Every year, the Department of Home Affairs and Robben Island Museum work together to offer a yearly opportunity for couples to say ‘I do’ on Valentines Day on the island. Here’s how you can get in on the action.
On Valentines Day, the island is transformed into a stunning venue where couples can participate in a mass wedding. 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of this tradition, making this year very special. This Valentines Day, 20 couples will tie knot to honour the anniversary.
Couples chosen will take the ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway to the Robben Island Museum, and their ceremony will be held at the Robben Island Chapel. Following the exchanging of their vows, couples will head off to a wedding reception for lunch and thereafter go on a tour of the Museum. The area will also be an opportunity for the couples to take their wedding photos on the beach and to capture the iconic and other scenic areas on the island. The couples will return to Cape Town in the afternoon.
Couples wishing to participate may contact Wilhelmina Booysen on 021 468 4510 or [email protected] and Yolanda Mdutywana on 021 413 4226 or [email protected]. The last day to apply is February 5, 2020.
Jodi and Saul went to school together, but little did they know of the brilliant love story the future held for them. And when they got married, what a celebration it was! The amazing thing about culture is that each one is so wildly unique, but so special in its own way. Their Jewish wedding was one for the books, and we take a look into the traditions and customs that made their day extra special.
They didn’t see each other for 7 days before the wedding
For a full week before the day, the bride and groom don’t see each other or have any contact at all. 15 minutes before the wedding, they saw each other for the first time. “The most stressful time of the whole wedding is the week before. And when I finally saw him, it was so emotional, and totally worth it,” Jodi said.
The bedeken: Her husband veiled her
Dating back to a story in the Bible in which a man unknowingly wed his bride’s sister after her father tricked him, the bedeken is where the husband is brought in by both his father and hers, sees his lovely bride and then covers her face with the veil. “I was so overwhelmed with emotion,” Jodi says.
She walked around her husband 7 times
During the ceremony, the bride walks around the groom seven times to symbolise seven different blessings, the foundation of their new home and starting a full and complete life together.
Her husband smashed a glass
This tradition is to remind the couple and those celebrating of the destruction of the Jewish temples, symbolising that life is fragile, and even though they are celebrating their love, everything will not always be perfect and that there are struggles. The husband gets a glass or lightbulb wrapped in a cloth and steps on it with his foot, crushing it completely.
We also asked Jodi what advice she has for brides-to-be. “The best advice I can give anyone would simply be: Don’t sweat the small stuff. On the day, you’ll realise that they really don’t matter!” She also added a practical tip, saying that it’s important to stick with your partner on the day. “We went everywhere together. If you go get drinks, go together,” she adds. “If you chat to guests, go together. That way, you’ll remember the day as being spent with him. Otherwise you may look back and feel like you didn’t even spend any time together!”
For her wedding look, Jodi wore a stunning appliqué dress with detachable sleeves by designer Elbeth Gillis. The sleeves were on for the ceremony as a gesture of propriety and taken off for the reception. “I wanted something that would make me feel comfortable, something that’s me. And it was perfect.”
Flowers have always been an important part of wedding décor, and we assume they will continue as such. From bouquets and boutonnières to centrepieces and decorations, the wedding flowers play a big role in creating an atmosphere.
The only problem is that flowers are quite pricey; they can extensively push up your expenses list. This is the opposite of the goal…right? We all want to save some money and bring that wedding expenses down as low as possible.
Here are a few ways you can save money on your wedding flowers:
– Keep it local and seasonal
Avoiding importing your flowers will save you big bucks. A local option is definitely the better choice for your budget. A similar principle applies to in-season blossoms. While you probably could find your desired out-of-season flower somewhere, it’ll be way more pricey than picking something in-season. The flowers will be fresher too!
– Go for greens
Adding some lush leaves and greenery can do wonders for your budget and your floral arrangements. They add a whimsical feel to your decor and fill up your arrangements in a stylish way, saving you from purchasing large quantities of flowers.
– Bigger blooms
This one is simple. The bigger the flower, the less you have to buy. Save yourself some cash and opt for a larger or statement bloom.
– Limit yourself to three flowers
In most cases, a florist will order the flowers in bulk, even if you don’t need too many of a specific one. If you keep the flower variations to three or less, it’ll save you some money because a bulk purchase will be necessary and none will go to waste.
– Mix and match decor elements
Add tea lights, fairy lights and candles or whatever trimming your heart desires to your venue. Opting for some different decor elements will cut your flower expenses drastically.
– Leave flowers out where you can
Perhaps you could skip the boutonnieres and corsages. While some people might want to keep them for tradition, they are not a necessity and can be replaced with alternatives if need be.
– Forget a February wedding
Valentine’s Day pushes up the price of flowers! You’re likely to pay much more than usual for whatever flower you want in February. Best avoid this month to keep the costs down.
Glowing skin is always a good thing. On your wedding day you’ll want to look your best, and one of the ways to achieve that is by treating your skin. If you haven’t got a spa budget, however, there are a number of at-home face masks you can make yourself. Give yourself the gift of a glow-up without the expensive price tag by making your own all-natural treatments.
These masks are all natural and all good for your skin. Your biggest challenge will be to stop touching your face afterwards and marvelling at how smooth it feels.
Pumpkin smoothie – enhances skin elasticity and hydration
Ingredients:
1/4 cup canned pumpkin (frozen)
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 banana (frozen)
1 tsp cinnamon
Blend all the ingredients together in a blender for one minute at high speed. This will form a paste that you can apply to your skin and leave on for 15 minutes before rinsing with lukewarm water. Pat dry with a face towel and apply moisturiser.
Pumpkin is packed with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants that will boost your skin’s elasticity, circulation, and hydration. Almond milk will provide moisture, while the banana also helps enhance skin’s elasticity. Cinnamon acts as a natural antioxidant and has antibacterial properties.
Aloe vera mask – fights acne
Ingredients
2 tablespoons aloe vera gel
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon sugar
Mix the milk and sugar together until the sugar dissolves, then add the aloe vera and blend until you’re left with a paste. Apply to your face and neck and leave on for 20-30 minutes before rinsing with lukewarm water. Pat dry with a face towel and apply moisturiser.
Aloe vera is a wonder plant that has multiple skin benefits to ease burns, sunburns, irritation, allergies and even acne. The milk also helps to soothe skin, while sugar is a natural source of glycolic acid that aids in cell turnover.
Honey citrus mask – boosts glow
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/4 cup of honey
Mix the orange juice and honey together until it creates a gel. Apply to your face and leave it on for 15 minutes. Remove with lukwarm water, pat dry with a face towel and apply moisturiser.
These ingredients are amazing at brightening your skin, replacing dullness with a beautiful glow.
Bonus:Brown sugar exfoliant
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 splashes of olive oil
Mix the brown sugar and olive oil together and apply to your face. Massage the misture into your skin with gentle circular motions. Rinse with lukewarm water, pat dry with a face towel and apply moisturiser.
The sugar acts as a gentle exfoliant and aids in cell turnover, while the olive oil provides moisture that will leave your skin feeling soft, smooth and supple.
From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, accessories can make or break a look. Have some fun with a few well-placed pins to take your hair from drab to fab.
Here are some ideas to make sure your hair game is on point on your big day.
For all its faults and fears, social media gets one thing right: it brings us together. Yes, the internet is vast and scary but it can also be the site of true love and happiness. We’ve seen couples from different parts of the globe meet and fall in love all from behind a tiny phonescreen. It’s a truly modern world we live in, and Sandhya and Dylan’s love story exemplifies that.
Credit: Margaux Cronje Photography
Sandhya and Dylan’s worlds were brought together through online dating app Bumble. At the time, Sandhya was living in Australia but had come to South Africa to visit family. They met at the Fire and Ice bar in Melrose Arch for milkshakes and haven’t gone a day without speaking since. Living in different countries, Sandhya and Dylan agreed to remain friends but that didn’t last long.
“It was a spark like none I had previously experienced… it was a romance with a strong emotional and intellectual connection. We always felt like we were learning things from one another and it almost didn’t matter that we were physically apart.”
In August 2018, Sandhya and Dylan decided to close the gap when Sandhya moved to South Africa. It was a difficult decision: in Australia she was an ambitious career woman in a high-paced corporate field, one that was still in its infancy stages in South Africa. Meaningful advice from her mother, however, remedied her torn mind.
“If you miss out on your dream job, you’ll regret it for a couple of years… but if you miss out on your true love, you’ll regret it forever. Find your courage and go see.”
The move was worth it. The couple soon became engaged at Nambiti Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal whilst on a romantic private game drive at sunset.
“The ranger said Dylan had booked a romantic package that included private sunset drinks and photos in a romantic location. We hopped out and another ranger picked us up and drove us to a viewpoint overlooking the entire Nambiti reserve and valley. It was stunning… we could see elephants wandering below us and the Drakensburg mountain range in the distance… Our ranger started to take photos of us, and while I was busy posing, I turned around to find Dylan on one knee with a ring box in his hand!”
The engagement ring was in the shape of a Protea flower, so that Sandhya will always have a piece of Africa with her wherever they go next.
In December 2019, Sandhya and Dylan said ‘I do’ in a stunning ceremony fusing South African, Indian and Irish Catholic traditions, held at the Inanda Polo Club in Sandton.
With an an ‘enchanted garden’ feel, their decor was more focused on understated elegance over the traditional colourful Indian decor. Even the traditional Pandal, a canopy under which the ceremony is held, was draped in white chiffon fabric with rustic white flowers and greenery instead of the usual gold decor.
Credit: Margaux Cronje Photography
For their nuptials, Sandhya wore a beautiful bridal sari in burnt orange made from raw silk and embellished with gold thread, gifted to her from her aunt who had recently travelled to India. The sari even had to be draped by a professional dresser to ensure it was pleated correctly. She accessorised with ‘jimki’ earrings, a heavy choker and necklace, as well as a belt – all of which were gold with touches of cerise. Her hair was styled in a traditional South Indian plait decorated with jewels and lots of white flowers. She had a waist-length plait attached to her hair, and it was so heavy she has to take painkillers to offset the pain! Dylan impressed in a traditional cream military-style suit jacket and burgundy pants.
Credit: Margaux Cronje Photography
The wedding, however, did not go as smoothly as expected. First, the driver was late to pick Sandhya and her sister up due to a flat tire then when he did arrive, the car wouldn’t start! As the car was being fixed, Sandhya’s father called to say he had left the thali, a small golden necklace that the groom ties around the bride’s neck to conclude the wedding, at home. The tying of the thali is the most important and sacred part of a South Indian wedding, and without it there could be no wedding. Luckily the car was still stuck and Sandhya was able to get it.
In another crisis, Sandhya’s written vows, a tradition to honour Dylan’s Irish Catholic heritage, was literally gone with the wind.
“The priest announced “the bride and groom have written vows which they will read”, and I looked to my sister to pass them to me. She looked back at me wide-eyed and motioned to the very empty chair she was sitting on, before mouthing “the vows have flown away”. They unfortunately had to cut this part of the ceremony out, but everyone was able to laugh about it later.
Sandhya’s top advice for couples planning their wedding is to not sweat the small stuff, and that there is no need to break the bank. “At the end of it all, people come to your wedding to celebrate the love you have for each other, not to ogle the décor or to comment on the colour choice of your flowers. ”
Her final words of wisdom are “less stress, more champagne! If you are stressed, your guests will be stressed, and if you are worrying about things on your wedding day, your guests will also get that negative vibe. Have fun, drink some wine, dance a lot, and don’t get wound up about small things going wrong…Laugh it off and enjoy it! You’ll wake up the next day and it will seem like a dream.”
Credit: Margaux Cronje Photography
All images were amazingly captured by Margaux Cronje. You can view her website HERE.
People get married all the time, so you want to make sure your wedding stands out from the crowd. Adding a personal touch to parts of your wedding makes the day memorable not only for the betrothed couple but also for the guests. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. Small touches can make a big difference if done well.
There are a multitude of ways to add personal touches to your big day. Here are a few ideas:
Removing all or some of your body hair is a personal choice, and we’re firm believers in doing whatever works for you. Many men and women do choose to wax, though, especially before the big day and long-awaited honeymoon. However, it’s not a very pleasant thought when making that waxing appointment. Often accompanied by pain, discomfort and even skin conditions like rashes or in-grown hair have made many skeptical of this procedure.
We take a look at the other options out there, which may just make things slightly easier and prevent you from getting in a sticky situation.
Sugaring
This method makes use of a sugar mixture which is applied at body temperature. That already means there is no chance of burning as is sometimes the case with wax. The sugar paste does not stick to live skin cells, only to hair and dead cells – giving the best exfoliation and leaving your skin smooth when the dry paste is removed. Although not completely painless, sugaring is considerably less painful than waxing.
Laser
Laser treatment’s biggest perk is the fact that it leads to permanent hairlessness over a long time if that’s what your goal is. However, it is quite expensive and you might still have to go for up to six treatments per year, depending on your hair growth and other factors like the quality of the laser machinery. Also, not completely pain-free, but most women say that it is definitely less painful than waxing.
Electrolysis
Different to laser treatments but working on the same basic principle, a probe emitting shortwave radio frequencies is applied to hair follicles to stop new hair from growing. This damages your hair follicles to prevent growth. Unlike laser technology, electrolysis is able to treat even blonde, white and grey hair.
Dry shave
It’s not groundbreaking, but it has proven to be an effective -and cheaper- alternative. Easy to do at home, a waterless electric shaver is quick and easy, with the bonus that it won’t cause in-grown hair like shaving does.
On your wedding day, you want to look and feel your best. However, getting here requires work that often starts months before your big day. Here are some tips to make sure you are looking and feeling your best come wedding day.
Develop a consistent skincare routine and STICK TO IT!
Hopefully you already have one in place, but it is important to have a skincare routine designed for your particular skin. Maybe you have oily skin, dry skin, or sensitive skin. Maybe you have discolouration, rosacea or fine lines. Regardless, there are many products created to cater for a multitude of skin types and concerns. Now, developing a skincare routine is not easy. It’s mainly just trial-and-error.
While Koreans are famed for their 12-step routines, many dermatologists recommend a simpler skincare routine with three key steps: cleanse, tone, moisturise. Another thing dermatologists agree on is that SPF is the most important skincare product everyone should be using. Sunscreen protects your skin from the harmful UV rays of the sun. Many skincare and makeup products contain SPF, which makes it that much easier and leaves you with no excuse not to use it.
Facials:
Treat your skin to a facial with your regular aesthetician every month in the lead up to your wedding. When meeting your aesthetician, highlight what you want to focus on with the facials. It’s also important to speak up about your skin type. If you’ve got sensitive skin, your aesthetician has to be very careful about the types of products they use, and it’s the same for dry and oily skin.
Importantly, make sure not to get a new facial the day before your wedding. Your skin might react weirdly and leave you with a nasty pimple on your big day. Leave yourself a couple of days for your skin to calm down and really reflect the benefits.
Exfoliate:
Get rid of those pesky dried skin cells with a weekly exfoliant that will leave your skin silky smooth. Exfoliants help your skin appear brighter and glowing, which is always a good thing. Be careful when choosing your exfoliant, as some can be too harsh on your skin.
Importantly, over-exfoliating can leave your skin dry, flaky and irritated, so best avoid using this product more than three times a week. Usage will change depending on the strength of your exfoliator.
Manage your stress
I know it’s hard, but this one’s important. With all the wedding planning and small moving parts to keep track of, your skin and body is likely to show your internal stress. You need to keep stress at bay so that it doesn’t show up in your skin through a breakout. A host of other conditions like exzema and psoriasis can be worsened through stress.
Consider sharing the load and delegating jobs to your bridal party to help out so that you don’t carry all the stress of event planning. If you have an event planner, that’s even better! It’s also a great idea to participate in some stress-relieving activities like yoga, painting or reading.
Bridal showers are a way for all the women in the bride’s life to come together, get to know each other, and celebrate the bride-to-be. Games at a bridal party keeps things light and ensure that there are no awkward silences.
Another reason to offer games at a bridal shower is to prevent the occasion from centering around gift-receiving. A common problem, however, is that the old-school, traditional bridal shower games are a bit played out.
Here are five fun bridal shower games we know you’ll want to try:
1. The Gossip Game
The bride and the host team up to write a light-hearted, gossipy question about each attendee on little pieces of paper, fold them up, and put them in a bowl. Questions can include things like “who was Sarah’s first kiss?” or “When last has the bride’s mom bought lingerie?”.
As the guests come in, have them take a question out of the bowl. They then have to play detective, and in the process mingle and get to know each other to find out the answer to the question.
The rules are that they are not allowed to ask the question directly and there should be a set time limit of about 30 minutes to investigate.
2. Achieve the Look
This one is simple and it’s relevant. The bride probably knows exactly what she wants her bridal make-up to look like. But it’s always good to have some options… right?
Print out multiple copies of a photo of the bride with no makeup. Each player should receive a copy of the photo and a cheap set of makeup. Have them fill in the brides makeup on the photo.
For an added twist, you could blindfold the players too. This is sure to have you cry-laughing at the end results.
3. Creating Cocktails
Provide guests with various cocktail ingredients, set a time limit, and have them create a signature drink for the bride. Let the bride be the judge of the competition.
This one is sure to have everyone feeling merry, and the bride will have her own signature mixture to remember her bridal party by!
4. Dream Date
Each guest should write down her dream celebrity date. On the other side of the page, they should write their nightmare date.
The bride should draw each one, one at a time, and as a group the guests should try to figure out which card belongs to who. To make it trickier, have the guests guess which side is the dream date and which is the nightmare.
5. Cold feet
Fill a bucket with ice and place toy rings at the bottom. Each player needs to retrieve as many rings as possible in 1 minute…with their toes!
