Western Cape brides, can we have your attention! Finding your wedding day inspiration can be as easy as scrolling through Pinterest or meandering through your favorite bridal fair.
Each year, hundreds of bridal couples flock to the Cape Winelands Bridal Fair to soak up the ambience of the renowned and exclusive Winelands Bridal Fair.
This year is no different with service provides and products from across the Cape available for brides and grooms to peruse through. It’s also a great spot for those looking to speak to various experts needed to plan your big day and make it a success.
Live music, wedding dress designs, and a win-4-your wedding lucky draw!
Interested? Make sure you grab your tickets via Webtickets or when you enter the expo.
Cost: R100 per person
Date: 30 – 31 July; 09:00 – 16:00
Location: Klein Joostenberg. R304 Muldersvlei, Stellenbosch
While planning your wedding can be a time that’s filled with cake tasting and venue scouting, it can also be a time that’s filled with pulling out your hair and stress eating. Planning your impending nuptials can be a stressful affair, but it doesn’t have to be!
If you’re hoping to look back on your big day and smile with contentment and not sneer at the thought of all the stress you were under, check out these helpful tips.
Manage Your Expectations
You can use Pinterest and photos to inspire you, but your wedding won’t look exactly the same. There are so many different factors at play when you see those images on the internet: Where in the world was it taken? Is it even a real wedding, or a staged shoot? Are those flowers available in SA? So whatever you do, make sure you don’t get upset or stressed when things aren’t perfect – you’ll just ruin your day.
Come Prepared and Avoid Wardrobe Malfunctions
You or anyone in your bridal party might need a hook-and-eye closure, so be sure to carry spares, needle-nose pliers, and a sewing kit. Just one lean over into the gin table and pop! Disaster.
Stick to your Budget
It’s your wedding and it’s all very exciting, but you have a budget for a reason. Don’t set yourself into years of debt, or sell your prized pony. Set a budget for your wedding and download a wedding-planner app on your phone. Stick to it, and you’ll be glad that you did once the confetti has settled.
Don’t let your self-consciousness get the best of you
“I wish I had known how beautiful I looked.” Make sure this is not something you say four months, or years, later. Make choices that are your own when it comes to your dress or suit, and on the big day, rock it. Don’t worry about the fat roll you think is there, or the laugh lines under your eyes. Enjoy the moment; it goes quicker than you think.
Put your own spin on it
Listen to your mom, best friends and Aunt Joanna. But whatever you do, do it your way.
Don’t go cheap on certain things
Food poisoning for all your guests? Not fun. Blown-out or unflattering wedding photographs? You’ll regret that. While everything else lasts for the one day, you’ll have those pictures forever, so you want to get your money’s worth.
Don’t nitpick on the details
Months of planning, crammed into four or five hours, which are so charged with emotions and tears, you might not even notice that small calligraphy initials on the stem of every rose… Don’t stress about every little thing while planning your wedding and on the big day. Such a cliche, but words that couldn’t be more true.
If you’ve just made it past the potential minefield that is the guest list, here’s your next challenge: How are you going to seat everyone? Round tables? Long ones? One long banquet table? Goodness.
If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Get down and boogie:
While your nuptials are all about sharing the love, it’s the dance floor that will have your guests remember your big day. Having said that, this is an excellent starting point. The most popular – and effective – option is to plonk your dance floor in the centre of the room. Then you’ll position the band or DJ against the wall. Of course, there are a whole host of ideas that will have your guests dancing until their feet hurt, and if your venue doesn’t allow for this, you can place the dance floor at one end of the room, centred and backed up against a wall.
Picture: Pinterest
It’s all about the size:
Long or round – choose the shape and size of your tables, but beyond this, make sure that the two of you are in the central spot so that your guests can see you in all your glory. A great place to start is to figure out how many guests fit at each table, this will allow you to figure out how many tables you will need.
What’s the plan – the floor plan that is:
We may think that the dance floor is the most important aspect of the wedding celebration, nothing is possible without creating a floor plan that the two of you are happy with. Start with the two most important people – you and your partner as you need to have the best seats and view in the house. Arrange your tables as symmetrically as possible – in a U-shape around the centred dance floor or fill one end of the space (if the dance floor is on the one side).
Here’s a little example
Don’t forget the VIPs
Reserve the tables closest to the two of you for your immediate families, and set aside tables further from the band/DJ for the older guests. The less desirable seats should be saved for your friends. Keep people together who will enjoy the time together – perhaps there are family members who haven’t seen each other in a while?
The bar area
This will also be dependent on your venue, but as a rule of thumb, the bar should be away from the entrance to avoid possible congestion. If you have more than one bar (one bar with two bartenders for every 100 guests is a good point of measure), then position one close to the dance floor and another one on the other side of the room.
But, how will your guests know
It’s time to dab the sweat that’s been dripping from your forehead and let a little stress go because we have something else on the agenda. How will you let guests know where to sit on the day? Whether you have 150 or 20 guests, displaying their names in alphabetical order is the most convenient option, to eliminate confusion and unnecessary time spent hovering around the seating chart. To make it more exciting, give each guest a refreshing cocktail or glass of bubbly along with their table number – it really sets the tone for a festive reception! Why not go a step further and add a signature cocktail to your wedding reception – here are a few ideas.
We’re living in the Digital Age. While relying on robust binders dedicated to vendors, bridesmaids, and various wedding planning activities can be useful, sometimes it can get a bit confusing.
More than 5 billion smartphones are currently in use around the world, so why not lean on the convenient pleasures that come with technology by infusing it into your wedding planning.
Whether you’re just starting out or well on your way to wrapping things up, here are a few digital wedding planning tools you can use to your advantage:
Are you looking for an app that will save you time, money, and efficiently get things done? Joy wedding app and website is your one-stop-shop for a personalised wedding planning experience. You can manage guest lists and create a checklist of all the things that need to be done before your big day. In addition to the impressive features this app offers, you also have the option to create a wedding website directly from the app.
Speaking of creating a wedding website, Riley & Grey is the perfect place to whip up something fabulous for you guests to feast their eyes on. There is a range of wedding templates to pick and choose from that offer a user-friendly experience for those browsing your wedding site.
Trello – To-do list
Trello does more than just offer you the chance to create a work/life balance for yourself, but can help you get organised when it comes to your wedding party. Utilise the site’s virtual pinboard and add a “card” in a column for each category that you would like to create, drop a task and create various colour codes to ensure that everything well-maintained.
Google Drive – Photo organisation
Looking to grab all the incredible photos your guests managed to capture on your big day? As long as you have a Gmail account, Google Drive is an excellent way for guests to add all the beautiful moments and ensures that everything has a place.
Its sometimes difficult to picture just how your venue will accommodate your seating vision, but with Allseated, things are made easier. Send them a photo of the venue and they will create a 3D rendering of the space so that you can digitally organise tables, chairs, bars and all the wedding decor of your dreams.
Without a proper budgeting plan, your big day might leave you in a financial pickle. Goodbudget is a user-friendly app that allows you to allocate expenses for everything that you need. Once you have a budget set in place you can shift expenses around to ensure that you are not overspending in certain areas and neglecting others, maintaining a balance is key to success.
Inspiration is not hard to come by; you just need to know where to look. Social media plays a huge role in wedding planning these days, and while many brides-to-be turn to Pinterest for that much-needed inspiration, Instagram is a great resource too.
Here are a few of our favourite Instagram accounts that are serving looks and some serious inspo.
A forest filled with inspiration
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTuJ700qtOB/
Beautifully organic wedding and lifestyle inspiration we can’t get enough of
https://www.instagram.com/p/BszGUydFszp/
Inspiration straight from an event planner
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSBO9dvgRyV/
A global collaboration of wedding inspiration
https://www.instagram.com/p/CIloRbpg2RN/
A splash of colour
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMkRz21lN_s/
Inspiration and resources that are sure to celebrate love
Black is not just a colour for mourning. For decades, white has been synonymous with weddings for its symbolism of purity. White is traditionally expected. However, while many are afraid of including this dark-hued colour in weddings, black can actually bring much class and sophistication to your big day. Take a walk on the dark side and think of bringing this dark tone into your wedding.
Here are a few way to incorporate black into your wedding that won’t look morbid.
This Colorado-based bride was blessed with a free wedding after surviving her battle with breast cancer, proving that there is still kindness in humanity.
Credit: Instagram / Cloud9Denver
Sabrina Blosky’s world was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with breast cancer just before her 27th birthday in April 2016.
“When I got the news, obviously, it was like a kick in the stomach,” Blosky told 9 News. “I was like, ‘No way, I’m too young. There’s no way that’s ever a possibility.’ As much as I hate to admit it, I didn’t want to be afraid. But I think that’s just the nature of the beast.”
Her battle with breast cancer deeply affected her confidence. As a result of all the surgeries and treatments she had to endure, Blosky says she stuggled to see her beauty.
Her now-husband, Rex, a Retired US Marine, has been her greatest support thoughout her cancer journey, and always reminded her how beautiful she is.
“Rex always made me feel so pretty all the time,” she said. “So I was like, ‘OK, nothing’s wrong with me. I’ll go to the grocery store bald.”
The became engaged in March 2017. Watch the video of their enagement here:
Blosky recently completed her final treatment, and to honour her journey, The Wedding Pink gifted her with a free wedding.
The Wedding Pink is an annual wedding giveaway package presented to a couple whose lives have been recently touched by breast cancer. Held annually in Colorado, USA, one deserving couple wins a wedding to the value of $40 000.
The purpose behind the organisation, founded by fellow breast cancer survivor Sheryl Ungar, is to present a silver lining to couples that have been through the extremely rough battle with this disease.
“I know what all these young women are going through and it’s just a hard time in your life,” Ungar said. “I mean, it’s probably the one time in you life where you just look at yourself in the mirror and it doesn’t look like you.”
Ungar works with a team of wedding vendors in Colorado who have generously donated their services and products to give one couple a year a spectacular wedding in Colorado.
“It’s just really a way to let these couples start their life off,” Ungar said. “It’s a new life. You’re done with cancer, you’re well and now this is a beautiful marriage. You’re starting over with this beautiful life and we’re just sort of giving them that start.”
Sabrina and Rex were chosen as the 2019 recipients, and married on October 17 at the Spruce Mountain Ranch in Colorado.
Credit: Instagram / Ali and GarrettCredit: Instagram / Ali and GarrettCredit: Instagram / Cheryl Ungar
As a maid of honour, you’re one of the most important parts of the wedding. You are the bride’s greatest support system, and will be relied on to help with any- and everything in the lead up to and the day of the wedding.
To be the ultimate maid of honour, you’ll need to be prepared. There is no better way to do this than to carry a maid of honour emergency kit.
This is what every maid of honour needs in her emergency kit.
Where you get married is an integral part of the big day. You want your surroundings to be absolutely stunning and the photos to be a beautiful reminder of the day. We found these spectacular, slightly off-the-beaten-track venues to keep in mind as you go on the search of the perfect space.
Granny Mouse Country House
Considered one of the most romantic venues in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, the Granny Mouse is a sight to see. The chapel has panoramic views over the Caversham Valley and is the perfect combination of countryside and luxury. It has an old time charm to it, and is far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday city life.
This venue is in a somewhat obscure place of the country, but trust us, you want to go there. On the fringe of the Karoo, the hotel is one of those rare places that takes you back in time and makes you feel like you’re not even in this century. Named after Lord Alfred Milner, the hotel is also a heritage site and was completed in 1899, and shortly thereafter served as the Headquarters of the Cape Western Command.
If you want a fairy tale inspired venue, this place is for you. Situated outside of Plettenberg Bay along the Garden Route, the venue is one with nature and has an enchanted forest look. Almost no need for expensive decor, as nature is your backdrop!
It’s not news that Clarens in the Eastern Free State is arguably the view-mecca of the inland. Nestled in the Maluti mountains, you get the veld atmosphere without having to sacrifice class. Think open green fields, cattle grazing and mountainous peaks popping up all around.
This awe inspiring structure is on the outskirts of Graskop towards God’s Window in Mpumalanga. Set in the style of a 17th century Italian castle, the venue is an experience in itself. The castle was constructed using hand picked relics and works of art to create a magnificent masterpiece set in one of the most beautiful areas of the country.
An American bride’s story has gone viral on social media after she cancelled her wedding but still had her wedding photoshoot. Her story has inspired many and has become an important symbol for choosing your own happiness first.
Chandley Brelsford from Reno, Nevada, took to Facebook to write a moving message that explains why she cancelled her June 8 wedding. Three weeks before her big day, she realised that she was not happy and that her fiancé was not the right man for her.
“The man I had fallen in love with was not the man I could call my husband. And it has shaken my character to its very core.” she writes. “The life I so desperately wanted to live with him was never going to exist. Our marriage would not be peaceful, supportive, and loving and it took 4 years for me to realize that this man was not right for me.”
When she first began dating her partner, she feel like the most special woman in the world. She viewed the relationship through rose-tinted glasses, ignoring multiple warning signs. She began making many sacrifices and dedicated most of her time to making the relationship work.
“I started my freshman year of college in Reno, but drove back to Sacramento every weekend to see him. He had told me he wouldn’t do long-distance, so I kept jobs close to his home and worked on the weekends. Every week, I would go to class and finish all my homework in Reno, then drive 2.5 hours over the mountains to work my shifts and see him. I would clean his home and buy our groceries. I would meal prep all our lunches for the week as well as any miscellaneous tasks that he asked of me. He would become very angry if I forgot little things, so I tried my best to do everything to his specifications. I wanted to prove how serious I was.”
She began walking on eggshells, dedicating every free moment to making sure her partner would not get mad at her. Brelsford also isolated herself from her friends, and gave up many of her dreams to accompany his wishes.
Their engagement was a happy moment, one she thought would improve things. However, nothing changed.
“My life was so perfect on the outside, but inside the depression was beginning to consume me.”
She decided to cancel the wedding after a particularly large fight broke out that took her to a dark place.
On the date that she was meant to get married, she put on her wedding dress and had her pre-scheduled wedding photoshoot by herself, in a symbol of choosing herself.
She appears much more happy and confident. Credit: Facebook / Chandley BrelsfordInstead of saving money for a honeymoon, she is saving money for grad school Credit: Facebook / Chandley Brelsford
“To all the women out there, no one is worth sacrificing what you hold dear. It doesn’t matter if he is good-looking or willing to spend money on you or promises you the whole world; if he does not show you respect now, then he never will. Love is blind.”
“Every person is deserving of a love that sets their soul on fire, as well as provides a place to rest when weary. This world is harsh sometimes, so hold onto those who are kind to you. For now, I will be focusing on myself, my goals, my faith, and my family and friends. I might be ready to get married again… some day, but not today.”
