Shevon Cupido and Carmelete Mentoor have been best friends for almost 30 years, and have supported each other each step of the way. Proving that she is a true ride-or-die friend, Shevon, along with their other lifelong friend Jolene Muller, threw her best friend Carmelete a surprise wedding.
Carmelete met her future fiancé Shawn at a party in 2006. They exchanged numbers and soon became official. In 2012, the pair became engaged at the Cape Company Gardens. However, due to financial reasons, Carmelete and Shawn struggled to set an official wedding date.
Shevon decided to step in and give her best friend a day she’ll never forget.
“They were planning on eventually having a small ceremony and getting a member of their church to marry them at their house, just the two of them. I knew that wasn’t what she really wanted in her heart so I knew I had to do something as every wedding deserves a celebration,” Shevon explains.
Sunflowers are the bride’s favourite flower, so Shevon decided to base the decor on this plant and everything fell in place.
Of course, planning a surprise wedding comes with even more difficulties than planning your own. Shevon experienced much stress, particularly over whether they would have enough finances to make the perfect day.
To keep the surprise alive, Shevon came up with a diversion.
“My plan was to take her and her now husband out on the Saturday as her 40th birthday was the Thursday before. This gave me an excuse to have them ready for the day and luckily they did not suspect anything until we reached the wedding destination, which was my in-laws home. Before entering the home, I then told them that they are actually there to celebrate their wedding day and was met with shocked but happy faces and lots of happy tears.”
Luckily the bridal couple was over the moon at this surprise.
“I was shocked and burst into tears when Shevon told us,” says Carmelete. “I then ended up crying the entire day with happiness and gratefulness. I just couldn’t believe that today is the day that I will be getting married. Finally.”
“My favourite part was seeing everyone that I keep close to my heart. My day was overwhelmed by love, happiness and most of all a thankful heart.”
All images taken by Tred Magill.
Featured image: supplied
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Remember that silly old promise you made your family member or friend in jest when you were younger? If your answer is no, we wouldn’t be surprised. This brother, however, never forgot his vow to mess with his sister on her big day by bringing a llama to her wedding.
Mendl Weinstock made a rather strange promise to his sister Riva five years before she got married.
“My sister was talking about her wedding as if it were tomorrow, when she wasn’t even dating anyone at the time,” Weinstock told Insider. “Just to make her mad and get a reaction, I told her if she makes me come to the wedding, I am bringing a llama with me. After a few minutes of arguing, she tried to use reverse psychology on me and said, ‘OK, the llama is invited to the wedding.'”
Mendl never let it go, constantly reminding his sister of his promise.
“He has been torturing me with this, in good fun, and has been reminding me of this probably twice a week for the last five years,” Riva said. “I have tried striking so many deals, I have tried doing literally everything possible to make sure it didn’t happen, and lo and behold, there was a llama at my wedding.”
“Literally, I called him to tell him I was engaged and his response was, ‘Great, I’m calling the llama farm now.’ Probably not even an hour later, I got a text that said his llama rental was confirmed.”
True to his word, come Riva’s wedding day this past weekend, Mendl showed up llama in tow. Of course, the llama had his own custom-made tuxedo on. It is a wedding, after all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9PS7ATl-gs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Since sharing the image to Reddit, Mendl has received over 154,000 upvotes and counting.
Feature image: Unsplash
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A good way to do this is by spending your honeymoon giving back. The experience will bring you and your significant other closer together and will be a memory you’ll cherish forever. On top of that, only good can come from starting your marriage off on a charitable note.
This is actually more common than you’d expect. For couples who love to give back, an alternative to honeymooning is slowly rising in popularity. The trend has been termed ‘honeyteering’. If you’re keen to use your honeymoon to give back, here are some ways you could do it:
– Ask your hotel
When you arrive at your honeymoon destination, you can speak to the hotel staff about local non-profit organisations you can lend some of your time to. They would be able to direct you to the best places to go and the best things to do in order to ensure people and places are left better than you found them.
– Pack for a purpose
Pack for a purpose is a non-profit that helps you give back. As you pack for your holiday, you should pack some items needed by the communities you’re planning to visit. When you arrive at your destination, handing over the package is easy. Pack for a purpose would have ensured that there is a drop off spot close to your hotel.
Check their website for a list of locations and supplies needed for each destination.
– Build a home
Habit for Humanity is well-known for its volunteering programmes. You could use your honeymoon to attend one of these programmes and construct, renovate and provide disaster relief for those in need.
– Create a Honeyfund for donations
Similar to a wedding registry, couples have begun to use honeymoon registries too. You could create a registry using honeyfund, a website which allows you to organise cash-gifts, and indicate that all money will go to a specific charity.
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