Ciska and Mark tied the knot in front of 80 guests at the St Marks Chapel in Port Elizabeth on 2 October 2010. They described the moment that their eyes locked as one of the memorable events of the wedding. During the ceremony Llewellyn played the bagpipes which was really a different twist into the traditional strinq quartet. The reception followed at the beautiful venue La Colline which overlooks Port Elizabeth and has amazing night lights during the evening.

ATTIRE

Ciska describes her wedding gown as an exquisite all white wedding gown that had an elegant lace finish and strapless corset bodice embellished with tiny crystal sequence. She hired the dress from Claire at Bridal Flair.

Her hair was doen by Corinne Ward from a Cut Above and Estelle Cunningham did an amazing job with her make-up. Ciska's beautiful shoes were bought from Catherines Bridal Accessories. Ciska bought special outfits for her two bridesmaids and one maid of honour and had their "roles" embroidered on the back of the tops

The groom wore a suit that was bought from Markhams and together with his groomsmen they completed the picture. Each of them were also given embroidered socks which made for some fun photographs.

DETAILS

Ciska and Mark described their theme as passionate with subtle pinks combined with chocolate brown and toned down with affluent whites.Flowers were predominantly roses arranged with crystals to enhance the palette and add some sparkle. The décor was kept to minimum to highlight the floral arrangements and large chandeliers to add exuberance in design. La Romantica was responsible for all this beautiful decor and what an amazing job they did indeed.

The decor was complimented with beautiful stationery by Papmermaster while the favours were also provided by La Romantica. DJ Drew kept the feet dancing the entire night with his music selection.

THE CAKE

The couple had a two tier chocolate & cream polka dot cake that was wrapped with a pink lace ribbon which was made by Ladybird Catering.

DIY BRIDE

Ciska made all the wedding programmes herself as well as some of the guest gifts.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Cherie Theron took incredible photo's of all the detail this wedding had, but also captured some beautiful intimate moments of the couple.

HONEYMOON

The couple enjoyed a long drive along Route 62 and describes it as "Good Food , Good Wine and Great Company".

ADVICE

Ciska keeps it short and sweet with her words of wisdom: "Keep it simple and enjoy it."

Thanks for sharing your wedding with us!

WEDDING SUPPLIERS

• Baker: Ladybird Catering
• Catering: Petronella Catering
• Ceremony Music: Llewellyn - Bagpipes
• Decor: La Romantica
• Dress: Claire at Bridal Flair
• Florist: La Romantica
• Hair: Corinne Ward at a Cut Above
• Make-up: Estelle Cunningham
• Photographer: Cherie Theron
• Reception Music: DJ Drew Andrew
• Reception Venue: La Colline
• Shoes: Catherines Bridal Accessories
• Stationery: Self made as well as Papermaster
• Wedding Planner: La Romantica

Would you like us to feature your wedding? E-mail megan@perfectday.co.za for more information.

Candy and Herman tied the knot in what the bride called an "untraditional" wedding ceremony on Saturday, 29 January 2011 at Riverside Hall in Port Elizabeth with 106 of their closest friends and family looking on.

Entering the chapel on the beautiful song from Jason Mraz’s "I’m Yours", the bride opted not to wear a veil but instead wore a beautiful white flower to symbolise life and happiness as she had lost both her parents. This flower also symbolised her late mothers love for harvesting flowers.

ATTIRE

Candy opted to rent her dress from Claire from Bridal Flair. An A-line layered vintage inspired white strapless gown with small crystals in-between the lace was Candy's dress of choice. Helen Le Roux from Hairquarters did Candy's make-up while Casey, also from Hairquarters finished off the look with a beautiful bridal hairstyle.

Catherine from Catherines Bridal Accessories dyed Candy's satin wedding shoe a beautiful purple colour that tied into her theme of black and purple with white while the rest of her stationery was from Atmosphere.

Herman and his groomsmen wore suits from Heinz In Style.

DETAILS

The couple made use of Stanley Lemmer of Lemmer Estates for their bridal transport. With a beautiful colour scheme of purple, black and white Angelic Wonders provided most of the gorgeous decor to match. Minimal flowers were used however, the main table as well as the bouquets and buttonholes were done by Isobel from Flowers.com. Matthew Strydom from Multi-tasking finished off the look with beautiful printed stationery. Each guest was treated to a handmade nougat bar as a thank you gift from the couple.

DJ Vernon made sure that the guests had fun by providing the reception dance music. The couple opened the dancefloor with a very untraditional choice of Greece Ligthing.

THE CAKE

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, the couple asked East Cape Foods to make them dessert cups. There was a choice of two types of fillings – Fudge Picasso and Double Decker Chocolate. The topper cake was a Fudge Picasso Cake with chocolate coulis and cream. The couple had their own personalised cake topper, the groom running with a Rugby Ball (Because apparently Hermand is such a fanatic) and the bride tackling him around the ankles.

DIY BRIDE

Candy made her own serviette rings from purple ribbon and different shaped beads as well as the favour boxes.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Cherie Theron captured the couple's beautiful wedding while Debbie Louw was responsible for the video.

HONEYMOON

After the wedding the couple enjoyed their honeymoon at the beautiful Sugar Hotel and beauty Spa in Cape Town.

ADVICE

Words of wisdom from Candy: "Make sure you plan well in advance, if you can get a planner to assist you with doing your wedding – do so – it is a lot less stressful, take-in (mentally) as much as you can take in on the day because it goes by very quickly – take the time to look at your hard work (mental photographs)the look on the people’s faces when you enter – enjoy it and relax, this is the one day in your life that it is all about You – enjoy the day while it lasts and don’t let the little things stress you out – the day is about something much more special than, guests not arriving, or flowers not being the perfect color – it is about the union of a unique couple, and enjoy it as such!"

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I found this site very informative – I enjoyed reading up on the latest trends and I have referred my sister to look at this website as she will be tying the knot soon! I searched make-up artists and wedding dresses on this site.

Thanks for sharing your wedding with us!

WEDDING SUPPLIERS

• Baker: East Cape Foods
• Catering: Riverside Hall
• Ceremony/Cocktail Music: DJ Vernon
• Decor: Angelic Wonders
• Dress: Claire from Bridal Flair
• Favours: Coach House Nougat Company
• Florist: Isobel from flowers.com
• Hair: Casey from Hairquarters
• Honeymoon: Sugar Hotel and Spa
• Make-up: Hellen from Hairquarters
• Photographer: Cherie Theron
• Reception Music: DJ Vernon from Outright Audio
• Reception Venue: Riverside Hall
• Shoes: Catherines Bridal Accessories
• Stationery: Matthew Knowles from Multi-tasking
• Suit Hire: Heinz In Style
• Transport: Stanley Lemmer
• Videography: Debbie Louw

Would you like us to feature your wedding? E-mail megan@perfectday.co.za for more information.

There's a very fine line between classy and kitch when it comes to using crystals as part of your wedding day decor. A word of caution would be, if it looks like you've gone "OTT" (Over the Top) then you probably have. Less is more in this case.

Hanging strands of crystals outside combined with some flowers from tree branches could jazz up an outside area. Similar thing when using crystals inside. Hang some from candelabras or even your cake stand.

A popular way to include crystals in your wedding would be the crystal tree. It's simply a miniature tree adorned with hanging crystals and sometimes combined with flowers too. This tree can either be used as a centerpiece or on the gift table. Some brides have used it as a "wishing tree" whereby guests can hang tags from the crystal branches with well wishes to the couple.