Tossing the bouquet and other traditions

Right, so all of you know, I will not be having the traditional bouquet throwing for single ladies and garter throwing for single guys. I have many many reasons for this, the most important of which is that I want everything at our wedding to have some meaning. I don’t want to do anything just because it’s what everyone else does or tradition says. I appreciate it can be fun and silly, but from my own harrowing experiences, it’s just not that fun.

I remember lots of weddings as a single girl, being forced to stand up in front of everyone, like being single is some kind of affliction, and then catch the bouquet. All the time watching the boyfriends and single men look like deers in headlights lest their potential wifey catch the flowers and start demanding a diamond.

As for the garter, guys take the whole thing a lot less seriously, but really...who wants to accidentally see my underwear while I’m standing on a chair with Nic’s head up my dress. No. Just...no. Imagine I have to go commando. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Let me know what you think.

Am I missing out on a well loved tradition? Am I an anomaly, do other girls wait in anxious anticipation for a chance at the bouquet? Do other girls want to see the single men at the wedding singled out, as it were, to catch my garter? Like a kind of female wedding crashers situation?

                                             Pic courtesy Style Me Pretty



So many bridesmaids...

I follow a lot of US wedding blogs. The reality is, there aren’t that many South African ones and the US is the start of most wedding trends. Another thing to consider is that a South African bride can see the same season weddings in the US, around 3-6 months before her own wedding! I’m having a summer wedding, and the “wedding season” as they call it is just starting in the UK and US now so I am collecting lots of lovely summery ideas. I AM proudly South African I swear!

Another thing that is just plain mad in the US is the number of groomsmen/bridesmaids. It is INSANE. I saw a wedding recently that had 20 bridesmaids!!! Imagine the cost. And imagine how many guests you will have if the bridal party alone is 40 or so people. If I extrapolate from our bridal party – 3 groomsmen and 3 bridesmaids to the 110 people we are having - I get 670 guests. Crazy.

I am often amazed at how beautiful bridesmaids look, well co-ordinated without being matchy matchy. I really feel that bridesmaids should be able to wear something flattering, that they actually like! No-one wants to be the dreaded primrose yellow cupcake. But these bridal parties take the cake:

Pic courtesy Credit Crunch Bride blog

Pics courtesy Green Wedding Shoes

Pic courtesy loveandlavender.com

Hopefully my 3 lovelies will be co-ordinated and not matchy matchy and will all feel beautiful in their dresses, well that's the plan anyway ;)

Would you like to be a rainbow bridesmaid?

Surprise hen party!

So my fiance’ is a sneaky one. All innocent and blue eyed, he tells me his family is hosting an engagement party for us this past weekend in Natal but it’s a surprise so I must shhh. Clever. Because it was all a ruse. He knows me so well, he knew I would go sniffing around and suspect something when he had all these whispery conversations with his mom.  So he headed me off with an engagement party fib. I packed a pretty party dress and everything! And then when I least expected it, BAM, hen party J

Thanks to Mel, Wends and Trace who were the masterminds behind the party and of course, all the wonderful ladies who came, you are such an awesome family! We had cupcakes and koeksisters and loads of champagne. Not to mention a rather raunchy version of Pass the Parcel. And a fun game of How Well Do You Know Your Man. Which I think I passed quite successfully, Although, really, who’s favourite food is CHICKEN. There I was with prawn pasta and all these complicated dishes and it was simple chicken.

I got all sorts of lovely lacey bits and pampering pieces, which I still think look way too tiny to fit my generous backside. Hopefully Nicky likes the squeezed in, toit look teehee ;)

Amazingly enough, I had completely forgotten about the lovely hen party spoilage part of getting married; with my mind currently full of wedding invitations. It was like having a birthday in the middle of the year!

Wonderful J

Long weekend baby....

Nicky and I are taking Friday off and going to Empangeni (Natal North Coast, right next to Richards Bay – not that I need to tell Cath that hehe, she knows the area well!) for a lovely long weekend with my future in-law family. Mel – Nic’s sister – is one of my bridesmaids! One of the most awesome things about getting married is that your man’s family becomes your family too! And it’s not just awesome because you get double the pressies at Christmas. You have another whole set of people who have to love you no matter how nuts you are. Because you are family! *wink*

It is Nic’s Mom’s birthday - happy birthday Bernie - and Father’s Day on Sunday – don’t forget! – so all very good timing.

Seeing as how freezing it’s been in Jozi lately – nowhere above 16 at midday brrrrr – I am really looking forward to the 26 degrees my kulula reminder tells me it’s going to be in Durbs tomorrow. Yay J

Hope you all have a great time, whether it be just a day off or a long weekend!

And, just because I can, here is something I love, the colours are so soft and how beautiful is the model:

Courtesy Green Wedding Shoes

I am on the pretty blog!!!

I just had to post this RIGHT NOW!!!
I must look like a crazy person behind my laptop at the very uptight offices I work in :)

Picture me: in neat ponytail and heels, clacking away at my keyboard, doing the most boring tax work imaginable.
And then!
I get a IM from my friend Anel at the office in Cape Town.

I AM ON THE PRETTY BLOG!!!!

Here is the link...yes "Kate" is moi. Best day ever.

The Cake Debacle

I am very determined about things that are important to me. Passing exams, riding my bike, eating. If I decide I will only eat tuna straight out of the can for a week (and yes this has happened hehe), you can be assured no matter how mad anyone thinks I am, I will only eat tuna for a week. And Nic is no different. Although his is more like: I will go to spinning three times a week, come snow or hail, and no-one is going to stop me. We scare some people. Understandably.

For no reason other than I am nuts and possibly have some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder, I will not have cupcakes at our wedding. Ordinarily I lurvvvve cupcakes. I had a small breakdown when the i love cupcake store in Blubird (Melrose) closed down. And I lurvvvve cake, so I want my favourite cake – red velvet – at the wedding. Despite the fact the cream cheese icing may be a puddle of white ooze on the cake table in the 30 degree heat of East London in January. Yes I know, I am nuts. But I really really love red velvet. So like a 5 year old with my heart set on a Beach Sunrise Barbie, and ONLY a Beach Sunrise Barbie, I will be having red velvet cake at our wedding. Nicky also loves red velvet, but perhaps not in the crazed way I do. And big thanks to my Mom we can have a red velvet cake at our wedding. I think she is used to my crazy determination after 25 years as my mother! And it will be NOM J

Another thing I love is a dessert table. You can see one in the background of this blog! Brides – with larger budgets than mine – make them true works of design genius. I would love one, but really when you think about it, it’s a waste. After dinner people are keen to get up and mingle and PARTAY, not continue sitting at their table eating more sweet things than they can tolerate. But they are still pretty to look at, and that’s all that matters right? ;)

Hopefully my cake will look like something like this:

Here are some other cakes that make me go weak at the knees (and yes I know there are dessert tables here, but I just couldn't resist teehee):

Pics courtesy of Style Me Pretty, 100 Layer Cake, Green Wedding Shoes, the Pretty Blog and Google images.

Image 5: from Julie Lim's Blog - the dessert table from Christine Meintjes wedding in October 2010 - so pretty, I can hardly stand it ;)

themes

Right, so the “T” word. Dreaded for me. Most brides are lucky enough to have something they truly love and are inspired by. Not me. I’ve spent the last 7.5 years behind a stack of legislative handbooks. Kinda hard to find inspiration in those. Planning a wedding though, has opened me up to some of the most amazing blogs, people, colours, design, creativity around. I didn’t think I was interested in these things. Thanks goes entirely to Tam (would you believe she was a chemical engineer by profession and has such creativity!), she started me off with an introduction to one of the most amazing wedding photographers – Christine Meintjes. And it kind of moved on from there.

Here are some of my favourite blogs – mostly bridal, but also design and photography:

Style Me Pretty

Green Wedding Shoes

Christine Meintjes Photography

Lizelle Lotter Photography

Etsy.com

Jasmine Star Photography

A cup of Jo

Lydia Meinjes – yes Christine’s sister, she is a fashionista of NOTE!

Eat Drink Chic

Peppermint Bliss

Sugar and Spice Design

And my personal favourite...the pretty blog

These are where I get most of my inspiration. And my aversion to themes. So I’ve gone all the way back to the beginning. Not being inspired by anything specific, but more a feeling of light and airiness that I love. And green. And lavender. And succulents. And flowers in general. And pretty pretty design of any kind. Luckily I have a fiancé’ who gets me and my new obsession. He is so supportive even when he receives the fifth URL of the day to check out and give his manly opinion on.

So no, I do not have a theme. Just a lot of things that inspire me and a hope that it will all come together!

Photo from we love pictures - amazing photographers!                                  

                                          

Photo from Style Me Pretty - styled shoot

Photo from Green Wedding Shoes - real wedding

Hi, how are you?!

We have decided (OK...I have decided, but Nicky approves!) to start a blog. For our wedding.

And possibly beyond. We have so many friends who live in different cities, continents, countries and thought this would be a great way to keep everyone in the know. Especially for our wedding! Which is only 7 months away (is it bad I just had to calculate that? Don’t most brides have a little countdown in their minds...7 months, 4 days, 12 hours and 64 seconds to go?). I am not like most brides I think. Both Obsessive Compulsive and completely blasé J

It’s all very exciting though. Yay!

So my posts will mainly be updates, ideas, things I love for our wedding...without giving too much away. I have little sad moments every now and then when I wish my Mom/Grans/friends/cousins/family were around to share in the mayhem of planning and deciding and designing (in person) that makes a wedding so wonderful. But sadly not.

Hopefully through “Kate and Nic Get Married” – which I agree could be the title of a soapie, but I am only a bean counter after all! – you will all get to share in a little bit of the magic Nicky and I are trying to create for our Big Day.

Love and happiness!