Well bake me a cake and call me Martha. If this isn’t one of the sweetest weddings! Sweet like sugar. Sweet like candy! ;) Candy and Nic chose one of the breeziest venues in the Cape (the light, bright, white-washed Kleinevalleij) and the loveliest of colour schemes (grey and pink, which I still heart bigtime), and created a little piece of heaven for their family and friends. There were pretty shoes, and ribbons, and a fairytale dress, and roses, and sugar and spice and all things nice. And proteas, you guys. I never get sick of looking at them, and I adore the table arrangements and bouquets in this wedding. I also LOVE the little fabric hearts on each chair, and the way that the wooden fan favours have been integrated into the place settings. Not to mention the lovely stationery, designed by the bride herself. And here’s the kicker – absolutely BEAUTIFUL photographs by Jani B. It is, quite simply, the kind of wedding that little girls dream about. Oh, and Nic – seriously awesome proposal skills, dude. You should give seminars.

From the gorgeous bride, Candy:
Nic and I had been together for about six and a half years before we got engaged. We had been friends at school but only started dating in my second year of varsity. We have basically grown up together and had wonderful years of working, travelling and living together. Nic is such a romantic and an amazing planner and ‘surpriser’ if that’s a word. And the story of our engagement, the ring and the planning says it all.

He asked my folks if he could marry me three agonising months before he popped the question! Not because he got cold feet, but because the ring, stone, etc. had to be perfect and the wrong diamonds arrived and who knows what else happened. So one November day we ventured out to Tulbagh. We had been at the wedding of good friends the night before so, although feeling a bit dusty, we had promised ourselves a nice romantic lunch in the winelands. Nic is incredible with surprises and when I know he’s planned something, I don’t ask questions. Firstly because I love being surprised and secondly, the man is good, I don’t need to worry about a thing! Nic was going in for a massive knee op a week later, so we had said we were going to do something special before then. SO after driving for a while, we arrived at the Vindoux Spa. Nic had put a beautiful voucher in a folder in the car, which stated a full body massage and a champagne lunch. I thought the voucher was from the spa, only later did I find out he made them himself with help from the girls at Deckle Edge! We had an amazing message and lunch (which I thought was my surprise) after which we took a stroll down to the guest office, where we were greeted and led to the honeymoon TREEHOUSE! I was totally confused but Nic had arranged to stay the night . At this stage I still had no idea about the engagement because as I say, Nic does these things! So we had a relaxing afternoon in Tulbagh, had a drink in the pub and before the sun was setting and getting a bit cooler, Nic said lets go back and get some warm clothes so we can hit the town for some diner. As we opened the door to our romantic wooden tree house the chef was standing there with our table set overlooking the vineyards, champagne on ice and a three course meal that Nic had custom designed with the chef of all my favorite foods! So I burst into tears and realised now that something else was up! We enjoyed our first course and first bottle of champagne but nothing. Second course and bottle of champagne but nothing.. By which stage I wanted to throw up because I was so nervous mixed with thoughts in my head such as… ‘Candy you are SUCH an idiot, how embarrassing of you to think he’s going to propose!’ So eventually after he had been back and forth to the toilet 25 times and we had both inhaled two bottles of champagne, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I said yes and couldn’t see the ring for about fifteen minutes because of the tears! This moment couldn’t have been more perfect! I felt like the luckiest girl in the world! Its was a dream engagement, dream ring, dream fiancé!

We chose a colour scheme of soft greys, silvers and dirty pinks. We wanted the wedding to feel warm and romantic and we felt that the soft vintage colours and décor would create this feel. I hope it worked! Our florist Mint and Magnolia were amazing! They got my vision spot on! I designed all our stationery which I think added quite a bit of character, and my mom-in-law and sister-in-law helped me with big cut-out session the week before the wedding.

On the day, I LOVED getting my hair and make up done as I’d never done it before. Eloise Dreyer was amazing – I was a little worried about my eye shadow being too dark at the trial so she made the time for another mini trial to put my mind at ease. She and Victoria were so relaxed and together with my amazing family and bridesmaids, kept me so chilled. I felt like a million bucks when I left for the venue.

I loved every moment from walking down the aisle with my dad, who is so strong, to seeing Nic’s face as he stood at the altar feeling so proud and overwhelmed. I think I floated down there, I don’t remember walking! We were squeezing each other’s hands so hard throughout the ceremony, I’m not sure how they didn’t fall off! I loved walking down the aisle with my brand new HUSBAND! And I loved walking into the venue where everyone was waiting and clapping.

Our amazing DJ Tommy got everyone going with the song ‘Everybody’s gonna love today, love today’. I loved dancing with Nic that night , our first dance was a bit scary because we didn’t practice anything but we felt SO happy and were on Cloud Nine! So we could have been doing the fox trot – I’m not sure? And I loved how our amazing friends and family made us feel so special and created such a great vibe on the day!

My advice when planning your wedding is to surround yourself with good suppliers like the ones we had and let everything fall into place. NO one let me down, we had NO big stresses on the day, and all went FANTABULOUSLY!

Service providers:

Venue: Kleinevalleij (such a beautiful venue and there’s nothing they won’t do!)
Catering: Malita Joubert
Photographer: Jani B (Jani is too incredible for words, she was so chilled on the day and we just LOVE our photos)
Florist & decor: Mint and Magnolia (they did EVERYTHING as I imagined it and all was done with ease and laid out so perfectly!)
Stationery: Candelion Design (021 685 3938/[email protected]
Bride and bridesmaids’ dresses: Debbie Henshilwood (Debbie is incredible – she made my DREAM dress – its was so comfortable and beautifully made – I didn’t want to take it off at the end of the night, I almost slept in it!)
Hair & makeup: Eloise Dreyer (Eloise was just amazing, my make up was so perfect)
DJ: Tommy Kenmuir (WOW you don’t get better than Tom! Tommy took our wedding as if it was his own daughter getting married. He compiled a CD of the songs he thought best reflected Nic and I and months before the wedding, and we jammed to our special wedding album in the car. It was awesome! Tommy kept everyone on the dance floor and made our night so special.)