Good afternoon, lovelies – hope today has been treating you well? I’m stoked to be bringing you another in our ‘Behind the Menu’ series, where we celebrate weddings where food is at the centre of proceedings. Being a bit of a foodie myself, I love looking at how a great menu is customised for each couple, although by the end of working with these pics I am dying to eat the food! Never more than today, in fact, because this lucky Dutch bride and groom had several incredible courses including a fresh crayfish entree. One of my all-time favourites! It really makes me miss home, and especially remember my last meal before going off to university, when we spent the day at Betty’s Bay with my cousins and feasted on crayfish they’d brought in fresh from the sea that morning. Wow. Food flashback! Anyway, I love that the executive chef at Stir Food, Gustaav Boshoff, included it here, alongside a menu that really shows off the best of South African cuisine. Oh, and PS, how much do I love the hanging floral decor? Just gorgeous. Perfect execution from The Aleit Group, as always!
Yay for summer, SouthBound Brides. It’s finally hit London, and I am loving it! Yesterday I spent a brilliant afternoon with the lovely ladies of The Pretty Blog over at Peggy Porschen, eating cake and drinking champagne, and was home in time for sundowners in the garden. Delightful! Today’s Bloemendal wedding has the same lazy, hazy, glorious feeling that a good summer afternoon always gives me – Kim du Toit’s pictures are so dreamy and yummy! I adore the romantic details done just right – the peachy neutral palette, the mismatched bridesmaids dresses, the outdoor photobooth, the papel picado gardlands, the ribbon backdrop, OMG. I’ve seen these in lots of inspiration shoots, but I love that this couple incorporated it into their décor. Having it over the door to the venue meant that it was a focal point both inside and out, and they placed the bridal table in front of it accordingly. Very clever! But it’s no surprise the bride has great taste, since she’s one of the team over at the fantastic Secret Diary Designs, one of my favourite SA wedding stationers. I know you ladies are going to lap this one up!Read More
Woohoo, we’re getting our sparkle on today! Reader Tracey sent me a request for help with her summer wedding at the Oyster Box hotel – she and her fiance were leaning towards neutal colours but weren’t yet decided. They’re a young couple, so they also wanted to add a bit of fun to the event, and make their design simple and fresh. I love the Oyster Box as a venue (it’s actually one of my all-time faves) and I thought neutral colours were a great idea as not only will they work perfectly with the hotel’s interiors, they’ll also play up the colours of the beach. Flat neutrals, especially with natural and linen accents, can make for a gorgeous beach-style do. However, with Tracey’s request for fun, I immediately thought of the metallic and shimmer trends we’re seeing at the moment – there’s just something about a few sequins that puts everyone in a good mood. And it’s so easy to bring a bit of New Year’s Eve spirit into your design. Start with a basic palette of lots of clean white, with ivory and cream variations, and a bit of taupe, and then metallics like gold, silver and bronze. Add in fun sparkly accents – shiny bridesmaids dresses, metallic garlands and (my best) a blingy pinata! Pair this with beachy touches like shells and cute ‘message in a bottle’ escort cards. Finally, have fun with the food (this is an easy way to delight your guests, and makes the whole thing a fun experience) – you could have an unusual cake (like donuts) or serve mini ice-cream cones instead of dessert. Tracey can afford to be daring in her wedding attire – I just love the idea of a single (or multiple!) bold statement necklaces. What makes this look easy to pull off is that it’s essentially a classic white wedding with selected over-the-top moments, that add a real punch. And my, but isn’t it pretty? Hope you like your board Tracey – good luck with your planning!
I am thrilled about this post, you guys! Thrilled, with a capital TH. One of the sheer pleasures I have in working in this wedding industry, apart from connecting brides and vendors, and hearing and telling your stories, is to work with photographers who take my breath away. Many of them are in South Africa, but today I’m featuring the work of a Portuguese duo who have not only wowed me with their collective styling and photographic genius, but have become dear online friends as well (hopefully to be realised in real life too, one day!). Andre and Sofia from Branco Prata are just the king and queen of romantic, dreamy pics, and I can’t believe my luck that they’ve agreed to share some of that with you all today. You know, I love a shoot with props, but this little e-session shows that with the right photographer, even a simple stroll through a park can result in some of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. Seriously, I could have shared dozens with you – it was so hard to choose! But here are my favourites of the lovely Patricia and Andre, a doctor and nurse who were married in a beautiful wedding in Porto in June. Andre and Sofia – thank you so much for gracing these pages with your loveliness! It’s always such a pleasure working with you! (Psst! You can see more of this exquisite e-sesh right here.)Read More
You know, every time I feature a wedding that has proteas as a key element, I get a bunch of extra hits, and not just from inside SA. What can I say – the world loves a protea. So it’s no surprise that our national flower has become a defining feature of South African wedding style (in fact, this blog almost got called something along the lines of Protea Brides, but I decided it sounded like it was for cricket WAGs. It also almost got called Braaied, but that’s another story). Today I have another breathtaking protea-filled wedding for you, this time from the talented Laura Jane Photography at Likweti Lodge in Mpumalanga. Flip and Claudine’s lovely wedding walks that line between traditional and modern – I particularly love the variety of proteas, vases (both glass and silver) and heights in the table arrangements, as well as the lovely crocheted tablecloths, which they sourced from family and friends. Their ceremony area is also one of my favourites ever – how wonderful are all the fabric ribbons hanging from the tree? And my goodness, that sweetie bar has me craving some homemade fudge. So take your lunch hour to enjoy these lovely pics – but don’t forget to come back later when I have an AMAZEBALLS e-session to share!Read More
One of the biggest trends of the last couple of years has to be the move away from uniform bridesmaid dresses, to putting your girls in a variety of styles or colours that complement each other. I still get a little thrill whenever I see this done well, and I know that it’s made many bridesmaids themselves happy, including me. But what if you really want your girls to wear the same dresses, and still want to distinguish them? To let them each express their personality a little? Then this series of posts is for you. In Part 1 we’ll be looking at the mini-trend of individual bouquets. This has to be one of my all-time favourite bridesmaid trends! Probably because of how much I love flowers – the idea of having several beautiful bouquets instead of just one with variations really excites me.Read More
Surprise! That’s what today’s wedding is, literally. I’ve always loved the idea of a surprise wedding – there’s something that’s so heartfelt and quirky about it. So when I heard that one of my favourite wedding and lifestyle bloggers (Vicki of the amazing I Want That and I Want That Wedding brands) had a surprise wedding in favourite spot, Kalk Bay, I just knew I had to feature it. That was before I had even met Vicki properly (PS she’s just as fab in real life) and heard her and Justin’s story. And yes, heartfelt is definitely the word. The result is a laid back, intimate, special people-oriented wedding and couple shoot rolled into one that feels quintessentially Cape Town and 100% personal. And speaking of personal touches, how much do I LOVE the way Vicki and The Captain customised the ‘This is Your Life’ poster? It’s this kind of detail that makes me love the job I do. I also loved the way Vicki and Justin spent time having pics on their own and with his girls, together with the awesome Lar Leslie,before the big reveal. Read More
It’s Inspiration Board Monday! And today it’s a reader request. I just love it when you ladies give me a creative challenge, so when I heard from bride Tanja about her vintage golf-themed wedding I couldn’t WAIT to get started! The wedding is set for autumn, so Tanja’s chosen a palette of red, green and dusky pink (which I think is perfect for this theme and time of year). Tanja’s fiance is crazy for golf and they both love old things, so they merged these loves together to create their theme of old world golf, and they’re hosting it at a golf resort as well. Tanja also wanted to include elements like lace and proteas, which grow wild in the area. I started off by looking at lots of golf-themed weddings, and wow, some of them are a liiiittle cheesy. So as with all themes, subtlety is key. My first recommendation is that Tanja and her fiance hire a great designer, because stationery would really tie everything together here. Ask them to use argyle in your colours as a motif throughout, and combine it with vintage golfing imagery or clip art (similar to the birthday invitation below) to create a sort of ‘brand’ for all the paper goods- this is a great way of making an unusual theme work cohesively. You can reflect the argyll in the gents’ attire (how cute are groomsmen in sweater vests?) or just their socks if you’d prefer them to wear suits. You can even give them tee boutonnieres! For the bridesmaids, you can’t go wrong with green dresses, but you could use red or pink instead (or even have each of them in a different colour). For the bride, I love this vintagey lace dress with a birdcage veil (red lipstick is a must!) and statement protea bouquet. Tanja can subtley extend the golfing theme using trays of wheatgrass with little golfing flags for escort cards, and either number her tables like golf holes, or name them after famous courses. But my favourite detail is the use of vintage trophies (golfing or otherwise) as vases throughout the table decor. This is a classy nod to the sport, without resorting to jars full of golfballs or similar! Tanja – I hope you like the board and good luck with your planning journey. I can’t WAIT to see how it turns out!
Welcome to Part 2 of our Moroccan-themed inspiration Friday! Didn’t you just love the dresses I showcased this morning? Not to mention the gorgeous backdrop… Of course, I’ve never actually been to Morocco (although I have done Tunisia and Egypt) but it is most definitely on the list. There’s just something so romantic and English Patienty about it all, isn’t there? Which is probably why it makes a great wedding theme, and I’ve been seeing full-scale Moroccan style weddings or just weddings with Moroccan touches popping up all over the place. But there’s one big word of warning here. Going overboard will make this theme look like a cheap Christmas party. Do not – I repeat, do NOT – go overboard. Don’t lean towards the obvious, but rather be inspired by the general North African design aesthetic, and then have fun with it.Read More
I do love a bit of designer dress inspiration, and I’ve been dying to share this with you ever since I saw the pics of Stephanie Allin‘s 2013 collection (Night and Day) which debuted at the White Gallery this year (boo, I was in Durban and missed it). Then I read that the collection was being shot in Fez, and had partly been inspired by the soft pinks and blues, amber, and metallics found in Morocco, with a bit of a seventies flare added in, and I knew I had to wait until the official pictures were released. So worth the wait. I absolutely love this soft and feminine collection, with layers of texture, and Morocco makes the perfect exotic backdrop to show it off. It has me yearning for a trip back to North Africa to swan around in souks and rock the riads. Maybe even frequent a couple of gin joints. But until then, here are some of my favourites from the collection – and come back later today when I’ll have lots more Moroccan inspiration!Read More
