Category: Real Life Bride Stories

Books & Bicycles Old Mac Daddy Wedding by Captured Moments Photography {Irene & Du Toit}

by gaby

I always feel a bit nostalgic when we get to the end of our Real Life Bride season, as it also signals the end of another South African summer wedding season (and summer, boo – although of course, there’s all those cosy winter weddings to look forward to!). But at the same time, it’s such a true pleasure to see the coming together of all the planning and dreaming and excitement that we’ve been a part of. Today, I’m honoured to share the handmade pastel wedding of Irene and Du Toit, whose wedding decor was a labour of love, incorporating both bicycles (for Du Toit’s favourite hobby) and books (representing translator Irene’s passion for books). From the gorgeous ribbon bedecked ceremony arch (we all remember that one from Irene’s posts!) to the pastel bridesmaids, to the swoony dress (how beautiful did the bride look?), to the spectacular view, it’s everything our RLB dreamed of, and I have to give a very special shout out to Captured Moments Photography for the spectacular pics! Thanks so much for taking us on your journey Irene, and here’s wishing you a life of love.

For Irene & Du Toit’s ‘how we met’ story and all her planning posts, check out the Bicycle Bride archive.Read More

The Ruby Bride’s EnGedi Wedding by Lad & Lass Photography {Jerusha & Gideon}

by gaby

I’ve just adored meeting our Real Life Brides this season, haven’t you? Jerusha, our Ruby Bride, always made me laugh with her hilarious take on wedding planning, and I knew that when it came to the day she married her beloved Gideon, that humour would be firmly in place, come what may. Fortunately, it was smooth sailing – a beautiful Gauteng day, a joining of two families, and a massive celebration of friendship and love. Jerusha made such a stunning bride – she’s so elegant and poised, like a ballerina, and her gorgeous lace dress was perfection. And of course, she rocked red lipstick and ruby nails! The tablescapes dotted with teacup candles were the perfect complement to the watercolour stationery design, and I love the bridesmaids’ lace cap sleeve dresses, but what really stands out in Lad and Lass‘s incredible photos is the Moments. Those memories that really make a wedding day what it is – the rest is just (very pretty) window dressing. From the look Jerusha shared with her dad as they prepared to walk down the aisle, to a bridesmaid dance party, to the newlyweds laughing together, they’ve captured them all, and I can’t but finish this post with a huge smile on my face. Congrats Jerusha and Gideon!Read More

Rustic Fairytale Lanzerac Wedding by Absolutely Loved Photography {Stella & Robin}

by gaby

Well, this is a very special day indeed, as I finally get to share the STUNNING wedding photos from one of our very own real life brides, Stella – aka the Fairytale Bride (see all Stella’s planning posts here). Aka, one of the most gorgeous brides I have ever featured – my goodness, in her photos she could star in a perfume ad (and I do mean that in a good way!). Of course, she was rocking a classic Vera Wang fit for a princess, but the real beauty is in the sheer joy and love radiating from both Stella and her handsome hubby Robin, as they said their ‘I do’s and then partied late into the night with their loved ones from near and far. As you’ll know from reading Stella’s posts, she dreamed of a rustic fairytale wedding, and that’s exactly how it turned out – every single little detail was beautiful and beautifully thought out. Being part of her journey was a pleasure and a privilege, and being able to share these amazing images from Absolutely Loved Photography (seriously, narrowing down the pics for this post was torture!) just brings it all full circle. Huge congrats to the newest SBB couple! :)Read More

Bicycle Bride #6: The Bride & Bridesmaids’ Dresses

by gaby

It’s lovely Irene’s last post today, and she’s chatting about one of our FAVOURITE things – dresses! Here’s wishing you an amazing wedding day Irene, and we can’t WAIT to see the pictures! xox

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Our wedding is now less than one week away, and I still have so much to do! So much for not leaving things ’till the last minute. We’ll be leaving for the venue on Thursday already, so I have even less time to get things done. This will be my last post before the big day, and I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate it to the most important element of the day.

Despite all the stressful issues related to this ‘last minute last week’ business, I am looking forward to getting my dress on Wednesday! My very own personal designer (read: mom) will be arriving from East London, with my wedding dress and all four bridesmaids’ dresses that she made herself. Five dresses on her own is a daunting task, as you can imagine, so I’m very glad that she managed to get past a series of minor panic attacks about my dress along the way, and that everyone will finally be able to see the end result on Saturday.

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Bicycle Bride #4: The Decor

by gaby

Pinterest is an amazing tool when planning your wedding. The possibilities and inspiration are endless and it’s highly unlikely that the virtual pin board won’t have at least a few images or posts on something you’ve entered in its search engine.

However, Pinterest can be highly addictive, and when it comes to wedding planning, it’s not always a good thing. I’ve had more than a year to decide on my decor elements for the wedding (I say “my”, because Du Toit is not interested in decor at all, and the few inputs he did try to make made no sense to me, and were thus instantly discarded…) and yet it is only now, three weeks before the big day, that I can finally say that I’ve decided on the decor for the wedding.

See, I’ve been on Pinterest practically every evening since we got engaged, and my real Pinterest board (I’ve only shared my board with shortlisted ideas) is out of control with more than 600 images! I literally changed my mind at least every week, with the result that I now have to scramble to get things done in time. Confessions of a Last Minute Crammer!

A&K027-southboundbride-old-mac-daddy-wedding-love-made-visibleRead More

Bicycle Bride #3: The Ceremony

by gaby

With only four more weekends left before our wedding, and after having more than a year to get it done. I still don’t have an arch. Or I do, sort of – it’s just not able to stand upright yet.

I fell in love with ribbon arches when I first started planning the wedding, and it’s one of the first things I started to work on. Don’t be fooled by it’s simplistic nature, it was hard work gathering and wrapping all those ribbons! I changed my arch up a bit by also using a lot of lace with the ribbon, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out (who cares that I realised too late that its structure might not be wide enough, right?). Only problem that remains unsolved is HOW TO GET IT TO STAND UPRIGHT!

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Bicycle Bride #2: The Suppliers

by gaby

I am a complete and utter indecisive person when it comes to almost anything in life (and it drives my fiancé nuts!). I have changed my mind about so many of the (DIY) decor aspects of our wedding that I’ve started to have nightmares about showing up at venue with absolutely no decor at all because I couldn’t make my mind up in time.

Ironically, there were some aspects that I wasn’t indecisive about at all. In fact, I booked our venue the very next day after we got engaged, and our photographer and my make-up artist were booked within the first month (which is a good thing – you have no idea how far in advance these people are booked!). My youngest, 15-year-old sister will be doing my bridesmaids’ and my hair. I am also very lucky in the sense that my cousin’s talented, graphic designer wife offered to do our stationery as a wedding gift, and even luckier that my mom is making not only my dress, but all four bridesmaids’ dresses as well (this naturally deserves a separate post on its own).

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Bicycle Bride #1: Meet Our Bicycle Bride

by gaby

As promised earlier, friends, we’re saying goodbye (for now) to one of our Real Life Brides, and hello to a brand new friend. Allow me to introduce the lovely Irene, who’ll be taking us through all of her ideas and inspirations before her wedding next month. Yay! Irene, we’re so happy to have you – welcome! Today, we’re meeting Irene and her fiance, and hearing a little bit about their wedding style. Meet our Bicycle Bride…

Meet Irene
I’m a translator and my fiance Du Toit is a pharmacist – we live in Bellville with our two dogs. He’s very sporty, having played professional rugby, and is now an avid cyclist/runner/crossfitter, etc. He’s completed the Absa Cape Epic twice and his suggestion for our HONEYMOON was to climb Kilimanjaro (don’t worry, I replied with a very definite “no”). I’m a couch potato who loves to read, watch my favourite series and I love to make crafty things. He’s a very sweet, happy-go-lucky person whilst I’m sort of a control freak. But I think we’re a good match and that our differences makes it work. We do share interests – we are obsessed with our two Weimaraners – our children (beware of our Facebook pages, we are those crazy dog people who spam your walls with pictures of them!) and we enjoy taking them for walks in Grabouw’s forest reserve. Although I’m not a sporty person at all, I have to confess that I love to be a spectator at his sporting events! We love to go to the movies (most of our friends think we have bad taste in movies – we strongly disagree) and we love to have coffee and breakfast at Oppikoffie on Sundays.
As mentioned, I love to make crafty things and to get married really is just the best time for craft/DIY lovers. It can also be a bad thing – I have had SO many ideas and I keep changing my mind (curse you Pinterest!). With a little under two months to go, I STILL have to make final decisions on (too) many things. Luckily our beautiful venue is a huge part of the decor in itself, which makes things a lot easier. I opted to save money and do most of the decor and all of the planning myself. Be warned, it’s true what they say: it’s super hard work to pull off a DIY wedding, so hats off to the professional wedding planners out there!

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Fairytale Bride #7: The Ceremony

by gaby

Hello lovelies! Sadly today is our last post from our Fairytale Bride, Stella (apart from her wedding, of course) – it’s been so fab following all of her posts and I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing her an amazing wedding day this weekend! We’ll be welcoming our next RLB this afternoon, so don’t miss that either :)

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Before I start writing about the joy we have found in creating our own ceremony, I wanted to mention that it is merely four days to go until we live happily ever after! My stomach is doing somersaults – the good kind – and my heart is slowly overflowing with love as we are welcoming all our family and friends to Cape Town at the moment. So many happy emotions… I am worried my heart may burst before the actual big day!

The ceremony. We’ve had an interesting experience with the planning of this one. Before having put much thought or much work into it, it felt more like a ‘task’ that had to be completed as part of the wedding planning – deciding on the what, the who and the how. As soon as we opened up to it though, and started getting into the beautiful details of readings, the choice of words and of course the music, it soon became the most magical part of all planning really. And I have a sly presumption that the ceremony may also just be my favourite part of the final big day, but that I will only be able to say in my next and final post.

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