the spectacular woodwork of the venue i wanted to use the wooden slabs as runners – again Royal Flowers made this possible for me.
i looked at THOUSANDS of different place settings examples at other brides' weddings but couldn’t find anything i liked until i saw these little heart shaped chalk boards at a little store in SA. i ordered & paid for them there and then (and this was more than a year before the wedding). i liked this because each person can keep theirs and re-use them for gift tags or anything else they want.
i didn’t like the idea of a thank you gift at every persons seat because most of the time you never use it again. so i opted for a candy table as the thank you gift to all my guests. because i currently live in the UK i decided to buy loads of candy here. (that is mainly why my suitcase was over 10kg overweight). i have to say a BIG THANK YOU to my sisters Karlien & Janine for this – because they put this together for me.
we decided on cupcakes as our wedding cake & a friend made these heart shaped cupcake wonders for us:
my cake toppers i got from america (can’t find the link now).
our first dance we asked all our guests to lit sparkles…
i hope you enjoyed all the details of our special day!
i would LOVE to do this again (but the husband said only when someone else can pay for it).
my ring:
after the ceremony it was time for the group photos & then our couple photos. while the guests waited for us to finish they had drinks & biltong (dried meat).
first group photo was of all our family & friends
my parents & wayne's parents
my gran
swan family
van staden family
wayne's cousin & best man, Jason
my brother in law & also our master of ceremonies, Andre
with the sisters
and picking up the groom (it was a bit of an operation to pull it off)
next up is our couple photos.
today i will share our very special ceremony with you. it was over so quickly and luckily i have these photos to remember this time in the day forever...
the green gardens...
it took me ages to finish the material flowers that was hanging in the trees & in the dome
my sister, janine made all the paper cranes & they looked so so beautiful with the rest of the decorations. {thank you again my sister}. the popcorn cones was used as confetti.
my lovely sisters (and niece) walking down the aisleand now it is my turn, (we walked down the aisle with Sigur Ros's Hoppipolla). my poor dad was so nervous.
my niece, katinka, looked so adorable, here she was swinging the rings to me and making sure that i handed her little red handbag back to her.
we had such a funny & weird (but in a nice way) minister.
one more of the bridesmaids & tinkie
to give both sets of parents a feeling that they are part of the day, we asked the two moms to read 2 little poems after we did our own vows. i just LOVED our vows - i am definitely planning on framing them. my mom was a bit scared to read her poem since its in english (and my WHOLE family is completely afrikaans), but my mum sounded great and she shouldn't have worried about it.
popcorn confetti:
and we are married!!
sorry for the pictures overload BUT it was so difficult to pick between all these photos.