Other - SouthBound Bride

Christmas Decor Inspiration

14 December, 2012 by gaby

Good morning, friends! I usually keep things to weddings here on SBB, but with many of you having your last day in the office today, I couldn’t help but make an exception and include this lovely, rustic Christmas table from the ladies at Green Goddess Flower Studio, Coral and Chantell. I’m a HUGE sucker for the holidays, but sometimes it’s nice to take a fresh look at Christmas decor, especially for a sunny season as we have in South Africa. I’ve always been the one in charge of the Christmas table (mostly because I was well into my 30s before my mom would let me anywhere near the kitchen), and I would love to put together something like this for the family next time – the bright orange of the pincushion protea is evocative of the richness of traditional Christmas colours, but combined with aqua and soft neutrals, is all sunny days. I love the rough hewn wood of the hearts and angels, the fun gold touches (especially the hippo – EVERY Christmas should have a hippo!), the succulents and especially the way that the blocks create visual interest with varying heights for the centrepiece, raising the look (literally!) to something extra special. Sadly, this year I won’t be home for Christmas, but I’ll just have to look at these pics to feel some summer Christmas inspiration, and I hope you will too! For those of you leaving us until the New Year – drive safe and be smart, and have a truly wonderful festive season!Read More

Featured in Wedding Inspirations

9 December, 2012 by gaby

Happy Sunday lovelies! I have been having an AWESOME weekend, including having spent yesterday with some brilliant blogging and industry buddies at a full day workshop with top photographer Victoria Grech learning all about photography and even getting to have a go at a styled shoot. So fun to be behind the camera, although my photographer friends will be glad to know that their jobs are more than safe! I might have to invest in a proper camera though… ANYWAY, I’m delighted to have some other fantastic news to share with you today. Back in May, at the tail end of three months in South Africa, I was lucky enough to work with some amazing SA suppliers to style a shoot based on my Toile & Rose inspiration board and stationery suite. It involved: three days of running around like a mad person (big thanks to my lovely friend Robs for the moral support!), turning up to lovely Elbeth Gillis‘ studio drenched from a rainstorm (thankfully she still trusted me with three of her gorgeous creations), pushing rogue shopping trolleys around Canal Walk and losing my car in the parking lot, buying Fairview out of their morning bread stock, a tour around Langkloof with manager Adelaine (who is just the sweetest) where photographer Cheryl McEwan and I basically had our mouths hanging open the whole time from how stunning it is, a courier driver who got lost with half of our decor, an amazing team on the day who not only cheerfully did their jobs but also jumped in and helped out whenever needed to assist Cheryl and myself, and finally, a set of images that I am totally in love with. And I’m delighted that I’m finally able to share these with you in the latest issue of Wedding Inspirations over TEN WHOLE PAGES. That’s a lot of awesome inspiration! The magazine is on shelves now, so get out there South Africans, and grab yours! (Everyone else will have to wait a liiiiittle while longer, but I promise it will be worth it!) HUGE thanks to the Wedding Inspirations team for this opportunity, and to every single one of the dream team (see full credits below). Yayness.Read More

The SBB 2012 Reader’s Survey: Feedback

29 November, 2012 by gaby

Hello lovelies! This afternoon I thought I would share (finally) some feedback from the 2012 readers’ survey. First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you who participated – I really appreciate your time and effort! Relaunching the blog in May was scary, and it has been so amazing not just to see the numbers grow but to hear from you what the site means to you as well. Your responses really do make a difference – they show myself (and my sponsors) how to help you, where things could be improved, and what to do more of. So again, THANK YOU. Right, here we go!

A Bride Abroad #3: The Venue

19 November, 2012 by gaby

When you start planning your wedding, friends and guides will tell you there are three things you need to book first: venue, DJ and photographer; the first of these being the venue. Finding one in the Western Cape is not a difficult task – they are there in abundance! Finding the right venue for your wedding (and that from a distance) = not so simple. More so if you’re picky. And Chris and I are picky. Boy, are we picky!

We had a whole list of requirements. The venue had to be beautiful, of course. It had to be a one-stop venue with ceremony and reception site in one place. It had to have onsite catering and accommodation. It had to be available until after twelve. The chairs at the venue had to be nice so that they didn’t have to be covered (I despise a seat cover). Linen, crockery and cutlery had to be included in the venue hire. And, last but not least, it needed to be available for the date we had chosen. Well, that narrowed down the search all right!

A Bride Abroad #2: The Inspiration

5 November, 2012 by gaby

When I was about 12 years old, I was driving in the car with my dad when a beautiful song by Ray Charles came on the radio. Turning the volume up, I mentioned to him that one day I want this man to play at my wedding. Without a beat, he immediately responded with a very determined “you shouldn’t be thinking of marriage yet, you’re far too young!” The fact is, most girls dream of that big day from a very young age and I was no exception. From the tiniest details, to the bigger meaning behind the “I do’s”, I LOVE a good old wedding bash!

Let Them Eat Wedding Cake #9: The Registry

29 October, 2012 by gaby

Regardless of whether anything is actually purchased off it, setting up a wedding registry really is fantastic fun! Having my very own barcode-gun-in-hand-moment was definitely in the top five of wedding planning experiences that I was excited to have. And when we saw that O.live Chemistry of Living was one of the stores that the Bespoke Wedding Registry worked with we immediately knew that we wanted to register with them. Not only were the items that Laura from Bespoke Wedding Registry showed us stunningly beautiful, but the ‘contribute towards’ feature that they offer on the website that they set up for you allows people to spend any amount they like whilst contributing to bigger ticket items. So we were able to choose freely, even putting things like an ice-cream machine and a Kitchen Aid grain mill on our list. :) And as it turns out, I am a gravy boat person. Since registering I have, on more than one occasion, found myself falling in love with all different kinds of beautiful gravy boats. Gravy boats, Mason Cash mixing bowls, Egyptian cotton sheets and singing kettles now make me excited in the way that stationery excites those people you see smiling at the all the books and pens in CNA (Justin). And Laura is AMAZING. She was able to find everything we asked her about – taking on new suppliers to make sure our gift registry was just perfect for us. Don’t these just make you so happy?

A Bride Abroad #1: The Proposal

22 October, 2012 by gaby

Make way! Huzzah! It’s time to introduce you to the second of our current season of real life brides – don’t worry, we haven’t lost Candice just yet, but while she’s off adding finishing touches to her planning, it’s time to meet RLB #2, Liana. Like many of our readers, Liana has had the challenge of planning her Cape wedding from abroad – not the easiest of tasks! We’ll be hearing all about her ideas and inspirations, and how she’s overcome the distance challenge over the coming weeks, but for now, let’s make her feel welcome and hear all about how she and fiancé Chris met.

Let Them Eat Wedding Cake #8: The Rehearsal Dinner

15 October, 2012 by gaby

When Justin and I can’t decide which take away to order we tend to adopt the Lorelai Gilmore approach of ordering all the top contenders and enjoying any left over’s in the week that follows. Sometimes ordering more than one thing and combining them creates a unique and rather remarkable experience, the whole sometimes being even greater than the sum of its parts. Pasta on a pizza for example. Ambrosia. So when we realised that the venue we first fell in love with couldn’t fit all our wedding guests – I think we adopted a rather similar mentality. Completely discarding this perfect venue somehow seemed like a step in the wrong direction. Surely we could find a way for it to add something wonderful to the wedding experience, set the tone, the ambiance, stir up the excitement perhaps? The solution to our wonderings? The rehearsal dinner.

Let Them Eat Wedding Cake #7: The Details

8 October, 2012 by gaby

It’s four o’clock in the morning and I’m singing “I could have danced all night; I could have danced all night, and still have begged for more. I could have spread my wings, and done a thousand things I’ve never done before…” whilst searching for pictures of wedding décor online. I think it means we are officially in the final stretch. Less than two months to go! :))

So, how will we decorate our wedding? Well… there’s table settings, for which I found myself reading a book on French and English etiquette (which I am utterly relishing) to be certain as to which cutlery to hire. There are colour schemes, where contemplation has brought me to the interesting conclusion that I am completely smitten with the colour seafoam green (or perhaps it’s just these shoes?).

Let Them Eat Wedding Cake #6: The Dress

1 October, 2012 by gaby

I’ve never been one to not know what I want. I have almost always had rather specific and clear preferences and ideas about what I do and do not care for. I know what I like and if I cannot find that I can most certainly always find what I do not like to rule things out. I don’t like horrors, I don’t like skiing, I don’t like bubblegum flavoured anything, and I don’t like minimalist design. What I do like… well since this is a dress post…

Beautiful luxurious fabrics, layer upon layer of soft, sheer material draped ever so delicately, as if angels have placed it to effortlessly express the femininity of its wearer. Ethereal. A dress that moves as you move, that seems to float as if itself experiencing the lightness of being so superbly and hopelessly in love. In the world of the dress I love Elie Saab, French Chantilly and Alencon lace, creations from the 1920s.. wedding dresses.

There is something about a wedding dress. It somehow isn’t just a white dress, or a pretty outfit. It says something. It emanates something. Maybe it’s the joy that shines out of the bride herself, or the enchantment of her devotion that gently settles on her cheeks like the snow that creates Evangeline’s dress in the movie Nanny Macphee. Maybe it’s the way the groom looks at her, which seems to expose and magnify both inner and outer beauty for all to appreciate or maybe it’s simply the shared knowledge of the magnitude of what wearing the dress means.

And I guess what I would like most out of my dress is for it to make me feel like a bride. Authentically me, but also special, because the day is special, the moment is special.

Colour-wise I would like it to be ivory – I am completely taken with the creamy look of the dress in this picture!