Details Details. Oh how we love those unique pieces of pretty…..

Chanelle and Craig chose a stunning chocolate brown colour scheme for their wedding in South Africa and let me tell you – it is filled to the brim with inspiration.

Not to mention stunning images…..

Capturing The Moment

I chose a Durban based photographer called Donavan Whyte

One of Craig’s close friends Mark (who was best man at our wedding and Craig best man at his wedding) hired a well known South African photographer called Geoff Goldswain. Donavan had been working with Geoff for around 5 years and had a similar artistic style that we really felt drawn too. Both Donavan and Geoff where still shooting film at the time and so our photographs are mostly film images.

We where fortunate to have a friend who was starting out in wedding photography at the time who took a load of digital photographs throughout the day for us. He is now a fully fledged and thriving wedding photographer, his name is Stuart Dods

Saint Cake….Or Not

Lynne, the “Saint”, sorted the cake for us too. We chose to go for a carrot cake, which we both love. Although I don’t mind wedding cake, Craig is not a big fan. We had little glass vases in-between the layers with a single green orchid inside (this was something I had seen pictured using a traditional wedding cake with marzipan). What we didn’t take into account is that carrot cake is much softer with squishy icing and as we went to cut the three tiered beauty the top tier promptly landed on the floor! I just turned to the loudest table who where haggling us and told them that where not to get any. You have to let these things go. There is absolutely nothing that can be done about them and I would never let something like that effect my day in anyway. Laugh it off.

All Day Entertainment

During the ceremony we had a duo playing the flute and violin. They started playing 30 mins prior to the ceremony and all the way through to the drinks reception and canapes on the lawn.

The Reception went on from 11:30pm – 3am – DJ. Yes it’s true, our friends like a good party and one of the main criterias for our venue was that their would be no noise restrictions and no time restraints either!

A Love Song

Craig and I had been going to Le Roc dance classes and decided to have a first dance choreographed by a professional. The choice of song came about as we are both Cure fans as well as liaising with the instructor to find a suitable song that we could use our Le Roc moves to. This was kept as a surprise from all of our guests. Fun!

Unique Chic

Lynne did everything for me according to my mood board images, I swear she was a like an unofficial wedding designer. The theme for the day was Chocolate Brown and Green (Orchids). We had an outdoor wedding under a Chuppah and the reception in a marquee. We had it draped along with hundreds of fairy lights and a chandelier in the middle. I instructed the DJ that in no uncertain terms would there by any form of coloured lighting. I didn’t want any cheesy looking disco things going on and so he kept that to a minimum with only neutral lights.

Ours was a wedding weekend. There where friends and family who had flown in from Australia, the UK and all over South Africa. It was so special to have everyone staying over there for the two nights. The actual venue accommodated around 35 guests and the rest stayed at B&B’s and guest houses nearby. On the Friday night we had a braai (BBQ) with most of our guests. This was a fabulous way for people to be introduced and become familiar with each other before our actual wedding day. One thing that was said over and over was how everybody gelled so well. The wedding day started early in the morning with us girls having a photo shot in the forest and the boys having a creative shoot down at the railway line. We rocked on ’til the wee hours of Sunday morning with the band and finally the DJ.

On Sunday morning the marquee was reset with the sides up for us to enjoy a big English breakfast with around half of our guests. This was the perfect way to end our weekend. Craig and I then got dressed up in our wedding gear once more, albeit slightly hungover. The photo shot was in the forest and we had some fun with a few props like a saddle and bridal (I am a horsey girl and heart and have been riding since the age of six).

This next day shoot actually inspired us to get further into wedding photography ourselves. At that stage we had covered a few friend’s weddings and after seeing how creative you could get, we where hooked. Post Wedding creative shoots are now something that are proving very popular with our wedding clients.

A Dedication

My DAD – I have to dedicate this to my dear Dad. He was so supportive of me in every single way. He had a bellowing laugh that stemmed from deep in the soul. The kind that I remember hearing two houses down when playing at a friends house when I was growing up. It was infectious. He was always positive and always appreciative of everything he had. I miss him so much it aches. I am so thank-full that he was there to walk me down the isle, to give me away and to see that I would be happy in my future.

A BIG thank you to Chanelle and Craig for sharing their beautiful fairytale day….

We hope to feature more of their oh-so-pretty weddings in the future.

Big Honey Bee Love

Charlotte xxx

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