Archive for the ‘Ceremony’ Category

Naughty, naughty me.  I’ve totally neglected my blogs but for good reason.  We’ve had a rollercoaster few weeks and I’m still holding my breath that nothing more happens (besides some good luck).  With my mom and I being in hospital, to having so many friends and family here from overseas and then my car being stolen it’s just been crazy.

I am however now officially Mrz Style and so proud to be!  We made it official on Saturday 29th August at Ingwenya Country Estate.  For some reason I was completely calm on the day, although admittedly when I saw the white chairs laid out so beautifully in the garden my stomach turned.  I pulled myself together as best I could and thought to myself “there is no point getting worked up and nervous as you don’t want to waste the day on worrying about things that you cannot fully control”.  I totally relaxed after that (with the help of Rescue Remedy and champagne which I highly recommend!) and just enjoyed getting ready and being pampered.  The hairstylist and makeup artist said I was probably the most calm bride they’d ever come across so I knew the pills (and champagne) were paying off. 

The honeymoon suite was above the ceremony so I had the advantage of watching everyone arrive and watch how nervous Mr Style was getting.  When it was time to put on my dress and get going I finally gave in to the nerves.  I literally thought I was going to hyperventilate.  I had the added worry that Baby Style, who is 3 and was walking me down the aisle, wouldn’t go through with it and would run the other way!  I however had someone very close to me in the family on standby to take over should Baby Style do this.  As my stunning bridesmaids walked ahead I waited a while, prepping Baby Style on what we had to do.  Needless to say my little boy pulled through for me.  He held my hand, even slowed down so I could walk properly and on seeing us Mr Style could not hold back his tears so I just kept looking down so I didn’t break down.

I can truly say that the minute I took Mr Style’s hand I was ok.  It all felt right and I kept telling myself that if things didn’t go 100% right on this day, would it be such a huge deal?  We were all there for the best reason ever and whatever happened, wrong or right, would give it even more character and give us lots to talk about later!  These are pics taken by our brother-in-law but I’ll be sure to post more from the photographer when we get them.

There is so much that I learnt from planning my own wedding and now actually having been through it.  I will dedicate that though to a seperate blog as I’d love this one to just be about the big day.

 A while ago a friend mentioned having gone to a wedding where they released “sky lanterns” during the reception. I heard about them once again when my sister went over to Thailand on holiday and told me about them, and how beautiful they are. So I thought I would do a little research and here’s what I found out for you Brides 2 Be.

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Planning a wedding in Durban? The new Durban Wedding Directory – Durban Bride launched last year has seen a surge in suppliers registering with them since their relaunch in June 2009!

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Its been a while since my last blog post (had to study for exams) and oh my word……have plans changed.

It all started a few weeks before I had to really start focusing on the studying. Wedding plans were going great, on track, till a certain phone call sent me into a fluttery panic. Our budget had – due to unexpected reasons – been cut by more than half now you can imagine how a bride that has done most of her planning feels when told that the budget is almost all gone. After a few days of being a bit depro and contemplating getting married in court, I pulled myself together and started re-planning a really budget wise wedding. I still wanted to use the colour scheme and the flowers I had in mind but the venue was going to have to change to something well, more affordable for the Average Joe.

I started looking for almost unheard-of venues, looked for places that don’t normally cater for weddings but that can on request. Eventually I found one or two quaint little places but still my budget would be too high (I’m pretty much working with a non existent budget here).

Mmmmm….I could get married in my church’s hall and then find a banqueting hall for the reception, which would work in well with the budget. Searched a bit and found a hall not too far from the church and not expensive at all (it’s on a plot and if you are looking for a nice, informal, ‘almal kuier saam’ reception then this would be the place for you). By this time budgeting was my main priority and planning became very tiring and stressful. Even though we had found this place on the plot it wasn’t quite what Mr Daisy-to-be had in mind….

Back to the flippen drawing board…aaaaaarrrrgghhhh!
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I wasn’t aware of the questions the venue will ask until we went to visit them with the decor people.  I thought my check list had it all covered!  In order to help some of you that may not have a wedding planner, here are some things to think about that the venue may ask (this obviously depends on the venue as they all differ in size, options, etc):

1. Be certain about the number of guests! Don’t give them an estimate until you have an actual draft guest list. The Wine Garden at our venue was booked for us as we estimated around 60 to 70 people but we were then told it only holds around 60 guests and we ended up with 120 on our list! Luckily they have the garden wedding option and the River Chapel and because they only do one wedding a day we can move the ceremony to any of the 3 locations.  Be sure of your facts before you make the bookings as some venues may not have an alternative option for you and if you’ve paid the deposit you’re stuck.

2. Do you want to serve welcome drinks to the guests while they wait for your photos to be taken? If so, what do you want served and where do you want the guests to be served?

3. If you have an outside decor company coming in they will conflict with the venue setting up the tables. Our decor people need a good 3 to 4 hours to set up and so does the venue so we’ve had a bit of a debate on this and hopefully the venue has nothing on the Friday before and the decor people can go and set up or the venue will have to let them in earlier than they usually would allow on the actual day.  The last thing the venue wants is to spend 3 hours setting up tables only for the decor people to come in and stand on chairs they’ve just covered to set up lighting or mess up the tables they’ve done.  They’ll both get in each others way, so give both parties advanced notice and try and get them to co-ordinate without it turning nasty. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Ladies,

why not not personalise you wedding bouquets with  something special or for that ” something borrowed” or “something blue” with you granny’s special brooch or blue diamonds!  These little gems add such charater to any bouquet.

When I found this post, I just had to blog about it!  There are so many great ideas you can do for your wedding programs, but this one from weddingbee.com has to, without a doubt be one of the cutest, most romantic wedding programs I’ve ever seen! If I attended a wedding with these programs, I certainly wouldn’t throw them away.

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I would like to write about the ceremony today… Earlier I met with a bride and her 3 bridesmaids. The bride is a very sweet girl in her early 20s. She is very beautiful and a quite girl. We were going through the details of the wedding when I suggested that we needed to talk about the ceremony. The bride looked at me in total horror and confessed she does not know much about the ceremony and her bridesmaids rolled their eyes giggled and declared that they have to intention of standing there for a long time… so no long/drawn out sermons PLEASE!

This saddened me a great deal. After all, the ceremony is the reason why the whole thing is happening. Otherwise, you might as well just go out to a restaurant for a meal! Ok… I am finished venting. (I know that not everybody is like that)

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I need advice on who to choose for the candle lighting ceremony, I know we have to choose one person from each family. Can I choose someone who is not married?

I have an aunt that never married, but she is like my mother to me, I love her to bits but my mother feels I should choose someone who had or has a rosy married life. Should I?

I found these gorgeous lollipop invites online (don’t ask me where I found it, I was just so excited that I saved the image and forgot to credit it).  I want to create my programs from this design, I think they tie in perfectly with my black and white 40′s theme and they also fit in with my candy bar and all sorts wedding.

I don’t know how much info I could fit on this program, but all I really want to include is the bridal party and one of the hymns we will be singing.  I really like the monogrammed initial on the back of this lollipop design, but if we’re doing the hymn, then I think I’ll have to lose the monogram :(