Villa Paradiso Wedding

From time to time, we fall deeply in love with a bride’s style; obviously that was the case with Anni. From her blunt bangs to her incredible lace and tulle wedding gown to her floral crown by Love & Grace, everything is just about as good as it gets. Lad & Lass did an incredible job as always behind the camera!

From the bride, Anni: We wanted the big day to represent our personalities and every day style. I wanted the guests to see and feel that they are special to us. We made the day very personal, by only inviting 80 of our closest friends and family. The venue helped us with creating a relaxed environment with a big mountain and Hartebeespoort dam in the background. Our family love to entertain and decorate. This was a big excuse for my mom and me to host a big party. We used a lot of grey, white and yellow flowers to create a clean, fun and modern look. We used all of our own vases and glass holders that we collected over the years, to hold the flowers. This helped to keep the decor personal. We wanted the day to be a big party for all of our guests with good food, a live band and attention to detail.

Flower recipe: yellow orchid stems, yellow and white roses, eucalyptus leaves, cockscomb and desert roses.

We decided on a grey, ivory and mustard yellow colour scheme. We wanted to keep the wedding modern, different, simplistic, informal, and a little bit quirky. I paid a lot of attention to small details (posing in my mother’s wedding dress, wearing vintage gloves, inviting Cooper the pug into the wedding party and framing old photos of my mom and her mom’s wedding pics to hang in the reception) — I knew all these small details would add up to create the feeling that we wanted. We involved our pug named Cooper into the big day. He walked down the isle together with my bridesmaids. Pugs were featured on our stationery (which my sister and I designed). The thank you gifts were cookies in the shape of a pug. My mom spent 2 whole days in her kitchen, just baking cookies. My mom and I made big fluffy balls out of tulle to hang from the ceilings in the church. My mom in law folded the old books into different shapes to hang around the venue. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, getting ideas to experiment with. We folded paper flowers out of old sheet music. We made many meters of bunting to hang around the venue.

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Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? I think the most important elements were the venue, the photographers, and my dress. Once these things are sorted, the other details fell into place. When comparing venue prices, it is easy to get confused with all their hidden costs. Do a proper total cost analysis on each venue before deciding, as the venue and catering tends to take the biggest cut from your budget. Make an initial budget and update this budget monthly, it is very easy to over spend if you are not keeping track of all the costs involved. Make sure all of the big details are sorted 2 days before the wedding, so that you can enjoy the day before and of your wedding with the people close to you, instead of running around and creating stressful situations. Use suppliers that understand your style and look that you want to create.

Wedding Music:
Processional: “Somewhere Only We Know,” Keane
First Dance: “Hear You Me,” Jimmy Eat World

Wedding Location: Hartbeespoort, South Africa / Photographer: Lad & Lass / Flowers and Flower Crown: Hester from Love & Grace / Venue: Villa Paradiso / Wedding Dress: Catherine’s Collection / Wedding Shoes: Charles & Keith / Hair and Makeup: Erin Smylie Make up Artist / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Urban / Groom’s Suit: Hilton Weiner / Groom’s Shoes: Country Road / Wedding Cake: Groom’s Aunt / Band: S1