There’s nothing sweeter than a girl-meets-boy-next-door-story, is there? Well today’s couple are literally the boy and girl next door (or across a park anyway), who first fell in love on the swing set and married fifteen years later. So adorable! I just love their pretty wedding, and the bride’s relaxed attitude about it being a rainy day is something anyone could learn from! But I think my favourite thing about their Delsma Farm wedding (or the decor, anyway) is that it’s such a fun twist on the shabby chic decor we’ve seen a lot of this season. It has the main ingredients: mismatched florals, proteas, books tied together with lace, striped tablecloths; but translated into a yellow and grey colour scheme it’s completely fresh. It just shows that you can take a style and really make it your own, be playful with colour, and that adopting a style doesn’t have to just mean one thing. The beautiful pictures full of light were taken by awesome Adene Photography.Read More
Today’s real wedding caught my attention when I spotted the driftwood logs and hanging twinkle light curtains on Be-dazzled Events‘ Facebook page, and I was thrilled to see the whole wedding appear over on the awesome Jules Morgan‘s blog. I love intimate weddings, and I adore Katie and Theoniel’s concept of sharing a favourite destination (who doesn’t fall in love with the West Coast, after all?) with their family and friends. Their design was relatively simple, but very stylish, and perfectly reflected the West Coast vibe in shades of grey and beige neutrals. And how about those fairy lights? Aren’t they just magical? This wedding is proof of how a great venue, a clean palette and a few special details (love that driftwood heart ring ‘cushion’ and the stylin’ groomsmen, for example) are all you need to make your wedding picture perfect (although the perfect pictures Jules takes don’t hurt either – it was too hard to choose, so this is a bit of a bumper post!).Read More
There’s nothing I love better than when I get a request for an inspiration board using a fresh theme or colour combination, and this might be one of my all-time favourites! When reader Vanessa (who is getting married all the way over in the Rocky Mountains of Canada – you don’t have to be in South Africa to request a board!) wrote in with her coral, green, purple and grey colour scheme I immediately knew she was on to a winner. She and her husband-to-be have a theme of ‘simple elegance, wedding in the woods’ – doesn’t it sound beautiful! They’ll be using burlap and lace accents, and combined with these colours, I think that will be beautiful. I would really let the colour combo speak for itself wherever possible – in mismatched bridesmaid dresses, florals, and stationery – either in a four colour display or in mini combinations of one or two of the shades. Add classic touches for elegance – beautiful chairs, anemones, a lavender wreath. Simple tables with burlap and lace runners (and maybe a single sprig of lace-tied lavender at each place setting) complete the look. Hope you like your board, Vanessa – I loved putting it together!
I love weddings. (Surprise! I bet you didn’t know that.) And this year has been all about attending weddings for me – five so far, and number six coming up on Friday. I can’t WAIT. You’d think by now I’d be sick to death of looking at them, but no. They’re a gift that just keeps on giving. Take today’s gorgeous wedding, from Michael Tree Photography (welcome, Michael!). It’s so elegant, with a palette of navy, mint and grey. (Just take another minute to be delighted by that colour combo, because I totally am.) The bride is rocking a stunning dress and I love that she’s wearing her hair short and loose – it looks amazing. The design has a touch of vintage (cute car alert!), but somehow manages to feel modern as well. And it took place amid some spectacular South African scenery. There are even white proteas, which basically make me want to punch the air. In fact, the whole thing does. Yay for this wedding, and yay that I get to write about it. I love my job!Read More
Coral, you guys. I have been preaching coral (along with my fellow wedding bloggers) for the last year, and I’ve seen it in inspiration boards and inspiration shoots and weddings on other people’s blogs. But today, coral is making a personal appearance here on SBB and let me tell you, get ready to do some Beatles-style shouting and crying, because it is everything I thought it would be and more. Of course, the colour scheme’s not the only reason I fell in love with Sarah and Peter’s beautiful Constantia Mist garden wedding (shot in glorious colour and detail by friends and SBB sponsors Andre and Selma of Expressions), but it’s the first one. Close behind were super sweet details like button badges, wooden tableware, divine stationery, sweet white folding chairs and paper pom poms. It’s like the posh version of a country picnic, and manages to be charming and sophisticated and a little bit retro all at the same time. It is LOVE. More like this one please, people. Make a blogger happy. ;)Read More
You know, sometimes when you travel, it makes you appreciate all the wonders and beauties of the world, and how luck you are that you can plane, train or automobile your way around them. And sometimes, travel makes you appreciate what you have at home. It’s like that for me with the South African coast. Sure, I’ll never say no to a tropical island, and there’s something very appealing about bobbing around in the smooth Mediterranean. But you only have to sit on a pebbly beach in Brighton for five minutes to miss our soft, pale sand, and there’s nothing quite like the roar of our not just one, but two oceans. I think that’s one of the reasons why beach weddings are always highlights for me, especially when they manage to recreate some of that wild, natural beauty. That’s what today’s stunning wedding at Grootvlei does – the palette is like a stormy day at sea with light breaking through the clouds (which is appropriate, considering the proposal). Soft greys and whites, with flashes of natural green. Orchids and succulents (which I never would have expected to work together, but are so elegant). A driftwood altar. The pictures by Stephan Marais are so gorgeous, I just knew I had to share them with you! {Oh, and PS, I love Grootvlei’s mussel motif – such a cool texture for a beach venue.}Read More
Here at SouthBound Bride, I love bringing you all the latest trends. As you know, I believe that each wedding should be an expression of a couple’s unique style and personality, but it doesn’t hurt to get a sense of the ideas that are floating around out there. Eventually, those ideas can get a little repetitive. And while in some ways that doesn’t matter (remember that most of your guests don’t sit on wedding blogs all day and won’t have seen it before), it can be fun to consider fresh twists and new options. So here are eight of my top alternatives for creating your favourite effects.
Here’s my disclaimer: I’ve loved and promoted all of the ‘old’ ideas here, and I’m nobody’s fashion police. So if you love something, you DO IT. This is just about being creative and exploring other avenues along the way!
When I was in high school, I used to spend the afternoons at my mother’s office. At some point I discovered a second hand bookshop down the road, where I used to spend a fair amount of browsing time. And, you know, I have a literature degree, so I’m a little embarrassed to admit that they weren’t stocked with Shakespeare, but rather row upon row of Harlequin Romance. So unfortunately, I’m qualified to tell you that two doctors in love? Is straight out of a romance novel. This particular love story has a sweet beginning, an enviable proposal, and a beautiful wedding captured perfectly by new-to-SBB photographer Moira West. Heide had me at hello with that pearl headband, but the iconic Cape Town location (the Mount Nelson Hotel), the carnation bridesmaid bouquets (I TOLD you they were back!), the abundance of roses and the classic pink and grey colour scheme had more than enough to keep me interested, right through to the happy ending.Read More
Good morning friends! Hope you had a fab weekend! Mine was good – I had the privilege of spending yesterday with a group of fantastic wedding industry people assisting on a shoot for my friend Louise of (aka @bijouxbride). Lots of hard work, but it was so fun, and I can’t wait to see the pictures. I know there are a lot of people who don’t like inspiration shoots, but for me, they’re a great way to pull together an idea (like a mood board, but on a bigger scale) and I know they’re where I get a lot of the ideas I use in my boards. Plus, they’re great for table settings, which I know brides struggle with sometimes. What do you think? Love ’em or hate ’em?
Anyway, on to today’s board. While it’s gone very cold and grey in London town, I know everyone in South Africa is on the other side of the spring/autumn equation, so I thought I would bring you a lovely spring palette to enjoy. A lot of brides shy away from yellow because it’s such a strong colour, but if canary yellow is too bold and mustard is too yellow, consider a soft pastel lemon. Combined with pale green and grey, it’s fresh and flattering, and it brought to mind for me the pretty gardeny side of the Kate Moss nuptials – a traditional church, lots of little flowergirls in white, wildflowers. Add in yellow shoes and a polka dot dress, plus of course a little hair braid (because we do love braids, don’t we!). And if you like the lovely invitations pictured here by my clever friends at Brancoprata, you can download the template for free right here. Perfect, non?
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.Read More
