Well, despite the best intentions in the world, we all seem to get married at some stage in life. Gerhard and I were always very happy NOT being married, so imagine my shock when we went away in January 2003 to Nyaka Island. Lovely, bliss, and then: a proposal! Of course I said yes on the spot, of course we could never set a date...
To cut a long story short there was just never a good time to get married, either work kept us too busy, one, then the other, the cat got ill, we moved to Middelburg and then took it one step further, we moved to a farm near Middelburg and so it continued, year after year.
In June 2006, my dad got remarried after getting a divorce from my mom earlier in that same year. The divorce was not pretty to say the least, can you imagine playing happy families at a wedding soon thereafter. Anyhow, for once Gerhard and I both had time, I was between jobs and Gerhard was between year-ends (the joys of marrying an accountant), so in July 2006 we decided, this is it, we are getting married, and we decided to elope. Given the circumstances it seemed easier. So we had about three weeks to arrange this wedding, sounds like a lot for a two person wedding, but in actual fact, its not! At first we had high hopes and aspirations and decided we want to get married in Mauritius. After learning of all the read tape, not the least of our concerns being the fact that we needed unabridged birth certificates (in South Africa you are looking at at least 6 months), we came down to earth and planned a simple ceremony with "dial-a-dominee" in Cape Town, we would go to Mauritius later for a part of our honeymoon.
So, the date was set, Friday, 11 August 2006, the venue, the spectacular boulders beach. The "dial-a-dominee" booked, cherokee blessings picked out, a photographer arranged, and a suit bought for the dashing groom.
So what was missing from this picture, well only the small matter of a dress! When the Mauritius wedding was still being planned, I bought a gorgeous white dress perfect for a beach wedding, but for those of you that knows Cape Town, that would never have worked. Gerhard and I drove to Pretoria and I literally walked through every dress shop in each and every mall, nothing.
So what does a nice farm girl do when all else fails, she makes her own dress. Usually this is not a problem, but when your sewing skills are restricted to making curtains and some basic hemming, well let us just say that it gets challenging...
I literally shook all the way right from the very first cut of the fabric to the last silk rose that I sewed onto the hem. This was perfect!
We then proceeded to drive to Cape Town and had a couple of peaceful days before the big day. We met our dominee, relaxed, it was bliss. Then, my dear husband who simply cannot keep a surprise tells me that Stephan and Michelle are coming. Our two best friends who are married to each other! What a great surprise and thank goodness, now we will have some witnesses at least.
On the 10th of August we await the arrival of Stephan and Michelle from the airport. We decide to throw our own bachelors party and the two of us go for a beer in one of the crummiest bars I have ever seen, we will never forget any of it though!
Then we wake up on the 11th of August and it is pouring, the locals say that they have never seen such weather in all their years in Cape Town. So boulders beach and the little penguins will not work, plan B as suggested by our "dial-a-dominee", get married at Rhodes Memorial. I have never been as cold or as wet as on my wedding day, it was bucketing down and the wind was howling, I do have stunning pics of the day though. The photographer took really artistic shots and we look gorgeous.
Afterwards we all went back to our hotel for breakfast and some champaigne to warm up a bit, it was so funny, all of us having breakfast in our wedding attire. We then had to have a reception, so off to do some wine tasting of course, it was bliss, we laughed a lot, we tasted wine, we had so much fun. We ended the day with dinner at the Brass Bell. What a day.
Someone asked me the other day, if I could do it all again, how would I do it, my answer is exactly the same. Firstly we did what we wanted to do, how we wanted to, when we wanted to. Secondly, this wedding obviously cost nearly nothing, I literally only splurged on photo's. Lastly, we laughed a lot, things like the rain would totally drive any other bride to drink, with us, it was just part of the fun.
Things can only get better baby :)
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