Welcome to SouthBound Bride

You’re engaged! Congratulations and welcome to all my new readers, who got engaged over the festive season and are stopping in here for the first time today. Or have been secretly stopping in for ages, but now have a ring ;)

I’m Gaby, the owner, writer, editor, designer, programmer, publicist, ad exec and chief bottle washer here at SBB. This site is my baby – for almost three years now I have been bringing South African brides (or brides getting married in South Africa, or inspired by South African weddings) the best that our beautiful country has to offer, through a combination of inspiration, ideas and advice. I love what I do, and I can’t wait to get to know more of you soon!

We’ll be kicking off our new year content shortly, but first off, I wanted to give you a little tour if this is your first time on the blog. This way, please! Follow me!

Every day on SBB, you can expect some kind of wedding inspiration. We have usually between one and two posts every week day, and generally follow this schedule (click through on the links for our archives):

• Mondays: Inspiration Boards & Real Life Bride – IBs are one of our most popular features, and you can even request your own! RLB features are also a big hit with readers, as we follow real brides through their planning and ideas, right up to the big day. :)
• Tuesdays:Real Weddings and Couple Shoots or Styled Shoots
• Wednesdays:Real Weddings and Trends & Ideas roundups
• Thursdays:Real Weddings and Couple Shoots or Styled Shoots or Hen Parties/Bridal Showers or Boudoir
• Fridays:Guest Posts or Practical Advice/Features and Supplier Spotlights
• Weekend:The Love List (my weekly roundup of the best of the wedding web)

Speaking of the archives, there’s so much for a new bride to get lost in, and I’ve tried to make it super easy for you to find. Start with our top posts, and then check out some real weddings (you can find them by location or type via the top menu above) or inspiration boards (search by colour, if you like). If you’re looking for great suppliers, you’ll find them not only at the end of each real wedding, but in our directory categorised by area in South Africa. And be sure to check out our sponsors in the sidebar – they are all awesome! You can also browse our categories or tags in the drop down and cloud in the sidebar (head to under the adverts) or just search directly (first box in the sidebar, can’t miss it). And while you’re at it, why not sign up for our monthly newsletter for even more ideas and inspiration?

Readers find their way here in lots of different ways (currently working on better mobile/cellphone access!) – you can access SBB on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for now (with more coming soon). If you’re worried about work access, the easiest thing is to sign up for daily emails – you’ll get all the SBB content straight into your inbox!

Finally, I’ve lined up some of the top posts that newly engaged couples will be interested in on the slider for this week – so why not dive in and see what takes your fancy. And here’s a little preview of a big announcement – later this week (hopefully!) I will be bringing you something very special, designed specifically for all of you new SouthBound Brides to help you get started and find your feet in wedding planning. Watch this space!

Those are the basics! For now, WELCOME, and feel free to drop me a mail to say hello! (gaby{at}southboundbride{dot}com) – email mastery is my new year’s resolution so I’ll do my best to get back to you promptly!

Gaby xx