Her Puppiness

Chloe:

A girlfriend for his puppiness. She is very pretty, and a little dumb. A total Daddy's girl, and sweetness itself.

And has been known to make a brandy drinking 120kg Afrikaans oke oooohhh and ahhhh at how cute she is. We went to a braai recently where she spent the night squeaking at the nearest available human feet and then being cuddled by however said feet were attached to.

She is also incredibly naughty.

our wedding: decor

The flowers made our wedding décor. And that I can only attribute that to Kim, my unofficial official wedding co-ordinator, and Wimpie, my flower artist. I had ideas for colours (green, pink, purple, grey, white) and Mom planted succulents galore, but Kim and Wimpie did the rest. They pinched some lavender from Kim’s garden and some other cool greeny grey leaves from one of her neighbours. So we just had to buy the roses, lillies and gerberas.

We used these recycled glass bottles instead of vases, an idea that really appealed to me. It amazed me how gorgeous any ordinary bottle can be just by removing the sticky label. Try it!

Wimpie also had the idea to wire my Granny’s brooch (my something blue) into my bouquet. It looked wonderful, and really made the brooch stand out.

We are huge fans of Frankie’s Soda since first trying it at Piggly Wiggly in the Natal Midlands a few years ago (aside: they do the yummiest breakfasts, if you are ever in the area). So we decided to order a few cases straight off their website and served them with cute grey stripey straws (which you can find at In Good Company). A bit of lace and voila we had our pre-drinks!

The seating plan was handmade with love by The Hubby by doing various clever woodworky things with white paint. And then we ordered business cards with each guests name printed, Mom hand wrote all the table numbers (like a superstar!) and I found some tiny tiny pegs at Flowerspot. Oh and the buttons were fun, we just chose a whole lot in a range of colours and glued them on!

For more on our wedding, check out our ceremony and our post on bloved.

All beautiful images by Estefania Romero :)

we are on b.loved!!!!

Cannot believe how EXCITED I am that our little East London wedding was featured on b.loved.

Louise, the stylish and sweet blogger/stylist behind b.loved, gave me so much inspiration for our wedding and I guarantee you will love her blog. It's just so pretty and full of bridal inspiration...
Thanks Louise!


PS: her blog post has a long shpiel that I wrote about our wedding, inspiration and how we made it all happen. Bit of an essay, but worth a read if you want to know more about our day.

our wedding: the ceremony

Nicky and I always knew we wanted to be married in a church. Never mind Bernie and Belle (our mothers) would have killed us both if we had it any other way.

There was a (brief) period when I dreamt about being married under a shady tree with white chairs in neat rows on the grass…like this:

Christine Meintjes Photography

But then I woke up from the lovely dream and realised we would be married in January in the Eastern Cape – a province notorious for its dodgy weather.

First City Baptist was the church I went to as a teen, and where my cousin Don trained to be a minister. It was the perfect choice: a beautiful bronze organ and a lovely long aisle to sweep down with the Dad.

Estefania Romero Photography

Don gave a wonderful sermon with a mountain biking theme that made everyone laugh (great if not everyone in your family is particularly religious).

                                                               Estefania Romero Photography

And, despite forgetting to sing the second hymn, saying our vows in that beautiful church was an awe-inspiring experience.

                                    Estefania Romero Photography 

All I could see was my Nicky in front of me and all I could feel were my cheeks hurting from all the smiling. We chose the old school vows, and it felt like such a privilege repeating those words.  I was so happy with our churchly choice and would recommend it to anyone (and not just to avoid a beating from religious Mamas)!

Next up: Our wedding decor

His Puppiness

Meet Howard John. 

Everyone asks why he has this name, but I mean LOOK AT HIM! He has that kind of old man face that lends itself to an old man name. I know this is a case of everyone thinking their kid is the best, but really….my kid is the best. He is loving and lovable and placid and only tries to jump out the bath once and then gives up and goes on being placid.

The vet tells me he is known as a “party colour” dog. Basically this is a nice way of saying he is a Cocker Spaniel, but with every colour combination known to man…black, golden, blue roan, orange roan, white…the combo is too cute. He is pleased to meet you.

coastal girl

So it’s been two weeks since we moved to the coast. In this time we have:

• Got a puppy (more about His Puppiness later)
• Transplanted our girls (bunny and cat) to a new home, with many murderous looks from the cat
• Waged an ongoing battle with fleas
• Unpacked our belonging into our gorgeous new house, complete with pool and an actual bona fide suburban garden my dears
• Got sick, me more so than The Husband
• Started a new job in a new industry in a new field
• Got our wedding photos and DVD (more on that later too)
• Took His Puppiness to the beach and were chased by the Metro police
• Exploded a snackwich machine, shorted the entire electrical system in our new house and found that the wiring was dodge and the explosion could’ve been avoided if the electrician had just come one day earlier
• Felt decidedly depressed because our awesome friends Tam and Pete are getting married on Sunday and we cannot be there :(
• Got Internet at home!!!

Right so that about covers all the mayhem and upheaval. Now for some serious settling down and exploring our new city and PEACE.

Pretty pretty flowers courtesy bloved

I don’t belong here

So today is my last day in the place I have called my employment for the last 3 plus years. The relief is enormous. Because...I really REALLY don’t belong here. And it shows.

This means I will be incommunicado for the next week or so, as the husband and I move our happy asses down to the coast. I’m sure you’ll survive without me, safe in the knowledge I am taking destiny by the nuts and a-changing it.

Tomorrow the movers come and use an enormous amount of our money to move the contents our tiny tiny flat. Preferable to me standing around with a feather duster, having a nervous breakdown because I just can’t decide where to pack all my Marian Keyes.

Happy Kate to follow...