Category: Inspiration

Honeymoon Inspiration: 10 Dreamy South African Honeymoon Suites

by gaby

Outside my window it’s cold and stormy and miserable (um, hello Durban, where is the sunshine?) so it’s the perfect time to look indoors for some swoony honeymoon inspiration. Because let’s be honest, you’re going to spend a fair amount of your honeymoon IN the bedroom, right? These ten suites from South African hotels are the bees knees and the cat’s miaow – they’re luxe, they’re atmospheric (often taking in absolutely breathtaking scenery), and most of all they’re super, super romantic. Start dreaming. (And PS, grooms take note – they’d also make for a hell of a proposal/anniversary surprise!) And PS, did you know that if you book your trip via Expedia and become an Expedia+ Rewards member, you’ll save 10% or more just by logging in? WIN.
This post includes affiliate links. SBB may receive a commission on any sales.

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Millésimé Styled Shoot by Jana Marnewick

by gaby

Happy Friday, brideys! Hope you have a fun weekend planned, but first, we have lots of lovely coming your way, starting with this vintage French style bridal inspiration shoot from Jana Marnewick Photography. Jana based the shoot around ‘millésimé’, a French term meaning ‘vintage’ and she has created some absolutely stunning looks for a variety of brides. I am just loving the romance of light on lace, and I can’t quite decide between the soft pastel palette of the first table and the statement autumn palette of the second. Whichever is your favourite, you’ll find lots of inspiration here.Read More

African Sunset Engagement Shoot by Tanya Jacobs Photography

by gaby

Afternoon lovely ones! I have such a pretty engagement shoot to share with you, from a group of the loveliest wedding pros based in KZN, including photographer Tanya Jacobs and stylist Jana Vorster. When Tanya sent over Gareth and Natalie’s pics, I was struck by how much more than a couple shoot was – in fact, it was also a beautiful gift for a treasured friend. Tanya says of the bride to be: “Natalie is such a gentle soul, always wanting to please others and ensure everyone around her is happy, even if this means she has to suffer/struggle/work exceptionally hard. When thinking about her engagement shoot, I knew I would need to do something amazing for her in return for all the love she gives to others.” How sweet is that? The result is this lovely styled shoot, which reminds me of Out of Africa or The English Patient – rustic luxe, vintage romance!Read More

BHLDN Fall 2014 Lookbook

by gaby

If there’s one store I REALLY wish would come to South Africa, it’s BHLDN, Anthropologie’s wedding branch, who never fail to inspire me on a browse through their website. I’m particularly in love with their line of wedding gowns, especially since the prices aren’t bad considering how beautiful the dresses are. Even though I can only dream about visiting one of their stores, the good news is that BHLDN do ship to SA, so for today’s fashion feature I just had to share their latest lookbook with you all. This is romantic city style at it’s finest – proving that even a registry office wedding doesn’t have to be short on style. It stars models and real-life couple Ava and Ryan, and I just love the chemistry that they have in these gorgeous pics! For all BHLDN’s latest dresses and international shipping information, head over to their website.Read More

15 Free Script Fonts For Your Wedding

by gaby

You’ve probably picked up by now that I (like most other wedding bloggers) am a HUGE fan of calligraphy, especially the modern hand lettering that has taken wedding design by storm the last couple of years. I especially love that calligraphy isn’t just for envelopes and place cards anymore – with lasercut and other processes, it’s become a decor feature too. Now, let’s be clear – if you want breathtakingly beautiful hand lettering, there is no substitute for the talented calligraphers who make this their business. The fees may seem hefty, but it’s labour and time intensive work, and I totally support these small business owners. However, the fact is that many couples just don’t have the budget for this lust-have, even if they want to. And in South Africa, there’s also only a very small number of people offering the kind of work you’ve seen on American wedding blogs. So what’s the solution? Well, as I say, it’s not quite the same, but a very pretty second best is to choose and use one of the gorgeous script fonts that are available online. There are a few premium fonts that lead the way in this area, but if you’re not willing or able to fork out for these, the good news is that you’re not stuck with whatever crappy script fonts you can find in MS Word these days. There are some absolutely lovely calligraphy fonts out there available absolutely free for personal use, and I’ve rounded up 15 of my favourites! If you’d like to download one of them, just follow the links below and hey presto – you’ll have a shiny new font to brand your wedding with.Read More

Inspiration Board: Bright Sunshiney Day

by gaby

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been exploring Pantone’s Spring 2015 palette, and today we have another lovely combination, bringing together pastel blue and yellow with a pretty sea green shade. I love how the combination of the blue and green adds depth, and then the yellow is a bright pop of action against these serene shades – perfect for a summer wedding in my opinion. It’s also a fresh alternative to the yellow and grey colour scheme that is still so popular, as it has the same mix of cool and bright.

Colours: Pantone Aquamarine, Lucite Green & Custard

Top row (l-r): Lace & seafoam tulle dress {Jodi Miller}; centrepiece {Julie Paisley Photography}; bridesmaids {Segerius-Bruce/Tiffany Grant-Riley}; sweets
Row 2: Bride & groom {Clary Photo}; shoes with bow; lemons {Meadowbrook Farm}
Row 3: Lemonade {Caroline Joy Photography/Sweet Sunday Events}; place setting {Jen Huang}; cake on yellow stand {Stephanie Williams Photography/Sweet and Saucy/JL Designs}; church {Bree Madden}.

Aqua and Yellow Summer Wedding Inspiration

 

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The Cavern Drakensberg

by gaby

Before we close out the week, I wanted to share a little hideaway I discovered recently: The Cavern hotel in the Drakensberg. Originally I was planning to meet friends from Joburg there (it’s half way-ish between Joburg and Durban, making it a convenient weekend break from either) but in the end my mum came out with me for a couple of days of R&R, and you guys, it was awesome. A few days of mountain air (and limited time on social media) was just what I needed to clear my head and relax. It’s a great resort for families, but it’s also the perfect place for a honeymoon, a bit of a romantic mini-break or even a pre-wedding girl’s chill-out weekend, so of course I had to share it with you too!Read More

A SouthBound Guide to Flower Meanings

by gaby

I did a post on the language of flowers a few years ago, when Kate Middleton selected the blooms for her bouquet to represent various sentiments, and I thought it was about time to update it and introduce some of you to a beautiful tradition you might not be aware of. In fact, the language of flowers goes back about 200 years, and was especially popular in the Victorian era, when young ladies consulted one of the many flower dictionaries available at the time in constructing their ‘tussie-mussies’. These days the interest in ‘florigraphy’ has largely been lost, but I think it’s a super romantic vintage tradition to bring into your wedding (as this real bride did to gorgeous effect) and a really sweet, meaningful way to construct your bouquet. You can find meanings for dozens of blooms online (this site is a favourite), but today I’ve drawn together ten of our favourite wedding flowers together with their meanings, which come from The Knot Book of Wedding Flowers by Carley Rooney. And some gorgeous wedding flowers to get swoony over too, of course!

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Sparkler Send-Offs

by gaby

Sometimes I just like to post pretty pictures of things I like, and I REALLY like sparkler send-offs. Maybe it’s because they look so magical and Hollywood ending-ey, or maybe it’s just because sparklers were the only fireworks that didn’t scare the living crabcakes out of me when I was a child (I HATED Guy Fawkes, still kind of do). Whatever, sparkler exits are awesome. It seems to be more of a thing among our friends in the US (and of course some venues won’t allow them for fire insurance reasons), but if you can do a sparkler exit, not only is it a great way to end the evening, it’s also a hell of a photo. Of course, your photographer may have gone home by then, so this is the one time I’m going to say be sure you have a friend who loves photography at the ready, because done right it really is too good a shot to miss. Safety obviously is also a concern – make sure you have a couple of sensible (and sober) friends or family members on fire marshall duty, fire extinguishers at the ready, and metal sand buckets for disposal of the hot sparklers afterwards. To make sure this works, you’ll also need more than the standard little sparklers – large ones are available online, and have about a four minute burn time. Which also means there’s no need to run down the line (often making it a better photo). Needs a little pre-planning, but as you’ll see in the pics on this post, totally worth it.Read More

Geometric Wedding DIY Roundup

by gaby

I say this all the time, but HOW is time going so fast? I could swear I’ve done loads of these DIY roundups this year, but when I looked at the archives, it turned out not so much. Eish. Anyway, I’m excited to bring you this one, because geometrics have become such a key trend in weddings this year. (Psst, look out for tomorrow’s wedding for a gorgeous example.) And of course, it’s not just a trend in weddings, but in fashion and interiors too, which is a bonus because some of the clever DIYs that internet creatives have come up with are absolutely perfect for quirky wedding details. I’ve rounded up fifteen of my faves for you today.

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