Beautiful Autumn Party Wedding in South Africa

Beautiful Autumn Party Wedding in South Africa

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Autumnal gorgeousness in South Africa today. Golden sunshine, crisp burnt orange leaves and a loved up couple... YAY.

Kate and Wes held their wedding reception at the Bellevue Café and wanted to create a party atmosphere. Kate wore a blush pink gown and the venue was decorated with birdcages, fairy lights and origami. Oh so beautiful.

Thanks so very much to Knot Just Pics for sharing their wonderful images today.

THE PROPOSAL | Wesley proposed to me on the 29 th December 2012. He took me out for dinner to a much loved restaurant over looking the ocean on the Durban beach front. After dessert he went to have a cigarette and was gone for ages!! I was just about to get up and look for him but when I turned around to stand up there he was on his knee with a ring in his hand. I cried immediately - though I had told myself numerous times in the past that I would never cry at that moment. All the tables around cheered and clapped. It was a total surprise and totally awesome.

THE VISION | I wanted my wedding day to be super relaxed and for everyone to have a great party. In hindsight I can say that this was achieved. Wes and I made a decision to only invite close friends and family. If I hadn't seen or spoken to you in a year then you were off the guest list. We wanted to spend the day with people we truly loved and that we were close with.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Wesley and I were engaged for 18months, this may seem like for ages - it did!! - but it gave me time to plan the wedding I really wanted and plan my budget over many months and not one great big payment in one month. I did not have a wedding planner, having been involved in the planning and setting up of many weddings at Bellevue Café I had some brilliant contacts and I naturally love organising things myself - bit of a control freak, in that then I know what I am getting.

My planning process really kicked into action with 3 months to go. The big stuff had all be booked in the first 2 months of being engaged - the venue, chapel and photographer. As a lot of my décor was handmade or hand sourced we just did a little bit each month.

Two days before the wedding I packed all my décor into boxes - 1 for each table - so that when my staff set up my wedding they literally unpacked a box and in it was everything they needed for that tables - table cloth, runner, napkin, candle holders, place names, disposable camera etc. This meant I knew that each table would look the same and how I had envisioned.

BUDGET | We were incredibly lucky that my parents had put money away for my sister and I when we both get married. Wesley's parents helped as well and my bosses at Bellevue were incredibly generous with my menu cost and venue hire fee. In the end we spent around R 60 000.00 including our honeymoon, the cost was basically split right down the centre for the two.

THE VENUE | The reception venue was a no brainer as I work as a manager at Bellevue Café and have been involved in the running of a good few weddings there myself. I knew my team would be brilliant and the food outstanding. It is a super quirky venue which I love and does not need draping which I personally hate.

The chapel we chose - Firgrove Chapel - is a gorgeous chapel placed high on a hill in horse country. It is a beautiful stone chapel which is run by the most lovely couple. It is small and quaint and fitted perfectly with the look and feel of our wedding.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was hand made by Shona. I decided when I got engaged that I would spend the most money on my dress, photographer and honeymoon, so I did. My dress was vintage inspired both in design and colour. I went for a sweetheart neckline with the top part of my dress all boned. It had a small zip at the back down by my coccyx bone, then a corset back with full ribbon which tied at the bottom, so you could see my back through the ribbon.

I wore a full hoop petticoat underneath my dress which pulled it right out like a court dress. The material that covered the boned part of my dress was folded in such a way so that it was pleated. Shona used some of the lace that I chose to add texture to the bodice both on the sides and at the top by mu bust line. She made a flower out of the lace which we attached onto my dress on the left hip which help tie the top to the bottom. The main part of my dress was made from a dusky/mink coloured material, Shona gathered it up on the sides and at the back creating layers in the skirt and giving it volume. The lace that I chose was a champagne colour with a lovely flower pattern repeated and a lace scallop round the bottom. Shona used this lace in the front of my skirt, she placed it under the base material and the pulled the base material aside so that you could see the lace as I walked. The scallop at the bottom of the lace made a gorgeous bottom to the dress. I had a small train that could be pinned up if I wanted.

My veil was similar in colour and design to the lace on my dress. I did not have a long veil just 75cm and it was one layer. My shoes were very simple and came from Woolworths, they were flat pumps silver in colour with a bit of glitter. Wes and I are the same height so I didn't go for high heels and I wanted to be comfortable.

My jewellery was very simple as I do not usually wear a lot on a daily basis. My earrings were a gift from my bridesmaids - something new. My bracelet was lent to me by Beth - something borrowed. I also wore a second bracelet - my sister Alice gave it to me while we were getting ready as a gift from one sister to another. My garter was champagne lace with blue ribbon detail - something blue. I wore my pink sapphire ring which both matched my dress and was the first present Wes gave me.

My hair I kept as I had done for a while - blonde on top and dark underneath. I had the most amazing lady from Russia French plait my hair, she was out of this world! She French plaited it round my head and then pulled it round over my left shoulder. She had curled the bottom half so it sat so nicely on my shoulder.

FINDING THE DRESS | I looked through copious amounts of wedding magazines and images on the internet. I also went to the NWJ Bridal fair - this was where I got my idea for a pink dress. I knew I didn't want to wear white, I do not look great in it and it is such a boring colour. There was a fashion show at the fair and the last dress to come out was pink, it caught my attention straight away. My dress was a mixture of three pictures that I found in magazines. Shona drew it up for me in one image and we went from there. I did not try any dresses on.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Wesley's suit along with his grooms men's came from Debonair Suit Hire. I had bought them all socks with their relevant role printed on the side. For example we wore socks which said groom on the side of each of them. We had a cool photo taken with their pant legs pulled up showing off their socks. I had ties made for each of them. Wesley's tie matched my dress and the grooms men matched my bridesmaids. They also had pocket fillers in the same colour. As I didn't want to be too matchy matchy I said to the guys that they did not have to wear the same colour suits. Wesley wore a grey suit - a slate grey colour, not too dark or light - and the rest wore black.

I also had a ring bearer. His sister was my flower girl, I have known their mum since I was very young and I've known Cade since he was born 5 years ago. He wore his own cord pants and shoes as he was quite particular about wearing knew clothes, but we managed to convince to wear a little waistcoat I had made by Shona and a teal bow tie.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Both myself and Wesley are not church goers so we did not have a very religious ceremony. The chapel we chose - Firgrove Chapel - is a non Dominican chapel and we were married my a retired Presbyterian pastor - Clive Jacobs. Clive started our ceremony with a beautiful poem about love and marriage. Wesley and I used traditional vows. As we left the chapel the bells were rung - it was awesome!!

As I walked down the isle the song I chose was Shaun Jacobs - End of the Road. It was a song that made me feel like Wes was singing it to me. When we walked into Bellevue Café we played Shaun Jacobs - Love Can - it is like an anthem to me. We danced our first dance to John Legend - All of You.

We had an awesome DJ - Slade, he came from a company that had done weddings at Bellevue Café before and I had always been really impressed by them. He played awesome music for all ages - my parents danced all the way through to 1 in the morning!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My gorgeous bridesmaids consisted of my two best friends and my sister. I didn't want them to have to buy everything themselves so I had their dresses made by Shona and I bought their jerseys. I liked that the dresses and jerseys didn't all match, they fitted each persons personality. I chose the colour teal as that was my accent colour for my décor and I knew it was a colour that would suit all of them. The only say I had in the dresses was the length - I wanted them just above the knee, cocktail style - the rest they designed themselves. I loved that they were simple and can be worn again at other functions and don't look super wedding styled. I want them to wear their dresses loads!! Their shoes were simply like fine - flat pumps - which they bought from Woolworths. Shoes were not a big item for me, I wanted them to match and be flat, as I was wearing flats. I have gone to too many weddings where everyone takes their shoes off because they are so high and uncomfortable. The ladies did their own hair with the help of each other and my make up artist on the day of the wedding at my mum's house while we were getting ready. Again I said they could do what they liked as long they didn't plait their hair as mine was. I wanted them to feel comfortable in what they had and also happy that they looked awesome - which they all did.

I also had a flower girl, I have known her mum since I was 9 years old and I have known Riley since the day she was born 8 years ago. Her dress was also made by Shona. It was an awesome to the floor baby doll style dress, with a huge bow at the back, she wore silver pumps to match mine and my florist made her a wreath of babies breath and daisies which sat in her hair. Riley was so brave on the day, she led everyone down the isle and then held the basket of flower petals on the steps outside after the ceremony. There some brilliant pictures taken of us both on the dance floor.

THE FLOWERS | Well here is a story! As I did with the rest of my wedding décor I sourced the flowers myself and then my mum and godmother put the arrangements together. So to start one of the ladies who got married at Bellevue before me had amazing flowers and she mentioned where she had gotten them from. So the day before the wedding at 4am in the morning my mum and I embarked on our mission to the flower market to purchase all my flowers. I must mention here that up until this moment everything had gone very smoothly in the arrangement of my wedding. We arrived at what we hoped was the right place and were promptly led to a stall where a lady had one bucket of red roses - we were told this was the flower market! So here we are at 5am in the dark in the middle of a foreign area and clearly very lost, we phoned a family friend who told us that no flowers markets will sell to the public you have to own a florist shop or décor company. So feeling rather despondent and freaking out just a bit we set out to find flowers. We travelled all over and in the end bought my flowers from three different shops. A lovely lady on the side of the road, a flower stall outside a shopping centre and a florist.

The colours I chose were purples, blues, whites, greenery and grey filler and dusky pinks. I used dusky purple roses, delphiniums, pink and purple peonies, white chrysanthemums, babies breathe and purple and white mickey daisies. We took all the flowers back to my god mothers house where my mum and her spent the day in their garage doing the centre pieces - the bird cages - and the single vases. They stayed overnight in the garage and then half went to the chapel and half went straight to Bellevue.

My bouquet, my bridesmaids bunches, the buttonholes and my flower girl's wreath were made a wonderful lady named Kim who owns a company called The Kloof Florist. I told her I wanted white daises and blue/purple accent flowers. The delphiniums and tulips she used were amazing, the lady who caught my bouquet - my best friend - said it lasted for 8 days after the wedding. The bridesmaids bunches consisted of delphiniums and daises - the button holes for the men were the same. My bouquet was wrapped in teal ribbon which off the bouquet against my dress really well and it matched my bridesmaids dresses.

THE CAKE | Being rather non traditional and a huge non lover of plastic icing cakes I chose cupcakes as my wedding cake. They were chocolate cupcakes filled with balsamic soaked cherries and topped with a cream cheese icing. They had teal decorations placed in the icing and were in silver cupcake holders to match the theme. They were placed on a glass cupcake tier display with a simple chocolate cake on top for Wes and I to cut. The chocolate cake was then shared amongst the staff that worked my wedding.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographers were outstanding!! From the outset I knew I didn't want a photographer that did posed photos all placed nicely and all smiling. When we met Szerdi and Andy from Knot Just Pics I knew we had found the perfect match. I never quite realised that they were there during the reception which sounds terrible but was super cool as then I didn't see all the pics they took. They were so creative with the pictures they took of Wes and I and of our bridal party and their sense of humour made me laugh and thousand times. Their photos of us are simply the best gift we got for our wedding.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | I had a vague idea of what I wanted the tables to look like and I always knew I wanted to use grey and blue of some sort as an accent colour. My ideas really started flowing when my mum and I went shopping at Mr Price and we found the most amazing bird cages - which I used as my centre pieces. From there we decided on short and tall vases for the single flowers on each side of the birdcages and we found awesome glass jars with a silver detail round the top to hold tealight candles. All of these items we bought from Mr Price. There is a lovely Zimbabwean man who sits outside the shopping centre just in front of Bellevue and makes wire goods to sell. I love his work and knew I wanted to incorporate it somehow into my wedding. For my seating plan I didn't want to do a boring easel, so I got Caphes - my Zimbabwean artist - to make me a wire tree in silver with blue beads and marbles for leaves. This sat in the courtyard if Bellevue with my seating plan cards hanging from the branches, this way as people were enjoying their drinks and the cheese platter they could find their table number. The wire birds in my bird cages were also made by Caphes. I definitely had loads of help along the way, one of my bridesmaids Natalie made my 80+ origami cranes which hung in the tree in the middle of Bellevue. Beth my best friend in the whole wide world - we have know each other since we were 2 years old - and one of my bridesmaids - made my table numbers, the "to do lists" which went with the disposable cameras on each table and she washi taped the box that our rings went in. The table cloths, napkins and runners were all hired from a company called Designer décor, they also hung all the fairy lights at Bellevue which softened the venue and gave the most awesome atmosphere.

I decided to put disposable cameras on each table as I thought this would be a fun way for tables to interact and for us to get some cool pictures, I placed a teal tag on each which said smile. I had a tree stencil printed on canvas which I sat on an easel under the tree in Bellevue and everyone printed their name next to their thumb print - blue or green ink for leaves - so we now have a reminder hanging in our house of all the people that came to our wedding.

I sourced wooden and metals hearts from all over - these were hung in different accent points throughout Bellevue. I two big woven wooden hearts which were hung on the big entrance door to Bellevue. In the courtyard where guests gathered while we were having our photos I hung glass baubles in the lemon trees and little hearts - this helped carry the décor outside and made the whole venue set for a wedding.

I made my place names myself - I got the idea from a bridal fair I attended earlier in the year and thought it really suited my wedding. It was also dead simple to make. It consisted of a large present tag - I bought them in packs from my local art shop - a clothes peg to hold to it in place, washi tape acted as a splash of colour - I used a teal washi tape with a swirly pattern which I was super lucky to find. Then all you did was stick a strip of washi tape three quarters of the way down the tag, write the guests name above - I date stamped them as well just to be a bit quirky - and then clip it to the peg at a jaunty angle.

The idea for the gifts that we gave to all our guests came from a wedding magazine that I read. I didn't want to do a plant or chocolate or booze, as this has been done loads in the past. So when I saw this idea I loved it - survival kits. I made these myself as well and my bridesmaids helped me pack them together. They consisted of a coffee mug, small amarula, home-made rusks and a sachet of coffee. I did them per couple or individual ones for single guests. I placed all the items in a brown takeaway bag, which I then folded down and stapled holes through. I tied them shut with teal ribbon and marked them with the initial of the guest/s. I found these little wooden letters at my art shop so I used those. I also had thank you tags made - The Bridal Gallery - which I threaded onto the teal ribbon with a little thank you note from Wes and I.

My décor was a mixture of quirky, rustic and a hint of vintage. I gathered my ideas from all over and with help from some very special people it all came together.

THE HONEYMOON | Our first two nights we spent close to home at the Valley Lodge. This was really nice as we didn't have to travel far from the reception and we had a chance the following day to open our presents. This made the whole weekend seem longer which was cool as I woke up on Sunday feeling like you do the day after Christmas - rather deflated. Opening our presents with my dress hanging on the chair next to the bed was brilliant!

We spent the next 5 days at Leopard Mountain Game Lodge - it was out of this world and I recommend them to everyone!! The food was amazing, the game viewing superb! - we saw everything except the elusive Leopard himself - and our room was beautiful. From there we drove to Cathedral Peak Hotel. We stayed in their honeymoon suite with an unadulterated view of the mountains. We had a lovely 5 days hiking and relaxing on the hotel's veranda. It was a totally memorable 10 days and a perfect way to spend our first days together.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | My most memorable moment is an odd one. The whole day getting ready I felt like I was just getting ready to go out to lunch with my friends but when I got out of the car at the chapel it all became real, that's when I really felt in the moment. I also remember being blown away by Wesley's speech - he hates talking in public, but the words he chose were so perfect!

Wesley's most memorable moment he says is when he first saw me at the top of the stairs at the chapel waiting with my dad to walk down the isle.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | I was given this advise and I didn't think I would need it but trust me you do! Once Wes and I arrived at Bellevue after our photos we spent 5 minutes in the gardens alone - it was brilliant!! Literally the only 5 mins we had alone that day until we left and it was so nice to have a moment to gather ourselves and realise that we were actually married!! So take 5 mins it is totally worth it!

And finally surround yourself with people on the day that mean the world to you. Our wedding was small but every single person there held a special part in our hearts.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Lighting and décor hire | Designer Décor

Sound | DJ Slade (Big 5 productions)

Photographer | Szerdi and Andy ( Knot Just Pics)

Venues | Firgrove Chapel and Bellevue Café

Bride's Dress | Shona

Make up for Bride and Maid of Honour and Bridesmaids | Lisa van Lyliveld

Groom's Suit | Debonair Suit Hire

Cake | Janet Sawkins - Madelines

Florist | Kim ( The Kloof Florist)

Hair stylist | Entropy

Amazing.

Thanks so so much for sharing guys XOXO Lou

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