Erni & Pieter

If you follow our instagram account you'll have noticed we shared a little preview of this totally gorgeous wedding and couple. The golden hour portraits by Fiona Clair have had us swooning for days and we just couldn't contain our excitement any longer. The whole Cape Town wedding is chic, elegant and brimming with inspiration. The crisp white tablescape with greenery and copper accents looks delicious in the dappled sunlight by day, and fairy lights by night. As do the bridal party outfits, in dresses to die for and bouquets of beauty. Be warned, you may want to get your pinning fingers at the ready. Enjoy.

Our Story

Erni the Bride: We got engaged in the middle of August in Amsterdam (Pieter is half ducth!) while on holiday. A month later we decided to try and pull off a wedding before the end of the year so we had 3 months to make it all happen.

The Dress

Due to short notice period I had very little options, luckily the extremely talented Elbeth Gillis said she will still be able to help me. I had no real clue on what I wanted except for a high neckline. So as one does you look at the supermodels on pinterest and trust some realistic inspiration comes to you. I’m not going to lie, the process was very intimidating to me but Elbeth was brilliant in making it all come together even beyond my wildest pinterest expectations. I tried a veil on at my last fitting, despite loving tradition it just didn’t feel ‘like me’ so I decided against it.

The Suit

The ‘suit stars’ aligned for Pieter since he travelled to New York for work the months after we got engaged so he lots of options. He/us (via some whatsapp pictures) went with a dark navy Hugo Boss suit.

The Venue

Initially I was set on an inner city wedding in Cape Town (and was actually against a Wine farm/Stellenbosch wedding). I enquired a few places in Cape Town and the one place bizarrely actually recommended The Modern Heirloom at Overgaauw Wine Estate which is actually the wine farm on Pieter’s mom’s family side. I mentioned it to him and he was secretly delighted. He called his cousin to see if we could come have a look and it just immediately felt right. Most of the family actually got married somewhere on the farm, including his parents 42 years ago!! We would be the first of the family to use the new venue (The Modern Heirloom) though ;)

Décor

I wanted to keep in green, simplistic yet modern. I worked with Pieter’s cousin from Petal & Post and kinda let her run with it (I’m sure I micromanaged at a point), she got it to the T with the flowers and the décor. I though the gold cutlery and the pale pink plates will be the perfect additional to the simplistic vibe. Our bouquets were awesome, she used very cool modern blooms mixed with classic and stuck to the green theme – Loved it!

The Wedding Party Fashion

I liked the idea of my bridesmaid wearing off white or nude colour. We found their stunning dresses at Forever New and they both looked amazing in it. For the groomsmen the theme was to keep it easy (yet still fit in) thank goodness they both had navy suits and we ordered them locally made bow ties from M Brotie to add a light/quirky/cool touch. My nephew was the page boy with navy pants, a white shirt, little suspenders, a bowtie and even junior happy socks. He walked down the aisle in the church with a big balloon that said ‘here comes the bride’ - he totally stole the show.

Ceremony

We wanted it authentic and ‘us’. The minister told our story from both myself and Pieter’s side/point of view. The ceremony was honest, sincere with the right amount of humour. The minister also forgot the second part of our vows and to tell us to exchange rings so Pieter got to kiss his bride twice ;)

Entertainment

We decided not to get a live band and when we met with our DJ we asked him if he could play cool ‘day festival’ background music’s during the predrinks and told him what kind of music we like but that he must read the crowd. Our dance floor was outside, under a tree with the DJ on one side and the bar on the other – THE PERFECT COMBO. DJ Dario was brilliant. It’s safe to say the dance floor was packed from start to past finish.

Food

Some girls dream about their wedding dress, I was more that kinda girl that dreamt about my wedding cake. I’ve got a slight obsession with peanut butter, picking the dark chocolate mud with peanut butter filling cake was a no brainer. The girls from Sweet Lion Heart definitely know what they are doing! For canapés we wanted to add a personal touch so we briefed a few of myself and Pieter’s favourite things (with some dutch influence), bitterballen and fries with mayonnaise. The mains was farm to table and we stuck to what the chef does best, fillet with 3 accompanying seasonal sides.

Photographer

Again with the short notice period I didn’t have to much choice here. A few people recommend Fiona Clair and I loved her work.