Project 4: Choosing a Photographer

This was the second big thing we knew we had to spend money on.

I had to convince Edward that his mom's digital camera and some happy snappy Chinese relatives was just not going to cut it on the day.

Being an OCD freak about details and design the photographer was a big NB for me and I knew I wanted someone different who could capture this different wedding and understand what it was all about so I could hold on to this special day forever.

I promptly e-mailed dozens of photographers, stalked their blogs and put them all in to an excel spreadsheet accordingly to what they offered.

Edward had a budget of R10k in mind and to him that was already too much.. I guess being in the car industry he couldn't quite grasp the countless hours spent editing and the difficult task wedding photographers take on every weekend.

I came across so many amazing photographic artists who were just breathtaking in their abilities but according to budget it narrowed the search down significantly. Also I knew I wanted something different for our wedding album so looked at packages without albums included which helped lower the initial cost.

Admittedly being my over-zealous self i proceeded to book a photographer in January because i was so scarred about not finding the right person only to find myself crying over finding the perfect photographer days later. This put everyone in such a tight spot but the photographer we originally booked so kindly refunded our deposit and we proceeded to book Andre Badenhorst from Blackframe Photography & Design Studio. http://blackframephotography.co.za/blog/

Daniella from Oohlala suggested them as they had photographed a friends wedding and after clicking the link I knew these guys were perfect for our wedding! And after meeting Andre at his studio/house and seeing their 'interior decorating' I knew these guys were thinking the same craziness i was :)

As for shooting with them on the actual wedding day, WHAT A PLEASURE!
They are pro's and were so calm and chilled pointing and telling us what to do or where to stand i didn't feel nervous in front of the camera at all! I've only seen sneak peaks on their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blackframe-Photography-Design-Studio/379599708087
but shew wee I am loving what I've seen so far!

A good photographer can make any wedding look like the event of the year so choose wisely and DONT skimp on this. We were fortunate enough that our photographer was flexible in selecting a package without an album and fitted in our budget so always check the possibilities with them.

Here are some other amazing photographers who's work will inspire and motivate you!
- http://blog.tyme.co.za/
- http://welovepictures.blogspot.com
- www.hiltonprophoto.co.za
- www.andreacarlylepgotography.co.za
- www.christiaandavid.co.za
- www.droryeyal.co.za
- www.katforsythphotography.co.za
- www.millsphotography.co.za
- www.michaeltree.co.za
- www.studio77.co.za
- www.silversuitcase.co.za
- http://splendidproductionsblog.com/blog/


xXx Mrs C.

Side-Project - DIY wedding invites

Edward and I got engaged for a year before we started planning a wedding. We only officially dived in to wedding affairs by October 2010! I am not a wedding person and I am not one of those girls who dreamt about her fairy tale wedding since she was a little girl. So the daunting task and with very little knowledge of weddings I followed the usual route of planning a mundane and 'normal' wedding theme before we inspiration struck and we decided on the carnival theme.

In my usual over-zealous self I started playing with wedding invite ideas and convinced that I would do EVERYTHING myself. I loved the idea of laser-cutting and came across a lady in Edenvale who runs a craft shop from her house where I got some cupcake wrappers laser cut.

and of course what are invites without thank you boxes :)

i found this template online and just adjusted the design, but it folds quite nicely into a box for biscuits, chocolates or whatever treat you want.

Project 3: Wedding Invitations

After booking Oakfield in Dec 2010 we were in time to go to their annual wedding expo held at Oakfield farm.

While walking around my eyes caught the sight of a pinwheel on a table and i made a beeline straight for it. picking it up i twirled around to find the owner of the stand and met the vibrant and lovely Mrs Daniella Balona of Oohlala Designs. I clicked with her immediately and after exchanging details we set up an appointment to discuss stationary for our carnival wedding and that was that.
I had ideas about lasercutting our wedding invites but as amazing as they would be the cost was almost double standard printing methods and after speaking to a few of our guests the invites rarely make it through the 6 months leading up to the wedding. One guests told us how they cut up out invite to use our pictures for a doll house and a few were lost whilst moving.

I made an e-version (in powerpoint) to send to guests over seas and those we could not post to which proved handy in the final days with people misplacing physical invites.

One thing about Daniella is that she is not limited to wedding stationary alone. She goes beyond the normal set of tasks and finds a way to make your ideas a reality.

I recommended her to a friend who also used her and Daniella ended up HAND sewing red felt hearts as thank you gifts which also doubled up as napkin holders and even felt cake toppers.

Another concept which I absolutely love is setting up a wedding website which guests can browse at their own leisure. This way you are not limited to how many invites you send out and save on printing costs. A brilliant South African example is Adri & Francois.
This couple put so much love and effort in to everything about their wedding plus being great people I'd like to mention them as a good source of inspiration!
http://fradri.wordpress.com/

I had the fortune of being introduced to Adri through a friend of my sister.
After seeing her wedding photos and amazing talent this lady has i am sorry i did not meet her sooner! Check out her incredible wedding here:

http://www.theprettyblog.com/2011/07/turqoise-red-farm-mpumalanga-wedding/

or here:
http://welovepictures.blogspot.com/2011/05/francois-adris-fun-farm-wedding.html

Anyway after commissioning Oohlala to do our wedding invites there was ALOT of pics exchanged of carnival inspiration.. here are some of my favs:

i also found some sooper free carnival fonts easily accessible here: http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/2009/01/fonts-circuscarnivalwild-west-type/

and here is what our wedding invites looked like :) sorry for the bad image.. for some reason I don't have any good photos on my pc!

Project 2: Choosing a Theme

<----- This is our son Caleb. Born 19 December 2008 he is our pride and joy and the funniest little kid ever. We knew that we wanted Caleb and the kids to be involved in the wedding and not to be shoved into a back room while their parents partied it up. We love having Caleb with us and we believe that kids need to be exposed to weddings especially in a world where the divorce rate is sky high and the concept of two people being together forever is associated mostly with a Disney fairy tale. They need to grow up knowing what real relationships are and the meaning of a marriage not a wedding ceremony.

So the line of though began with activities for the kids.. a jumping castle, a face painter, a magician, a pinata, party packs, balloons...

We literally started planning a kids party which spiraled into an idea for the actual wedding to be just as fun filled!

Edward and I are not the romantic roses and doves type of couple. we both don't enjoy sitting awkwardly at weddings in funny formal outfits and listening to speeches for hours. In all honesty traditional weddings have their place but more and more couples are veering away towards a new age of wedding traditions. quirky and odd with vibrant colours which suited us perfectly.

After browsing through some overseas blogs i came across the concept of a vintage carnival wedding and fell in love the the scheme straight away.

The typical colours were blue/turquoise and red/pink. So i started researching the colour scheme.

Here is my first colour mood board i put together with inspiration dated 25 November 2010.

It's almost exaclty 1 year ago since I began my wedding planning. Funny how time flies by and taps you on the shoulder.



















Following up on the colour scheme was the actual carnival theme which I will do as a seperate post.

xXx Mrs C.

Project 1: Choosing a wedding venue

Choosing a wedding venue is one of the most important tasks when you begin to plan your wedding. It can determine how many people you invite, what date/day your wedding is on, the theme and decor options etc etc. In essence the venue is your wedding skeleton and everything else you plan gets overlayed over this template so make sure you choose a good one!

It is also a good introduction to the wedding scene. The professionals at the venues who oversee nuptials every weekend have the most insight in to the proceedings of the day and deal with more wedding specialists than any of the other professions. These coordinators are a wedding knowledge pit and choosing a venue with good coordinators is also key.

One thing though, before you start contacting venue's work out a rough idea of date and number of people you want. It doesn't have to be exact but it is the first question you are asked.
For us we knew around 100 people and in summer so Nov/Dec.

We used a process of elimination before we actually went out to physically see the wedding venue's which saved us a lot of travelling time. A bulk e-mail was sent to about 25 venue's that i can remember requesting prices and availability for 100 people in Nov/Dec. From this response we eliminated the venue's who could not accommodate large numbers and did not look nice from the photos off the website and began setting up appointments for one weekend back to back.

1. Al Fiume (River Place)

2. Diep in die berg

3. En-Gedi

4. Glenburn Lodge

5. Makiti

6. Oakfield Farm

7. Avianto

8. Everwood

At the end of the day once you choose your wedding venue for what ever reason the total cost of the venue alone should be doubled to get a rough idea of your Total wedding budget.

So if wedding venue including food etc = R40 000 your final budget for decor, photographer, dress etc should be R 80 000. The double up rule is pretty accurate

I have yet to meet a first time bride who said she under spent on her wedding budget, me included ;)

Oakfield Farm

This was the last venue we visited and were blown away with the venue tour they run every weekend. They answered just about every question i could think up and you could see the hall being decorated for a wedding that evening. The gardens were in full bloom and beautiful walkways and flat grass accomodated for kids and elderly folk.

After sitting down with a coordinater and explaining what we wanted they advised us on the most cost effective route being a sunday with over 100 guests and gave us a selection of sunday dates and they promptly printed out a pro-forma invoice and the following day we were booked :)
I'll blab more about Oakfield in later posts i am sure but as a foreword I will recommend Oakfield to anyone getting married. Everything you need in a wedding venue and more is here.

They aren't the cheapest venue but for the quality and service that Oakfields offer we were more than happy to pay that little extra.

Intro: Starting at the End

Hello Everybuddy!

I am formally Heather Li Green and newly wed Mrs Cotterell. After months of preparation Edward and I finally got married on the 6th November 2011 in a vintage carnival inspired shindig.
I've been prompted to start blogging about the wedding planning all year but could not justify blogging away precious time instead of crafting stuff for the wedding.

So here we are with a bit of post-wedding blue's.. after all the excitement and craziness to sizzle down back into work and 'normality' without something to glue, cut or design is a bit odd. Also I hope who ever might read this blog can gain some insight into planning a wedding and I can assist another O.C.D bride with a few more idea's!

xXx Mrs C.