love and lavender

Richard and I met on a gorgeous spring evening in Cape Town at none other than a Spring and Singles Party. The connection was instant and within a couple of months of knowing each other I thought to myself now this is the man I can see myself marrying. During the evening with the whole of Cape Town at our feet, lights glowing, wind still and just plain beautiful he asked me if I would be willing to go to dinner with him and so our romance blossomed in that perfect time of year called spring!

THE PROPOSAL
Rich proposed at sunset on the side of Lions Head overlooking Sea Point and Fresnaye - the only place in Cape Town that day that was not windy. He had gone to the spot earlier in the day to clear away any mess around the area and so knew it would be the perfect setting. He had picked the ring and written a gorgeous card telling me how much he loved me. As I looked up to thank him for the beautiful words he was on half knee half elbow and scratching for the box as he said -Will you spend the rest of my life with me as my wife!

THE RUN UP
The day finally arrived after 21 months of engagement on the 19th December 2009. We had picked the venue that most reflected our personalities and outlook on life as well as the joyous, carefree and happy wedding we wanted to have. We held the ceremony in the magnificent gardens of Blaauwklippen Wine Estate in Stellenbosch (the town both of us studied our university degrees at exactly the same time yet never met) and followed that with dinner and dancing in the Blaauwklippen Barouche Restaurant.

With such a long build up to the wedding and having a very handy and creative mom as well as sister in the creative industry I had my fair share of indulging in ideas and special touches which I wanted to include in the overall wedding day to make it more personal and reflect Rich and my own personalities as well as include every guest in the specialness of the moment.

"OUTSOURCING"
I outsourced all stationery design to my sister and her Creative Design Company called The Creative Tree - who better to interpret my wants, dreams and needs than a sister I spent my childhood fantasizing and role-playing my wedding day with.
The result was amazing. We came up with an "emblem" type symbol of myself and Richards name written in romantic fonts and followed this through from the invitations, to the orders of service to the menus, Table names and seating plans. All hand made by MOB, Bride and Brides sister (MOH).

My mom has always been very talented at making things from sewing, to beading to just plain creativity in anything you give her that she knew the magical day I was picturing. And so she set off to make all the delicate detail that made our day so personal and special. From the bonbonniere's - gorgeous beaded key rings made of clear heart shaped beads on a string of beads in the colours of the day packaged into gorgeous silver boxes and placed delicately waiting at each lady guests seat, to the Table name stands to stand tall and elegant amongst the flower arrangements for the guests to see their tables clearly. To strings of clear beads hanging from the pergola / gazebo while we said our vows as the sun set against a backdrop of the majestic Stellenbosch mountain Range. The ring cushion handmade to hold our rings while we said our vows. To each and every ribbon tied delicately around the napkins of each guests seat.

"INSOURCING"
I wanted each guest to know how special they were to Richard and myself and so made a "memory lane" of photographs where I either had or sourced a picture of each guest and framed it in the cream pearlescent paper we had used as the base of all the stationary and then strung these on a ribbon to hang in the courtyard where guests would be treated to some Pimms and lemonade, champagne and canapés while we were off having pictures taken on the gorgeous Blaauwklippen grounds.

MAGICAL DAY
Waking up in a lodge not far from the venue showed me what a glorious day we had chosen to say our vows and celebrate the first day of the rest of our lives together. I spent the day sun tanning, relaxing and remaining calm to look as beautiful as I could for my groom that evening. The day was spent doing sisters nails, curling hair, bathing, drinking celebratory glasses of champagne with brothers, sisters, nephews, moms, dads who were all together as a family for the first time in many many years.

Richard on the other hand spent the day getting our honeymoon suite at the Devon Valley Hotel ready and geared for his bride to come back to and getting ready to enjoy and afternoon with the boys. And so our day started at 4:30 with a beautiful wedding, an emotional day filled with love, laughter and special special moments to reflect on and cherish for rest of our lives.

We cherish our photographs taken by Esther Reid Photography as well as the amazing wedding Video done by John and Lorraine Salt of Satellite Projects which we can now use to relive the amazing day whenever we feel the need and most importantly listen to those vows we promised each other and take note of them when we sometimes cannot remember them in our minds. We couldn't have asked for a better day, for better people to be around us, for better service providers to play their special part and most of all for all the touches we made so much effort to bring through that did so well in the end.

BRIDE'S DRESS AND ACCESSORIES LADY MARMALAIDE STELLENBOSCH SHOES BRIDAL SHOES CAPE TOWN BRIDE'S HAIR GUSTAV FOUCHÉ - CONTOUR HAIR CONSTANTIA BRIDES MAKE-UP MAC PROFESSIONAL MAKE-UP BY BRONWEN GROOMS ATTIRE EUROSUIT AT BRIDE AND CO CAPE TOWN STATIONERY CLAIRE TAYLOR @ THE CREATIVE TREE THECREATIVETREE.CO.UK CEREMONY AND RECEPTION BLAAUWKLIPPEN WINE ESTATE STELLENBOSCH FLOWERS LEIPZIG FLORAL DESIGN STELLENBOSCH CAKE CAKES BY WADE MUSIC AND LIGHTING SOUND FX ENTERTAINMENT