It’s a happy day for me when I get the opportunity to share an city wedding for a change, although happily more brides and grooms these days are opting for a bit of urban chic. And why not – after all, if it’s reflective of your style, you can make it absolutely amazing, especially in a city as fabulous as Cape Town. With both of them being architects, perhaps it’s no wonder that Elbé and Ross decided to get married in amongst their favourite buildings and inner city vibe, and they chose a graphic, monochrome style with a touch of metallic and geometric detailing to make it really pop. I just love this look SO much – everything from the incorporation of textures like leather and cement to Elbé’s contemporary pared-down bridal style (complemented beautifully by jewellery from Kirsten Goss). From their church ceremony to their laid-back restaurant reception, all on Heritage Square, it was a collection of their favourite things shared with their favourite people. And speaking of favourites, one of our own, Jules Morgan, was on the scene to deliver these beautifully atmospheric images.
Ugh you guys, being sick sucks. But while I’m holed up in bed, feeling more than reasonably sorry for myself, at least I can surround myself with pretty weddings, and today’s is a beauty. Jean and Cormac are one of those ‘meant to be’ couples whose love has crossed a couple of oceans, so to celebrate joining their lives, nothing less than the prettiest of South African weddings surrounded by friends and family would do. ‘Frivolously elegant’ is how Jean describes their style (don’t you love that?), from the olive leaf wreaths and the beaded Nguni cow favours, to the mix of paper flowers and proteas, the illustrated table markers, and the bridesmaids’ floral print dresses. There’s such a lovely relaxed feeling about this big day, you can’t help but love it. And even more so when the uber talented Jules Morgan is behind the lens, capturing every shiny happy moment.Read More
After the rainy day weddings we’ve had so far this week, today we’re going to the other end of the spectrum for a wedding in the mountains of Namibia (hey, neighbours!). Talk about rustic chic – Manuela and Graham picked a luxury tented camp for their venue, and complemented the incredible surroundings with vintage farm-style decor. Jules Morgan always takes the most beautiful pictures, but with a majestic backdrop like this one, her pics are absolutely breathtaking. I love how gorgeous natural desert textures were mixed with pretty feminine ones like doilies and lace, and modern touches like Manuela’s pouf blusher veil. And how much do we LOVE her bouquet? So unique, and so perfect for the setting.Read More
Get ready for wedding greatness people, because this one is a game changer! I am pretty much obsessed with this incredible wedding from the dream team of Wedding Concepts and photographer Jules Morgan, at the amazing La Petite Dauphine. Ndoni and David (what a gorgeous couple!) dreamed of a day that allowed them to chill out with their favourite people, and was designed in their favourite colours, red and blue. As a colour combo, that can be a challenge, because two primary colours are pretty strong together, so Wedding Concepts had the stroke of genius of splitting the decor into a blue period (so Picasso) and a red one. And that wasn’t the only innovation, because they also decided to throw the usual wedding timetable to the wind, starting instead with a relaxed jazzy blue-themed luncheon, followed by a sunset ceremony and a dazzling red reception. And not only does that mean a whole lot of decor amazingness, but it meant two dresses for Ndoni – LOVE a bride in a blue dress, not to mention the fairytale white one. As I say, wedding greatness. Let it begin!Read More
Goodness but I’ve been looking forward to sharing this wedding with you all! From the minute I spotted Naomi and Willem’s modern wedding on photographer Jules Morgan‘s blog, I was in love – every little detail is so personal, so fun and so completely unique that I ended up with a bumper crop of pictures. I’m in LOVE with the idea of their escort cards being attached to little paper replicas of houses and buildings that have meant something to their relationship, not to mention the fortune cookies at each place setting, the art they created themselves around favourite quotes (perfect for an art gallery venue) and replicated in the custom calendars that were given to all the ladies as gifts. And Naomi’s dress! In fact, I adore her whole look, from the sash that ties the dress, to her lace gloves, to her tied veil. I could rattle on, but that’s not what you’re here for, is it? So go on, enjoy the lovely :)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
Good morning! If you guys loved the autumn inspiration on the blog yesterday (and you did), you are going to die when you see what I have for you today. Zoe and Grant have been massively patient with me – I have been waiting to share this wedding at Dieu Donné for months, but I knew it was the one I wanted to kick off the new SouthBound Bride. It’s so unusual, with its autumn theme (a season South African brides are only just starting to discover, I think) and the details are so thoughtful, quirky and personal. Like pretty leaves instead of confetti, or the paper birds and cats hanging in the trees along the aisle. In fact, don’t get me started on that aisle – I LOVE IT. And I especially love how it became a feature with the addition of fairy lights in the evening. So clever. In fact, the whole thing’s clever and beautiful and atmospheric, and the amazing Jules Morgan has captured it perfectly through her lens. Zoe and Grant – thank you SO much, and I hope it was worth the wait!Read More
In some ways, I think this might be one of my favourite weeks on the blog so far – I just love everything I’ve featured so much! And the hits just keep on coming with Julie and Matthew’s picnic-style wedding. How much are we loving picnic weddings right now? (Clue: A LOT.) And this one takes it to a whole new level, with the most personal and sweet favour I’ve seen yet – each guest at the country nuptials at Schoone Oordt in Swellendam received their own quilt, handmade by the bride’s mother! Wow. Now there’s something I’d like to find in my picnic basket! In fact, when you see the champagne-flowing-friends-laughing-kicked-off-shoes kinda vibe, you’re going to wish you were on the guest list too. The superb Jules Morgan has perfectly captured all the joy of the moment in her dreamy, sunkissed pictures, and the looks on Julie and Matthew’s faces during the ceremony really say it all.Read More
Welcome back folks! I know you were loving Part 1, so here’s the second half of the beautiful wedding of Jacqui and Neil – enjoy!
From Jacqui: After the service, Neil and I stayed behind with Jules to take a few photos. The rest of the guests headed back to Rockhaven Farm where pre-dinner drinks and canapes were served on the lawns and in the boathouse. Rockhaven has the most beautiful gardens full of roses and lavender and a spectacular view of the dam and mountains so we kept the decor very simple. We chose white couches and chairs for lounging on, wine barrels at the entrance to the boat house and apple and orchid floral arrangements. Elgin is famous for its apples so we also used them to hold our place names. I’m a teacher so the apples and the chalkboard with instructions about seating arrangements were in keeping with that too. We had placed guests on one of three tables (named London, Belgium and Dubai after our moves) but they could pick where they wanted to sit and used the apple with their name on it to mark their place. It saved us a lot of agonising over seating arrangements and left people free to sit with someone they wanted to chat to.
My mum made a few photoboards with pictures of Neil and I over the years and hung them on the walls of the boathouse. It was a fun personal touch which our guests enjoyed. We served a mix of SA and Indian inspired canapes with local Silverthorne bubbly and Doc ‘n the Croc provided light, jazzy background music to keep the guests entertained. To introduce a touch of India before dinner, we had baskets of bangles and bindis for all our female guests to wear. Two of our friend’s daughters handed them out and helped our guests to put together sets of bangles. All our guests loved them and a few of the men were spotted in bindis too! After pre-dinner drinks, baby sitters took all the children up to the main house where they had games and dinner before bedtime so that their parents could enjoy the evening child-free.
We wanted to change things up a bit as the sun set and the guests moved from the gardens to the large barn where the reception would be held. Lamps had been lit along the edges of the fountains outside the barn and the water was covered in brightly coloured petals. We had chosen warm orange and burgandy table cloths with an Indian print on them. (The same print and colours were the inspiration for all our stationery.) Bright orange, pink and red flowers added to the Indian vibe. We toned things down a little bit with stone coloured napkins, table lamps, mirrored vases and mirrors under the candles. The tables at our wedding were named London, Belgium and Dubai after our moves. We had had the print from the invitations printed onto the dance floor and a mix of purple and orange lamp shades suspended over it.
We also tried to reflect our backgrounds in the menu and wine list and sourced as much as we could from the Elgin Valley. Niki and her team from Zest catering in Botrivier did such a great job. We had a roasted butternut salad with goat’s cheese, crispy bacon and toasted almond flakes as a starter, followed by an Indian main of lamb curry, paneer and spinach curry in a creamy tomato sauce, chaat ratnesh (spicy seasoned potatoes), basmati rice, yellow daal, naan and roti and cucumber raita, tomato salsa and coconut and green chilli chutney. The Indian guests felt right at home and the SA and overseas guests loved trying Indian food. The dessert was wedding cake ( the groom is known for his love of cake), Belgian chocolates (we lived there for a while so our Belgian friends flew them in for us), barfi (an indian sweet) and koeksisters. All our wines (except the Silverthorne bubbly) were local to the Elgin Valley. We used wines from Belfield, Paul Cluver, Iona and Beaumont Estate and our guests really enjoyed trying wines from the area they were staying in.
Just before dinner, Neil surprised me and all of our guests with a fire dancing show. It was fantastic to be surprised and got the evening off to such a great start. Our DJ kept everyone on the dancefloor all night with a real mix of international music and old favourites. Our first dance had to be a salsa as that was how we met!
We could not have asked for a better day and nicer people to share it with. Having a wedding planner really paid off on the day as we had nothing to worry about except enjoying ourselves with our friends and family.
Jacqui’s advice to other brides:
Choose your bridesmaids carefully! I had three and they were such an amazing support team, making sure I took time out from all the organising, taking over my To Do list, ad helping to make all the preparations so much more fun.
Choose a couple of areas to involve your family in so they can contribute but not so much that they spend the whole day running around and missing out on the wedding. My Dad was in charge of signposting and directions and paid for the hire of the church, my Mum made up the bouquets and buttonholes and the photoboards and Neil’s family took me sari shopping in India and helped to pick out all the items we needed for the ceremony.
Having a whole weekend to spend with everyone was amazing. We had so many people from overseas that one day would have been too little time to spend with them. A post-wedding brunch is also a good time to catch up with all the gossip from the night before, and they didn’t add a huge amount to the total cost of the weekend.
Money spent on a good photographer is never a waste. We loved our photos and in hindsight wished we had booked Jules for the braai and brunch too. Take the time to choose someone you feel comfortable with as they are going to spend the whole day with you. We loved working with Jules.
Use local resources. Our venue providers and the girls at the Elgin Tourism Office were a huge help with finding appropriate accommodation for all our guests and making sure people found their way around and enjoyed their stay.
Take a few moments in the church and at the reception to look around you and to lock the day into your memory. It goes by so fast and it’s lovely to have a few minutes to pause and take it all in.
Thank you so much, Jacqui and Neil! Wishing you both every happiness and blessing in the years to come.
Oh, how I LOVE this wedding! It’s just bursting with colour and life and joy, and with personal touches, and most of all, with family and friends having a great time celebrating the two people who are joining their lives together (not to mention the kind of fab details we’ve come to expect from the Wedding Concepts team). It’s everything we all want our wedding days to be. And no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t narrow down Jules Morgan’s beautiful, beautiful photos to a single post. So – yay! – you get two of them! And even better, the bride, Jacqui has been sweet enough to send over plenty of background that you won’t want to miss. So… tada! Here’s Part 1, and be sure to come back later for Part 2.
