Author: gaby

Inspiration Board: Pantone Popsicle

by gaby

It’s been a colourful day on SBB! Here’s the latest in our week of inspiration boards, and this one was requested by bride-to-be Rita. She and her fiance are getting married in May, and are planning a modern eclectic wedding with a touch of elegance. They want white as the base colour, and then with pops of colour everywhere for their garden ceremony and reception. I personally love this look – even though it’s very colourful, the modern white base keeps it clean and stylish (much like the gorgeous styled shoot we featured earlier today). I love the idea of printed napkins (adding an extra layer of texture), coloured straws, ribbons on the chairs and a multitude of coloured lanterns. Just one word of caution – keep one part of every element plain to make those colours pop and not start looking too chaotic. For example, the bridesmaids below in their rainbow dresses with white bouquets (or change that for crisp white dresses and colourful bouquets), the white band against the coloured napkin, or the painted vases full of colourful blooms on a white runner. And how cute is that cake? Hope you like your board Rita!

Colours: Bright multicolour pastels

Top row (l-r): Bride and bridesmaids {onelove photography}; wedding invitation {Gubba Gumma}; chairs with ribbons {Elizabeth Anne Weddings/Laura Ivanova Photography}
Row 2: Colourful cake pops; polka dot napkin {Yvette Gilbert}; rainbow paper straws {Peach Blossom}
Row 3: Colour chips; colour dot cake {Martha Stewart}; painted mason jars {Jeanine Groenewald/Leipzig}.

Pantone Popsicle Inspiration Board | SouthBound Bride

Real Wedding at 401 Rozendal {Lisa & Michael}

by gaby

You guys, I am SO EXCITED about this wedding. The minute I saw it on our friend Carmen Visser‘s blog, I mailed asking if we could feature it – our first traditional Zulu wedding. Lisa and Michael are based in New York, but for their wedding, Lisa wanted to celebrate her Zulu heritage back in South Africa. I absolutely adore her traditional wedding style and protea bouquet and flower arrangements, as well as the way that venue 401 Rosendal was decorated in stylish African chic to suit the occasion. What a special day for Lisa and her family, and for all the guests who came over from the US for a truly memorable occasion. We’re so lucky to have such a rich and diverse cultural heritage in South Africa, and for me as a South African wedding blogger, it’s a pleasure to be able to showcase that in its variety. So here we go – get ready for colour and exuberance and meaning and so much fun.Read More

Inspiration Board: Ocean Lavender

by gaby

Time for another inspiration board? How are you guys enjoying having a daily one? Okay, there’s no way I could do this every week, but with so many requests coming in, it’s meant catching up a little, which means I get to make more of you happy. Win. Anyway, so today’s request comes all the way from Holland and I absolutely LOVE the colours bride Annet has chosen – lavender and blue. Because they’re complementary, they work perfectly in synch, but they’re also an unusual choice for a beach wedding (how’s this for romance – Annet and her husband are getting married at a castle they have to reach by boat, and then having dinner and dancing at a restaurant on the beach). I love this idea of bringing the country to the sea, and as well as incorporating natural textures like glass, I’d use fresh potted herbs as much as possible in the table centrepieces and lavender itself for the bouquet. The end result is soft and super stylish. Hope you love your board Annet!

Colours: Lavender and dusky blue

Top row (l-r): Bouquet {Lauren Kinsey Fine Art Photography/Lauren Kinsey Fine Art Photography + Shannon Reeves Events + Angela Haley of Hemstitch Vintage Rentals}; bottle {Krista Fox Photography/Fabulous Occasions}; bridesmaids {Images by Berit, Inc./6 Degrees of Celebration}, envelope with white wax seal
Row 2: Braided hairstyle; lavender confetti {Simply Bloom Photography}; tables {Claudia Rose Carter}; flowergirls {Olivia Leigh/Estera Events}
Row 3: Beach glass {Best Photography/Jenn Aquilia Events}; lavender pot {KT Merry/Sara Jean Events}; cake {Best Photography/Jenn Aquilia Events}; message in a bottle {Mike Larson Photographers, Inc./NLC Productions}; couple dancing {Millie Holloman Photography/Salt Harbor Designs}.

 

Lace Bridesmaid Dresses

by gaby

Image: via Belle the Magazine

Anyone who knows me would never describe me as a fashionista (I’m more of a uniform dresser – find one thing that works and buy it in every colour), but I absolutely love doing wedding fashion posts, especially since bridesmaid dresses have started taking on trends from fashion in general and not being a sort of fashion of their own (shiny, strapless, blush and bashful). Brides nowadays make so much effort to pick something their girls will wear again (although I wonder how many do, however pretty the dress is) and with the mismatched look here to stay, bridesmaids can also choose something that really flatters them and reflects their personal style. For 2013 there are a few key looks emerging, so in the next few weeks I thought I would bring you some inspiration from real weddings, as well as some of my favourite off the rack options. Today we’ll start with probably the biggest trend in SA right now – lace dresses. I personally love this one – it’s pretty, it’s textured, it works with the vintage look so many brides are going for without looking fusty, and believe it or not a lace dress is incredibly flattering (the one I own always draws compliments). Neutral lace works beautifully, but so do colours or little black lace dresses, as you’ll see below. And who says portrait backs are just for the bride? I love the way this extra touch of prettiness works in photos and there’s no doubt your girl will feel like a million bucks. Which of the looks below is your favourite? For the most recent bridesmaid dress finds, check in with our Bridesmaid Boutique Pinterest Board.Read More

Real Northern Cape Wedding {Marike & Hannes}

by gaby

You know, as much as South Africans all are mini tourism ambassadors for our homeland and can talk on to whoever will listen about the joys of Cape Town or the Garden Route, or Kruger, I wonder how many of us have really had the chance to see the many other faces of our land – its hidden places, its little secrets. When I was a kid and all my friends’ parents took them off to Plett or JBay or Knysna on school holidays, my family packed up into a car and drove cross country. My dad’s an academic, and studying rural architecture was what he did, so he knew every backroad by heart. Okay, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I was happy about it at the time, but now I feel lucky to have been pretty much everywhere at one time or another. So as much as I will always recommend places like the winelands to brides and grooms, I’d love to see more couples take the road less travelled to another part of our country. One of my favourites is the Northern Cape, with its red earth and rustic beauty, so I’m very excited to be bringing you a gorgeous wedding that really captures the loveliness of the region today. Hannes and Marike had a natural feel to their design, with succulents and proteas against prints (LOVE the black and white toile and the vintage naturalist feel of their stationery) and other textures. And how beautiful is Marike’s dress? Of course, when planning your wedding it helps when your cousin is a talented photographer, as Charmaine Spangenberg is, and she’s captured every lovely bit of this big day.Read More

The Editorial Wedding: Sneak Peek

by gaby

If you’ve been following along here, you’ll know that it’s not long now until SBB together with Anneli Marinovich will be hosting our very first workshop – The Editorial Wedding. It’s all about getting your photography published, and I have so much exciting stuff to share on the day. One of these (the most exciting, in fact) is the styled shoot being put together by the lovely Louise of b.loved with a crack team of suppliers. When we started planning EdWed, I asked Louise to put together a shoot that would get her excited, and get photographers excited, full of details and gorgeousness and the things we wedding people dream of pretty much all day and all night. A week later, we had the following conversation.

Gaby: “Hey Louise, so what sort of look do you think we’ll be going for?”

Louise: “It’s kind of Kate Spade meets Elizabeth Messina.”

Then she said a lot of other things about colour and pattern and table arrangements and ceremony areas, but I’d kind of stopped listening.

Gaby: “Dude, you had me at Kate Spade and Elizabeth Messina.”

So that’s all I’m going to say to you too. And if you’re anything like me, that’s all you’ll need. What I will say is that everytime I get one of Louise’s style boards, or when we sat last week discussing details over champers at Cannizaro House (our fantastic workshop venue), I want to make a lot of happy squealing noises. And also, I’m seriously considering finding a husband in the next three weeks, just so I can get married in Louise’s setup. It’s going to be gorgeous. Photographers: you should be there.

To get you excited, we’re sharing a few pins from Louise’s super secret Pinterest board this week (head over to b.loved and the EdWed facebook page for more, and Anneli will be sharing one soon too). Here’s mine :)

Image source: Danielle Capito Photography via 100 Layer Cake

The Editorial Wedding will be held on 9 April 2013 at Cannizaro House. Cost is £325 including lunch and a takeaway guide to UK and international publications – for full details please see our website. Not much time now, so if you’re interested please drop us a line at [email protected].

 

Inspiration Board: Bon Voyage

by gaby

Well, I promised you folks a week of inspiration, and that’s exactly what we’re delivering! After this morning’s colourful wedding, this afternoon we’re concentrating on just the one colour – the only colour this year dahling, Pantone’s 2013 colour of the year, emerald green. Reader Heather wrote to ask for an emerald board for her spring wedding in New Orleans. As it’s a destination, Heather and her fiance plan to incorporate maps and a travel motif, but they want to keep things simple and elegant. So I’ve kept travel details to a minimum, with a map guest book and other subtle touches – a little globe, postcard-style escort card tags, antique map boutonnieres for the guys and super sweet vintagey favour bags. Combined with lace and the deep emerald shade, it creates the sort of vintage feel Heather wanted, and has a nod to travel without feeling themey. Flowers are kept simple white with prominent foliage, as are the boutonnieres, and the bridesmaids wear emerald dresses with emerald shoes for the bride. For the tables, a lace runner is perfectly pretty, with a variety of small arrangements in different vases. It works, doesn’t it? Yay for emerald. Hope you like your board, Heather!

PS Photographers, if you really want to be inspired, come back in an hour when I’ll be giving you a sneak peek of what’s to come on our EdWed shoot! It’s GOOD. :)

Colours: Emerald and ivory

Top row (l-r): Mini globe on books {Blush Bridal Consultation Group/Lauren Brooks Photography}; thistle boutonnieres {Jose Villa/JL Designs}; green shoes {Dally Street Images}; map guest book {Snap Weddings}; bouquet {Anne Robert Photography/Petals & Hedges}
Row 2: Postcard escort tags {Tracie Howe Photography/Blush Celebrations}; bridesmaid dresses; cufflinks {Not on the High Street}; groomsmen {Shannen Natasha Photography}
Row 3: Bride in lace wedding dress {Tracie Howe Photography/Blush Celebrations}; favour bags with vintage aeroplane {Sarah Layne Photography/Your Perfect Bridesmaid}; table setting {Sarah Layne Photography/Your Perfect Bridesmaid}; couple with map {Celeste Duran}.

 

Real Garden Wedding {Bridget & Glenn}

by gaby

Get ready to start your day with a burst of colour, because I am bringing you such a lovely wedding full of it this morning! You know, as much as I love a formal wedding with classic, subdued decor, I can’t help but smile wide when I come across one that is built for joy. There’s such exuberance in every corner of Bridget and Glenn’s garden wedding – paper windmills, miles of bunting, dozens of mismatched vases and flowers of every kind, ably captured by the lovely husband and wife team of Knot Just Pics. But then, that kind of joy is at the centre of Bridget and Glenn’s relationship – printed on the back of their programmes was this wonderful quote, which Bridget says is just what went through her mind the first time she noticed Glenn with his two little girls and a huge, amazing smile: “Then he smiled. It was the biggest smile she’d ever seen. It was radiant and suffused with an irrepressible good humour. She looked into that prodigious smile and a strange feeling took hold of her. She smiled back at him, despite herself and felt a rush of well being, an indefinable but overwhelming sanguine cheerfulness. Things will turn out right the voice of her heart said to her. Everything will be alright. She knew, that no man who smiled with so much of his heart would knowingly hurt or harm another.” (From Shantaram) See? I love this couple already.Read More

A Bride Abroad #10: The Ceremony

by gaby

With a little less than two weeks to go till the BIG DAY, I must admit the nerves are starting to creep in. I thought I had everything so well organised and prepared that I would come home and just RELAX. Well that was an interesting plan… The little details are keeping me quite busy, but I am enjoying every day. The weather has been amazing, people have been amazing and this country is just amazing in general. I have also been completely spoilt by two kitchen teas and a super-duper bachelorettes with the coolest personal touches. So I’m having a rad time! I can’t believe the wedding is next weekend – every time that thought pops into my head, my heart makes a little jump and my stomach whirls with excitement. And nerves. But that’s what the rescue remedy is for, right? Now getting back to those formalities…

Read More

Inspiration Board: The Lake House

by gaby

Good morning, friends! Who’s ready for an inspiration-filled week? Well, I hope you are, because this week we have not one but FIVE reader requested inspiration boards to share with you. That’s a different board every day, and five different looks to fall in love with. And that’s alongside our usual raft of loveliness, so get ready to get in trouble with your IT department for stopping by SBB at least twice a day! ;) (Of course, if that’s a problem, you can always subscribe via email.) So let’s get started! Today’s board is for reader Ashley, who’s planning an autumn wedding at a lake house in Minnesota. How romantic does that sound? And romantic is the right word for the palette she’s chosen (LOVE): navy, mint and blush. Most autumn palettes are warm, but this combination of cool shades makes me think of those first chilly mornings by the water (how I miss my river runs!). Ashley’s theme for her wedding is ‘happy, love, best friends’ and she wants a mix of classic, vintage and casual comfy. I think we’ve struck the right balance here and I love the typographic elements – the invitation using the ‘today I marry my best friend’ quote and the thank you card at each guest place. The final result is soft but a little preppy, and very very pretty. Hope you like your board, Ashley!

Colours: Navy, mint & blush

Top row (l-r): Cocktail with blueberries {Chrisman Studios}; flower garland {KT Merry Photography/Beauty in the Making}; table with mint chairs {Martha Stewart}; thank you card; window with heart {Elizabeth Messina}
Row 2: ‘Today I marry my best friend’ invitation; bridesmaids with blush wraps {Emily Steffen Photography}; mint and clear vases {Laura Ashbrook Photography/Floral Occasions}; lemonade in mason jars {Ulmer Studios}
Row 3: Bride and groom on pier {Caroline + Ben Photography}; wrapped box; pink dress {Elizabeth Messina}; pink shoes; macaroons.