The thought of writing about my wedding suppliers is truly overwhelming because I have really been surrounded by amazing, creative professionals through this whole process. So far – not a single hiccough with any vendors. *knocks on wood.*
My dress, cake and flowers are works of genius from friends who aren’t full-time wedding vendors. In fact, our florist works full time for Eskom in a very technical, scientific job! I’m so grateful for the love they’ve put into the wedding.
Of course, we’ve enlisted the services of full-time wedding professionals too. Here are some of the clever people who’ve been involved:
Photography:Lad and Lass Photography
As a long-time follower of Emma-Jane Harbour’s blog, I didn’t look very far for a wedding photographer. I just love the husband-and-wife duo’s style. It’s unpretentious and – most importantly – not too contrived. In the photographs I’ve seen, they’ve captured the little moments that make up a wedding: stolen kisses and quirky faces. To say I am excited to have them photograph our wedding is a total understatement.
Can you believe it, friends – our Ruby Bride’s wedding is coming up this weekend! How quickly did that go? So we’re having a whole afternoon with Jerusha on the blog this afternoon, before we send her off into married life with all of our love and best wishes!
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If we’re being perfectly honest, my fiancé and I are old people trapped in the bodies of twenty-somethings. We love a good old fashioned church service and would choose hymns written in the 1800s over pop music most days. When it came to choosing what our ceremony would look like, that was easy: a traditional church wedding complete with excerpts from the Church of England Prayer Book. It may seem old-school, but it’s meaningful to us and we figure that’s what it’s all about.
Many people are surprised to learn we’ve decided not to write our own vows either. It’s not because we don’t want to say things that are heartfelt and special to one another on the day (we do!) it’s just because we feel the “traditional” vows say things perfectly; much better than we could ever do anyway.
This has been by far the absolute BEST part of planning this wedding for me. Just thinking about it, my heart begins to beat that little bit faster and my eyes start twinkling. I think what I’m loving the most out of the experience of planning a wedding so far, (apart from the fact that this is the most beautiful ‘joint’ project Rob and I have been able to work on), is the fact that it allows me to be SO creative. It allows me to find joy in the detail and get excited about the smallest little things, which is what will ultimately make the day memorable and special! I cannot wait to share this creativity that has been stirred up inside of me in that final blog post so that it leaves other lovely ladies inspired, smiling and dreaming big.
Picking out a wedding dress has made me learn the one lesson I’m sure most brides before me have learned: your mother is going to disagree with you. And she is going to make her opinion known.
I’m getting married in a month and, I’ll be honest, I’m nervous.
It’s not that I’ve got cold feet. Quite the opposite! I’m so ready to marry this phenomenal man of mine. It’s just that my only lifelong commitment so far has been my legal obligation to pay my TV Licence. This is a much bigger step!
Gideon and I have been fortunate to attend of series of pre-marital counselling sessions with our church. I’m grateful for the lessons we’ve learned through these sessions from wiser couples who have been married many happy years. Lessons like the importance of making decisions together and being an attentive listener.
Despite these lessons, there are some things we need to figure out ourselves, on our own terms. Since the day we got engaged there’s a particular topic I’ve struggled with: the surname change.Read More
As I’ve mentioned before, our wedding style is dreamy, magical and romantic, with whimsical and delicate DIY touches everywhere…all in a rustic chic setting surrounded by natural beauty and little touches of sparkly glamour.
I want my bridesmaids to definitely be one of those touches of sparkly glamour! Not only are they four beautiful brunettes but are also fun-loving ladies and can represent that element in the wedding. We need that element in amongst all that dreamy romance.
Oh stationery…it really is a beautiful thing. It has the ability to set the tone for the whole wedding journey. It is that first glimpse that guests get to see…that first little taste of the magic that awaits them; our enchanting golden ribbon that ties our wedding together from start to finish. Not only has it allowed us to introduce our look and feel, but also let our creative selves shine! We have had SO much fun dreaming up the designs and exchanging endless happy emails with Seven Swans to get our pretties looking absolutely stunning. Colours, types of paper, fonts…oh the joy! Here are some of the inspirations I started with…
Our wedding logo Apart from us having our dreamy, fairytale wedding style, we felt that there had to be a specific theme (or rather a logo) running throughout the wedding. Something that could act as our stamp from start to finish; Almost to give us an opportunity to brand our special day, but in a very personal and meaningful way. Cape Town has captured our hearts and we want to share this love with our family and friends. We soon realized that there is no better way to visually show this ‘love’ and represent our special day, than the stunning African continent with a heart over Cape Town. Even further fitting since 90% of our guests are traveling to Cape Town from other continents! And that is how ‘Robin and Stella’s wedding logo’ was born. Believe me, this won’t be the last time you come across this beauty. We have included it throughout the whole wedding through sweet little touches here, there and everywhere!
Our Save the Dates
Who doesn’t like a bit of storytelling!? Because it gets engrained in our precious little heads from very early in life (especially the fairytales!), I’m sure we all have a love for it. That is one of the main reasons we decided to take the storytelling route for our first stationery item and transformed our love story into our Save The Dates. The second main reason for going this route is that our relationship has been nothing ‘normal’ since the beginning. We felt it necessary to capture, both verbally and visually, the journey we have been on so far. We couldn’t be happier with how our beautiful creations turned out. Notice the two stickers at the back…those are meant to be placed in our guests’ diaries/planners. Our guests absolutely loved them and they make us smile from ear to ear every time we look at them.
Our invitations
Think romantic, not too formal but very delicate in nature. A lot more elegant than our Save the Dates but both pieces of stationery tied together through our wedding colours – ivory, blush, mint green, grey and coral. A bit of twine to bring in the rustic feel and finished off with a little wooden African continent (with heart of course!). I am in love ☺ We also included a mini information pamphlet for our guests, which covers our 3-day wedding itinerary, a checklist for what our guests need to do, as well as some information on the wedding gifts. Practical, yet beautiful.
My top stationery tips:
Find a stationer that you fall in love with by not only looking at their work but also by meeting them (virtually or in person). You want someone that will get excited with you in the planning and design process because they love what they do so much. We certainly did. Thank you Anelle and Ella from Seven Swans for your unrelenting happiness and positive attitude. It has been an absolute joy working with you!
If planning a wedding where a lot of your guests are traveling from near or far to be there, create a wedding website! Don’t replace your paper stationery with a website but include the web address in your stationery. It will save you so much time as you can direct guests to the website for any questions and updates.
All other stationery above, Seven Swans. Images: Bride’s own
Time to meet the second of our 2013/2014 RLBs (for now), the very lovely Jerusha. I was so thrilled when Jerusha applied to be a RLB – I have known her as a blogger on Twitter for a while, and I can’t wait to hear all about her wedding plans! It’s going to be such a joyous, multi-cultural celebration. My favourite. Time for you to meet her too, and get a little taster for what’s been inspiring her wedding design. Here she is, our Ruby Bride.
I remember the very first time I saw Gideon Raath. It was the world’s least romantic setting. We were 16 (me) and 17 (him) years old and met at… church. I know. We hit it off immediately and became fast friends, but nothing more. I could never have imagined that nine years later he’d get down on one knee and ask me to be his wife. Although, at the time, I did notice his eyes were the most mesmerizing shade of green. And, just this year, his father told me Gideon had gone home that night and told his dad he’d met “the most amazing girl.” Aww.
Early this year, after a few years of dating (and a couple of disastrous years of long-distance dating; a story for another time…) Gideon asked if I wanted to have a look at precious stones, “just for fun”. I fell in love with a big, shiny almost-flawless ruby and four beautiful marquise diamonds. He convinced me the ruby was too expensive, and that an actual engagement was a very, very long way off.
Not a month later, after spending a wonderful day together in Franschhoek, Gideon brought me home to my candle (and champagne!) filled apartment and asked me to marry him. With the ruby and diamond ring. I ugly cried so much, I couldn’t get a word out. An hour later he asked “you said ‘yes’, right?”
It’s always a happy Monday when we get to meet a new Real Life Bride here on SBB. And today we get to introduce two! First off, I’m very excited to welcome Stella to the blog. She’s full of enthusiasm and ideas – I just know you’re going to love her! Meet our new Fairytale Bride…
Meet Stella
Some label me as a bit of an international/global baby as I’m ‘made in Germany’ but have spent the majority of my life traveling and on the move. Having lived in nine different countries, I’ve had the chance to open my eyes to so many beauties of this world, learn languages and meet amazing people. I make sure to go through life with curiosity and a positive attitude, never missing a day where I don’t find at least a dozen reasons to smile. I am a blog-reading (and occasionally writing), Pinterest-loving, baker. I love to run and cycle long distances and recently ran my first marathon! I am an avid traveller and love to capture my travels through photography and journaling as I go. I am obsessed with everything stationery and am in the process of starting my own business!
Most importantly though, I am insanely excited to be a RLB, because it allows me to give back. I have read stories from so many talented and creative brides, who have allowed me to gather plenty of inspiration and so many ideas. I want to be able to share mine through a platform that will reach all those beautiful and lucky soon-to-be brides, and what better place than SBB!? It is one of THE most magical phases in a girl’s life and platforms like SBB suddenly become your best friend and allow that special time in your life to light up even more.
It’s a very special day here on SouthBound Bride when we get to share the wedding of one of our friends, and I feel like that’s what today’s bride has become. Not just to me, but to all of us who have followed along with her story through our Real Life Bride series. Liana’s been our ‘bride abroad’, planning her South African wedding from Europe as so many of you do, gathering inspiration from some of our home country’s top suppliers and dreaming up the perfect mix of rustic and classic wedding loveliness. I’ve been dying to see her beautiful pictures from the fab dna photographers – they were just as heartfelt and lovely as I was expecting, and now I finally get to share them with you! Vair, vair exciting. So here we go! And just in case you missed any of it, you can follow Liana’s complete wedding journey right here.Read More
