Tag: Cape weddings

Real Wedding at Mont Rouge {Loura & Derick}

by gaby

True story: I would have written this intro last night if it weren’t for Grey’s Anatomy. But after watching McSteamy’s demise (and, er, crying for an hour while it happened) I felt so miserable I couldn’t write about love and romance. I know, ridiculous. But if you have any complaints about today’s post starting late, please send them directly to Shonda Rhimes and her team of writers. Mean Shonda. ANYWAY, it’s a new dawn and a new day, and I’m super excited to bring you this wedding. It is adorable, in truly South African country vintage style, with a beautiful lace dress (LOVE that statement back!), proteas and Bashew’s bottles. But the star of the show is a car so small that the bride and groom were able to literally drive into their reception. Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever heard? Well, wait till you actually see it. I love fun little touches like this, and Loura and Derek had a huge amount of fun planning their big day and making it perfect. Bernard Bravenboer was there to document all the happiness in these beautiful pictures.Read More

Real Wedding at Vindoux Guest Farm {Lara & Lloyd}

by gaby

I am BEYOND excited to be featuring this wedding. Pretty much the same level of excited I was when it turned up in my inbox from the lovely Lisa at Talk Functions (do you want to feature a Tim Burton-themed wedding? Um, YES.) Thinking about it now, I probably should have featured it last week for Halloween, but the thing is that Halloween kind of doesn’t show up on my radar until my Facebook feed is full of babies wearing pumpkin costumes. Then again, I’m not actually sorry, because this isn’t a wedding that should be kept for a fancy dress holiday. This is a wedding that’s gorgeous any day of the year. Now I’m a Tim Burton fan, but it’s not every wedding stylist who can take a brief like this and make it super stylish. The key to what makes this work is that it has a classic colour scheme (green, black & white), lovely, clever stationery, and breathtaking florals, and the three work together seamlessly to create the perfect balance of creepy and beautiful. Anyone having any kind of theme for their wedding can learn from this one, about taking something meaningful and working with talented service providers to come up with something classy but fun. Bravo Lloyd, Lara and Lisa, and bravo likewise to the awesome Du Wayne, who took the pictures.Read More

Real Wedding at Villa Luna {Cheree & Mitchell}

by gaby

I have something quite different for you today. As you know, I absolutely love and admire the South African wedding photography community and am so lucky to showcase their work on a daily basis, but of course, as I spend so much time on international blogs, there are some international photographers whose work I have come to be in awe of. Some are what I’d consider the really big hitters – many of you will be able to guess the kind of names I’m thinking of, and one of these is Jonas Peterson. A photographer whose work I respect for its uniqueness of perspective as well as richness of narrative and emotion, Jonas is based in Australia (although he shoots many destination weddings) and has been named one of the Top 10 wedding photographers in the world. He’s a big inspiration not just to me, but to many photographers, and in fact taught a workshop in Cape Town a while back. But I didn’t think I’d ever actually be able to share one of his weddings on SBB – after all, we only feature South African weddings on these pages, and Jonas’ work is very much in demand in the blogging community. So as you can imagine, when the opportunity arose for me to do so, I leapt at it! Last week, Jonas took the unusual step of offering up his latest wedding (which is actually a special two-parter in both Sydney and Cape Town) to bloggers on a non-exclusive basis, and when I found this out on my weekly blog hop, I got straight on the email to ask if SBB could be a part of it. I was thrilled to get a ‘yes’. So here we go: no info from the bride and groom, and no patter from me on the wedding details, just the chance to revel in some astonishingly beautiful pictures. For me, they really capture the wildness and the grandeur of the Cape scenery, and those gorgeous radiant shadows round the mountains as the sun begins to set. Take a deep breath, and dive in.Read More

Real Wedding at Delsma Farm {Leandri & Andries}

by gaby

There’s nothing sweeter than a girl-meets-boy-next-door-story, is there? Well today’s couple are literally the boy and girl next door (or across a park anyway), who first fell in love on the swing set and married fifteen years later. So adorable! I just love their pretty wedding, and the bride’s relaxed attitude about it being a rainy day is something anyone could learn from! But I think my favourite thing about their Delsma Farm wedding (or the decor, anyway) is that it’s such a fun twist on the shabby chic decor we’ve seen a lot of this season. It has the main ingredients: mismatched florals, proteas, books tied together with lace, striped tablecloths; but translated into a yellow and grey colour scheme it’s completely fresh. It just shows that you can take a style and really make it your own, be playful with colour, and that adopting a style doesn’t have to just mean one thing. The beautiful pictures full of light were taken by awesome Adene Photography.Read More

Real Wedding at Beloftebos {Mareli & Grant}

by gaby

I’ve tried to write this intro a bunch of times, to describe an amazing couple who embody the joy and wisdom of ‘seize the day’ and whose ceremony was so heartwarming that their photographer, Charlene Schreuder, admitted it brought a tear to her eye. But the truth is, Charlene’s incredible pictures tell the story better than I can – and they moved me to happy tears too. This is one wedding you should read every word of, and soak in. It teaches something. Because it’s pretty, but it’s also the reason weddings were invented: a celebration of the strength and wonder of love.Read More

Real Farm Wedding {Mariaan & Johnnie}

by gaby

They say when you know you know, and that must have been true for Johnny, who first fell for Mariaan when they were children! So cute. This pair of barefoot farm kids grew up to be free-spirited adults, and threw a laid back country wedding that had a touch of carnival celebration. I LOVE that they used what they had, and this turned into fruit on the tables instead of flowers (Johnnie is in the fruit business), barrows and crates full of fynbos, and what is without doubt my favourite bar of all time. I also love the boho flowergirls and the little pageboys in top hats! The relaxed vibe was perfectly captured by Carmen Visser, who’s been kind enough to share her beautiful pictures with us today. A farm wedding is actually super appropriate for me today, since I’ll be spending it styling a special inspiration shoot in a farm setting – hold thumbs for me that we get some unseasonably fine weather!Read More

Real Wedding at Paternoster Lodge {Katie & Theoniel}

by gaby

Today’s real wedding caught my attention when I spotted the driftwood logs and hanging twinkle light curtains on Be-dazzled Events‘ Facebook page, and I was thrilled to see the whole wedding appear over on the awesome Jules Morgan‘s blog. I love intimate weddings, and I adore Katie and Theoniel’s concept of sharing a favourite destination (who doesn’t fall in love with the West Coast, after all?) with their family and friends. Their design was relatively simple, but very stylish, and perfectly reflected the West Coast vibe in shades of grey and beige neutrals. And how about those fairy lights? Aren’t they just magical? This wedding is proof of how a great venue, a clean palette and a few special details (love that driftwood heart ring ‘cushion’ and the stylin’ groomsmen, for example) are all you need to make your wedding picture perfect (although the perfect pictures Jules takes don’t hurt either – it was too hard to choose, so this is a bit of a bumper post!).Read More

Real Wedding at Welbeloond {Simone & Rudi}

by gaby

What on earth did we do before Facebook? Because, no kidding, I have heard about a LOT of lovebirds who have connected on there, one way or another. Today’s couple is one of them. And say what you will about modern technology, but I love the fact that, in a time before social media, their romance might have stopped when they were teenagers but today, even a couple of oceans aren’t insurmountable. Then again, if you believe as they do, that their romance was meant to be, perhaps even in another age they might have found each other. Kind of a lovely thought. Anyway, meet they did, and it all culminated in an awesome, down-home, farm-style rustic party at Welbeloond, that was centred around the love of their family and friends, and captured in all its sweetness by Jacques Lloyd of Real Simple Photography.Read More

Real Wedding at Groenrivier {Ilne & Herman}

by gaby

Whenever people ask me how I choose which weddings to feature, I end up talking about the Ooh Moment. The detail or idea or photograph that makes me go “ooh”. Literally. If you sat next to me while I was looking at it, you would hear that I actually say “ooh”. There were quite a few oohs in today’s beautiful wedding from photographer Heather Steyn (Hello! Bride and bridesmaids hairstyles! And dresses! Wildflowers! Wreaths!) but the biggest one came when I realised that each table had its own little decor theme. Each cleverly thought out (and super pretty) and each meaningful to the bride and groom. It’s like awesome table decor using found objects, times multiple. Or like a little art installation. It’s completely adorable, and it turns an already lovely wedding into a veritable ooh-fest. And that’s not all, because this sweet couple, who have careers as Afrikaans teachers in common, also share another commonality – that their fathers are both ministers. So who’s to perform the ceremony? Well, both of them! How cute is that? Very, that’s how. Now go forth, and ooh.Read More

Real Wedding at The Oaks {Celeste & Deon}

by gaby

I’m a words person, no doubt about it. People express themselves in different ways, and for me, words have never been hard to find. (Maybe a little too easy to find, because I do talk a lot!) So when I came across today’s wedding, one of the things that really struck me was the clever ways that Celeste and Deon used words not just to express their feelings for one another, their relationship, and their history, but to decorate their beautiful country venue (The Oaks in Greyton). Custom tablecloths shared these words with friends at the reception, and the bride even walked down the aisle towards her groom on an aisle runner handwritten with a favourite piece of scripture. Their aim was rustic elegance, and this was achieved with clever neutral touches that recalled the bride’s farm heritage – wire windmills, white proteas, paraffin lamps and white candied Easter eggs (this is one of my favourite, properly South African decor ideas, ever!). Everything was graceful and beautiful, none more so than the bride – isn’t she just stunning? I really love that vibrant pop of red from her shoes and her amazing Elbeth Gillis dress. It was all captured exquisitely by Cari Photography and co-ordinated by the Aleit Group, who never fail to impress. I just love it.Read More