For those of you who follow our inspiration boards here on Cap Classique, you’ll know that aqua is a big colour crush for me at the moment. So you won’t be surprised that I was attracted to this pretty, classic wedding photographed by the super nice Mark Engelbrecht, who was kind enough to send it over a few weeks back. I love that it has loads of sweet personal touches, without trying too hard, and a sort of dreamy serene quality that’s a combination of Mark’s style and a bride and groom who were completely happy and relaxed. Thank you to both of them for opening their hearts to share their day with us! Enjoy!

From Angela:
Nick and I met when he was 12 and I was 15, at church youth. I went to school with his older cousins and they introduced me to their younger cousin. I remember saying to one of them that he will be cute when he is older! We met again at his cousin’s 21^st and chatted properly for the first time – even though he still seemed too young for me, he caught my eye and eventually we couldn’t see enough of each other. We dated for five years before we got married and the road, although amazing, wasn’t always easy as we made mistakes and had to learn many lessons about loving each other better. We have grown so much in our love and understanding of each other and have always remained honest and teachable. Nick taught me so much about myself, lessons I did not want to learn at the time, but through it all, my character has been refined and strengthened. I too have encouraged and challenged him and we have come out much stronger and more real.

We wanted the day to be personal and relaxed but also beautiful. I always had my heart set on the aqua colour. It is a running joke that this is the colour I always say is green and others argue is blue… Well, whatever it is, it’s stunning!

We wanted our invites to be really personal, with a photo of us on the front but not one of our faces as that could be a bit cheesy. We explained the idea to Mark, our photographer, and he was brilliant. We went to Long Beach with him and spent half an hour dancing, jumping and walking on the beach. I wore the aqua colour so it would fit in with the colour theme. We had such an amazing time and Mark was so creative in his ideas and he captured the water and sun so well. We used those photos for our invite as well as our menu and our table setting list (each with a different picture).

We had a big bridal party because we have many close friends and family, and because it’s such a great opportunity to bless and thank people. I didn’t want my bridesmaids’ dresses to be all in aqua as I think it’s a bit too bold. I wanted them to look elegant and beautiful, but super comfortable, so I went for a bit of an Elizabethan-style dress – as these were flowing, they didn’t have to worry about pulling their tummy in or anything like that. I wanted them to feel beautiful in their dresses. Three of them had aqua bands and two had a lighter green and the groomsmen had matching ties.

With the venue choice, we honestly went with our hearts. The essentials for us were that it had to be one open room with space for a dance floor (dancing is key!) in the middle. We love nature so it also had to have an outdoors feel, like big windows or open doors facing outside. We went to so many expensive wine farms and each one was gorgeous outside, but then the inside was just a closed-off hall that could have been anywhere. When we drove into La Pineta forest, it felt like a caravan park. This made me feel at home as it was down to earth and not presumptuous in any way. The outside marquee was just stunning and the whole side opened up onto a garden. Where the garden ended, the view carried on to a strawberry farm with a few cows… how crazy – I loved it! This was the perfect feel, it was open and in nature and very simple. The new wooden floor was lovely and the selling factor was the lights around the top of the marquee that changed colour…what fun! We could rotate the colours during the dancing! Good food was also important to us and the restaurant at the venue is outstanding – we are really excited to go back every anniversary!

I loved that our wedding was not too serious. Our gifts were packets of fudge (my favourite) made by a girl from the school where I teach. We also had a photobooth where guests could take home the crazy pictures of themselves. My mom wondered if this was just too much like a 21^st and not a wedding, but we loved it! The guests were lining up for ages, and now every home we go into has a photo on their fridge from our wedding. The fun continued with my brother Jonothan’s hilarious MC skills and our first dance which started seriously with a fancy waltz and then the music changed to a fast hip hop cha-cha type thing, and we performed a fun choreographed dance that a friend worked out for us. During our dance the guests had sparklers to light and sway around – they had been placed on the table with a note saying: Light me during the first dance. The dancing carried on till late and Nick and I were there dancing right till the end.

Instead of table numbers we had words made in wire for each one. We chose words like love, faith, patience, compassion and grace. Each table had a wire name on it. I had selected special women to give each of these words to at the end of the night. These were all woman who had journeyed with me or played an important role in my life, and I had given each one a slip of paper telling them which word I had chosen for them to take home. (Unfortunately, I didn’t think to tell the guests this, and by the end of the night my table names had been taken by random guests and not those I’d selected, so I think it is important to tell the guests what they can and cannot take from the table.)

Nick and I are passionate Christians and so we wanted the day to reflect our love for God. To us this day is not only about a commitment to each other but more importantly a covenant with God, and we wanted to honour him in every part of the day. We both made speeches and what was funny about them was that they were almost identical even though we didn’t plan them together. We spent most of our speeches sharing with our closest friends and family, the things that make the other one amazing. The things that make us fall in love with them each day and the things that God created them to be. This was one of the most special parts of the day for me as we publicly affirmed each other and declared our love and commitment to each other.

Angela has some great advice for other brides:

• Get a wedding planner if you can afford it who can take all the pressure off you on the day. Nick and I were so blessed to have both Neva and my mom organising everything, and they were such a dynamic team. I was one hundred percent relaxed as I had not one thing to think about other than the importance of the day ahead. Most people advise brides to stop every now and again to take it all in as it goes so fast – I took every minute in! I didn’t miss a moment as all I had to do that day was say “I do” and have fun.
• We invited many more people to the ceremony then to the reception, where we were limited for numbers. They were there to witness our marriage and for tea and the cutting of the cake. I was then able to ask my students and anyone else that I wanted to be there without worrying about numbers or leaving any one out.
• Don’t let anything ruin your day. It’s your commitment to each other and the beauty and magnitude of that commitment that matters and not the party, dress, cake or anything else that could go wrong.

Service providers:

Ceremony venue: Christ Church, Kenilworth
Reception venue & catering: La Pineta / Forest 44
Co-ordination, reception flowers & décor: Neva Ward
Bouquets: Fabulous Flowers
Photography: Mark Engelbrecht
Videography: Vicky Goslin
Dress: Robyn Roberts
Bridesmaids’ dresses: Debbie Henshilwood
Hair & makeup: Cheryl Parker
Cake: Hettie Jordaan
Stationery: Lara’s Designs
Band: Brad Taylor & Matt Dennis
DJ: Trilogy Music

SBB ♥ fabulous flowers, a featured member of our Directory