Chanel & Don’s Coral Rustic Wedding

Chanel & Don’s Coral Rustic Wedding

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I literally squealed when I first spotted today’s wedding on Vanilla Photography‘s blog!  Chanel & Don used one of my favourite colour palettes, coral and mint, pumping up the colour to add a modern twist to their rustic autumn wedding.  They worked closely with planner Emily Lockhart to make sure every detail was just perfect, from the specially white-washed tables, wooden place settings, personalised thank you notes, incredible tulip table displays and a cake pop wedding cake.

So. Much. To. Love.

We first met in March 2011, it was at a mutual friends wedding. Quite bizarre really as we’ve been in many of the same places before with all the mutual friends, but never met before this particular time!  We completely just hit it off, and laughed the night away! Ever believed in love and first sight?

The proposal completely blew me away, I always swore I’d never be one of those girls that blubbed her way through my eventual wedding proposal, but there I stood… Wailing! Hahahahaha! Don was away, and I had gone down to Durban for breakfast with my cousins and family. Unbeknown to me, Dons had made is way home super early, and started his “setup”. I arrived home at about 11am and drove down the driveway to see a heart shaped chalk board hanging on the front door say “so… Will you?” And that was his iPad with a soppy video he made for me to watch.  And then I was instructed to follow the directions, and he had filmed himself driving to the new house we had bought together… needless to say I got into my car as fast as possible!! At this moment the blubbering is starting and the lip shake was seriously hard to control, and as I walked into the door I was absolutely blown away by what I saw – in a “storyboard” of our relationship, he had huge A1 size posters made and they were hanging from the roof, starting with the wedding we met at, to our first Christmas, first flight, first birthdays and continued to follow the pictures up the stairs. He chose my favourite photograph of him and wrote the phrase “so you want to marry this?” And as I continued up the stairs, there was another one of me and the phrase said “I want to marry this!  I walked up the stairs and there was my knight in shining armour, waiting for me at the top of the stairs, ready to pop the big question!! And there I was wailing, blubbering – looking very much like the red eyed sobbing girl I swore I’d never be!!!

Before our wedding had the AMAZING opportunity of going to New York – and tried on a few dresses, my specification Wallace and a high neck line. That was a seriously fun experience! So when I came back home I knew that what I wanted would never be found in a shop…  My dress was made by Jen Janse Van Rensburg at  Happy Heart, one of the the most amazing dress makers I have ever come across. She is brilliant at giving advice and her workmanship is incredible!  I have never been the kind of girl who has dreamed about a princess wedding or wedding dress, so when it came to choosing a dress for me, I knew it had to be something different!  what I absolutely LOVED about my dress was the fact that it was not conventional and it was completely different to anything I’ve ever seen! And it was completely covered in lace!  I just wanted my makeup to be as natural as possible, but still look glam!!  I was originally going to wear my hair down as I like the natural look, but I thought it would be a shame to hide the back of my dress so I searched Pinterest for the most natural upstyle I could find, I love plaits and messy buns so it was pretty easy!

I wore a watch that Dons had bought for me early in our relationship – it’s not traditional for a bride to wear a watch but you’ll never catch me without one! It was also a watch he’d bought on auction so it was my “something old”. I wore a Tiffany’s bracelet which is also from Don with a blue heart hanging off it, my “something blue”. I wore my diamond stud earrings as I’m not really into danglies. And I wore a lace garter which I found online because I didn’t like the look of the traditional ones! I also used a Ted Baker clutch bag that was a gift at my kitchen tea which matched my shoes perfectly!   I always wanted to wear shoes of a different colour, so when I went to Stuttafords and they were having a sale I scored with an awesome pair of coral Nine West wedges!

The bridesmaids were the complete POP in the wedding. The color of their dresses were coral which was the color theme for the wedding. They wore wooden heart earrings that I had made, heart bracelets and shoes of their own choice! They fitted in to the rustic theme just perfectly and the flowers in their hair made it all the more “relaxed” and country.  The groomsmen wore the same grey suit as Dons. Their buttonholes we’re done with rock roses and fitted the themes of coral and mint to the T! The all had personalized wooden cuff link which I had made as well! We chose a more casual suit to go with the less formal theme.

We got married at the Reichenau Mission in Underberg. We saw this venue in someone else’s photos, and absolutely fell in love with it! We booked it before we’d even seen it in real life!! It is an amazing piece of history and so rustic. I think anyone who goes there would love it, and we definitely weren’t the exception!  We had a lot of décor supplied by the fabulous Emily Lockhart where she had white washed tables especially made for us and a WHOLE bunch more stuff!  The heart name places were made by my precious grandmothers, and we made a wooden puzzle as a guest book, where each guest wrote on a puzzle piece.

photographer

Having Bron as our photographer was the easiest choice of our wedding! I had seen her work before as she had photographed one of my friends weddings a couple of years ago! I feel in love with her work and style and started following her back then!  Dons and I love how Bron captures such amazing moments and utilizes the light so incredibly well!! There was no choice! She was the only one we wanted favourite moment

Walking down the aisle and watching Dons face was a huge moment for me! But I would say the best part of our wedding was the fairy tale that it truly was, and the awesome party and celebration  with our family and friends after all the formalities.

first dance

James Morrison “I Won’t Let You Go“

advice

We would not change a single thing! It was perfect for us in every way!!  Our advice to other couples would be to not sweat the small stuff. The glasses you use, or the tablecloths are really not that important, and it definitely not what people remember about your wedding! So just relax and enjoy the day for what it actually is all about… A marriage celebration of you and your man!!!

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Suppliers: Photographer: Vanilla Photography // Dress: Happy Heart // Shoes: Nine West // Bridesmaids dresses: made by a family friend // Groomswear: Bachelors //  Florist: Sue Ackerman // Cake: Sharyn Breval // Stationery: Secret Diary Designs // Hair: Jo Putz // Make up: Joy Wood // Venue: Reichenau Mission // Catering: Food Matters // Music: Energy Productions  // Planner: Emily Lockhart

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