Attitude, baby. It’s all about attitude. In life, in work – even in weddings. The truth is (and I need to remind myself of this a LOT), that there’s a limited amount of control you have over the material you have to work with every day, but the one thing you always have control over is how you deal with it. I don’t know today’s bride, but I feel like she gets that. She planned her Clouds Estate wedding herself (with lots of help from friends and family) and put a lot of thought and effort into the perfectly pink details (how much do I love the Mr and Mrs style favours?). But on the day, she let it all go and spent her day basking in marrying her husband and spending time with all the people she loves. You just need to take one look at her radiant smile in these absolutely gorgeous photos by Lauren Kriedemann to know that kind of attitude was working for her, and then some! So even if you usually skip the text, make sure you read it today, because Iné really has some great, down-to-earth advice!

From the bride:
Riaan and I both studied accounting at Stellenbosch. Although we were in the same class at varsity we never really met until the day that I sang a solo as part of a competition where the different dorms competed against one another. He asked friends who I was and they told him that I was actually in his class. To this day, Riaan still loves it when I sing – hence my decision to sing at the wedding reception. We started dating in our second year of university, supported one another through a tough Honours year, qualifying exams and three years of training contracts, before both becoming qualified chartered accountants.
We got engaged on our five year anniversary, just before Riaan was leaving South Africa for a short term secondment to the Netherlands. He arranged a weekend away to Witsand and we stayed in a cabin overlooking the sea and river. He had a wedding ring designed and made for the engagement and I could not have asked for a more perfect engagement ring.

My whole family took part in organising the wedding so that I didn’t have to use a co-ordinator – my sister, mother and best friend spent a year’s worth of Saturdays looking at venues, dresses, flowers, ideas, etc. I absolutely fell in love with Clouds Estate in Stellenbosch when I saw it for the first time. The venue is really romantic, very French provincial with stunning views and it suited my idea of a very soft romantic theme with plenty of flowers in different shades of pink and white. The venue is quite small so we decided to also look at a number of others, but nothing else could quite compare. We then made the decision to rather limit the guest list to close friends and relatives to ensure that the venue was workable.

Another important factor was the food – my dad is in the food industry and we wanted it to be cuisine quality without one having to search for the food on your plate. We went all out, doing canapés; a tomato, mushroom and goat’s cheese quiche for starters; lamb shank for mains and crème brulee with nuts for dessert. We also had special mini-cakes for the wedding cake so people could have their little cake with coffee. We knew that our friends would probably stay quite late and organised a number of cheese platters for late evening snacks.

I have always loved the colour pink so there was no question around the colour scheme for the wedding. However, I wanted it to be very smart and classy at the same time and hence decided to use white and silver as my predominant colours and then bring in the colour with the use of different pink flowers and other special touches I organised to match my pink theme. These included the white wedding cake and mini cakes with small pink ribbons and decorative details, the invites (pink with silver and white damask), and table gifts of handmade shortbread cookies in either a dress for the ladies or a tie for the men. The flowers were spectacular – they exceeded my wildest expectations and made an already stunning venue an absolute floral marvel.

I think the speeches that evening were really representative of us and our families. I sang without Riaan expecting anything, which was really special as this is something unique to us and how we met. Riaan then actually played the song I sang when we originally met as part of his speech without me knowing that he was going to do that.

Our minister gave me the best advice in advance of the wedding: remember that the people attending are the people that love you the most – they are not there to judge the event, they are there because they want to share your big day with you. When things felt like they may become a bit overwhelming before the wedding, I tried to remind myself of this fact. In the end, the best part of the day was having all my closest family and friends at the wedding – it was a really relaxed atmosphere and everyone just really enjoyed themselves. I’d advise all bridal couples to actually take the time to chat to your friends and relatives and not waste time worrying about small details on the day. 

My advice to future brides…
Of all the things that I needed to organise, the photographer took the most time. It will be the only product from your wedding that will be the lasting memory of that day. Ensure that your photographer has an understanding of the look and feel of your wedding and that they know upfront the type of photos that you like (i.e modern, arty or more conservative). They play a big part in the flow and movement of the day and you need to meet with this person to ensure that it is the type of person you can trust to almost “run” your day. The good photographers get booked more than a year in advance, so book early to avoid disappointment.

Organising a wedding can be very overwhelming. You see a million different ideas in magazines and you sometimes get so confused that you are unsure as to what you should be focussing on. I recommend that you decide on five special things that you want to be unique at your wedding. Focus on getting these perfect and the rest will follow. For me this was the flowers, wedding cake and table gifts that matched my theme. It was visible elements that enforced the overall atmosphere at the wedding.

Thank you Iné and Riaan for sharing your wisdom and beautiful wedding with us today! And thanks to the very lovely Lauren – always a pleasure to have you on Cap Classique! You can find more pictures from this wedding on Lauren’s blog here.

Service providers:

Venue & catering: Clouds Estate
Photographer: Lauren Kriedemann
Florist & decor: Gart from Lush ([email protected])
Cake & table gifts: Nelle Cakes
Stationery: Nancy Flint from Creatus Designs
Bride’s dress: Lady Marmalaide
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Bride & Co.
Hair & makeup: Fabienne Zadel