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.
Dubai based designer, Michael Cinco, took to Instagram on Monday to show off his latest creation. The dress, which is embedded with crystals from top to bottom and has a three-metre long train, is the picture of extravagance.
“The bride specifically asked me to create her dream wedding a 50’s inspired Dior gown… So I made her dream wedding gown with a couture M5 touch on it,” Cinco said,
The train is designed with intricate petal layers and holds about 200 000 Swarovski crystals. The Filipino designer said the out-of-this-world dress “takes a village to transport”. The dress is said to be for a bride in Abu Dhabi.
Cinco has dressed several celebrities including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, and more. Just a quick scroll through his Instagram shows that he isn’t afraid to be bold and make risky fashion choices. His designs are truly something to behold. He definitely was the correct designer to approach for the task of a three-metre long train!
Have a look at the Swarovski covered wedding dress here:
It definitely makes things esier when your parents and parents-in-law get along, but what if they’re a bit too close? Unfortunately, one couple learnt the bad side of this when they had to postpone their wedding after their parents ran off together.
A young couple from Gujarat, India had to postpone their wedding a month before their big day because the groom’s father and bride’s mother disappeared, and its seems they did so together. The father was reportedly last seen leaving his home in the Katargam area of Surat city, while the mother was last seen leaving her house in Navsari.
According to a relative, the father of the groom and mother of the bride once dated when they were younger. They believe that the pair must have rekindled their romance and eloped.
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.
Many couples are unsure about when to have their official wedding photoshoot. Some hold fast to the tradition of seeing each other for the first time when entering the ceremony venue and walking down the aisle. All pictures of the couple then usually follow after the ceremony and before the reception. Others love the idea of the “first look” trend where the see each other privately beforehand, and some then choose to have the entire shoot before the actual wedding.
We take a look at the pros and cons of both to help you decide which is right for you.
Your wedding day can have you feeling very nervous, especially in the moments before you head to the ceremony. If you decide to see each other beforehand, it might make you loosen up and have some fun together, before you take the final step.
-It’s a special, private moment
Because the day is very emotional for both of you, spending the moment in private together will be extra special. This way, the groom can let his guard down and expose his vulnerable side when he sees you for the first time on the day, which is more intimate than in front of a crowd.
Cons:
-It changes tradition
The longstanding tradition in Western weddings is that the bride and groom don’t see each other before the wedding, with the first time they lay eyes on each other being when the bride walks down the aisle. However, some feel like it might be time to let go of certain rituals and embrace new trends.
-It influences your timeline
If you want to incorporate the “first look” and do the photoshoot before the ceremony, you will have to keep in mind that it takes time. Your schedule might have to move up to accommodate a few extra hours.
If you have the traditional late afternoon ceremony with an evening reception, doing the photoshoot after the ceremony will mean you get that golden hour hue. Of course, you can still split it so you do a first look before the ceremony and then do the rest of the shoot after, so you get the best of both worlds.
-You capture a different kind of moment
The groom’s expression when he sees the bride walking down the aisle might not be as private as the first look, but it can be just as special. It captures a special moment of a different kind, and the wonder in his eyes will be just as beautiful.
Cons:
-You don’t have privacy
Depending on how many guests you have, it might be nerve racking to see your partner for the first time in front of all those people. It might make you both feel slightly exposed, but then again, you might want to share the moment with the people you love.
-You don’t spend time before the ceremony
If you see each other at the ceremony for the first time, you don’t have the chance to spend some alone time together. The day will probably be busy and you won’t get to take a breath until after the whole wedding.
In the end, both ways can be wonderful and solely depends on your personal preference. There is no wrong way to do it.
Congratulations are in order for Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters and Tim Tebow! The beautiful couple tied the knot in a stunning sunset ceremony in Franschhoek, South Africa.
Following an exciting few days of pre-wedding activities, Demi-Leigh and Tim finally said ‘I do’ at the La Paris Estate. According to PEOPLE, their ceremony lasted 30 minutes and was attended by 260 guests. The couple wrote their own vows.
Speaking to PEOPLE the night before the wedding, Tim said, “I want the vows to be perfect. I’m leaving in the traditional things like ’till death do us part,’ but I’m also adding some of my own things to it.”
Demi-Leigh wore a beautiful custom gown by Davids Bridal and Tim wore a tuxedo by Antar Levar.
The wedding blended South African and American wedding traditions, because their cultures are very important to the couple.
“We’re both very traditional,” Nel-Peters told PEOPLE. “We wanted to look back at the wedding and see that it was intimate, elegant, and traditional. We definitely wanted it to be something that we could look back on and know that nothing was dated. We want to remember this day for the rest of our lives.”
The day could not have come soon enough for this loved-up pair.
“I’ve been looking forward to three things,” said Tebow to PEOPLE. “The first moment I see her in her wedding dress, the first kiss, and the first dance together as man and wife. It’s such a special night.”
He continued, “I’ve been waiting my entire life for someone special, who I can spend the rest of my life with. I was waiting for the right person to come along. And now I’m marrying Demi. I can’t wait to see what our future holds. All of my dreams have come true. It was 100 percent worth the wait.”
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:
Forget Western traditional white weddings. It’s no secret that Hindu weddings are a magical display of colour in celebration of love and union. This pair strayed from the Hindu tradition of bright red, however, to go with a soft pink and we absolutely adore it.
Amar Jandoo and Hiren Gondhia got married in Essex, UK, and their story is a fairytale.
“We met just over four years ago in a bar after seeing each other at the train station on our commute to work a number of times that same week,” Jandoo told Insider. “We got engaged in September 2018 in Cappadocia, Turkey, under hot air balloons,” she added.
“Given our wedding venue is in the middle of a deer park with lots of greenery, I wanted a subtle, pastel color that would stand out and complement the flowers and decor at the same time,” Jandoo said. “Both of our outfits were purchased from a boutique in Delhi, India, called Frontier Raas,” Jandoo said. Zohaib Ali Photography captured the stunning couple.
