Rustic Fynbos Wedding

Langverwagt

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This is one sweet wedding. Similar to this Handmade South African Rustic Wedding, Pretoria, the wedding day of Dylan and Natalie was a memorable one in all of the right ways. The couple brought the magic of the mountain tops where they had their proposal, to the charming Langverwagt wedding venue where they tied the knot and celebrated. Drawing inspiration from the colours of the popular South African wedding flower, the King Protea, their wedding was buzzing with love and happy feelings and ablaze with plenty of pastel pinks, soft greens and a pop of Fynbos colour here and there. Kim du Toit dived in to capture their succulent memories.

Protea & Rustic Fynbos Wedding Look

 

Protea and Rustic Fynbos Bouquets: The bouquets and boutonnieres were inspired by the soft Fynbos theme. Dessert rose succulents added some colour to the suits and the bouquets were create with quite an alternative assortment of Fynbos and more classic wedding flowers.

Protea and Rustic Fynbos Wedding Stationery: Everything was hinting toward the Fynbos theme in the most subtle way, from the succulents, natural colours and raw materials used in all of the wedding stationery. Amy from Blackrabbit Design did an amazing job from the digital save the dates to the little notes of encouragement that she designed to hang in each bathroom stall.

Wedding Dress: Natalie wanted something classic and simple. Her dress was soft and feminine with small buttons and lace details that made it unique and memorable. A pair of fun fresh coral heels occasionally peeked out from under her floor length gown.

 

Rustic Bridesmaids Look: The bridesmaids wore cocktail dresses in pale blush pink with matching fynbos bouquets and sprigs of Baby’s Breath adorning their pretty braided upstyles. For fantastic collection of braided wedding hair ideas, check out these 25 Swoonworthy Braided Wedding Hairstyles {Trendy Tuesday}

Groomsmen Style: Dylan wanted to feel like James Bond, so he wore a timeless well-fitted black suit. His groomsmen wore black waistcoats without blazers to make it all seem a bit more casual. All of the guys wore a pair of awesome striped green socks, which was a little quirky surprise for those who paid enough attention.

Protea & Rustic Fynbos Wedding Ceremony

Initially Dylan wanted to find a way to actually get married on the mountain where he proposed, very romantic but impossibly impractical so they found a way to bring the mountain to their wedding – by having a Fynbos-inspired wedding.  The couple walked down the aisle to a somewhat unconventional song – Grow Old with You by Adam Sandler. They wanted to share that special moment with their guests in a way that made everyone smile, rather than having everyone in tears…

Dylan and Natalie’s Love Story

Natalie shares their love story: We met at Victoria Hospital, Wynberg – I was in my medical rotation as a first year intern and Dylan was a final year medical student. We didn’t start dating until a year later, soon after my birthday when he created a treasure hunt for me, which lead me to significant sites that we had been together during the year. The hunt ended in the matron’s office of the hospital where I found a remote controlled helium filled floating shark, which was just one of the many fantastic novel gifts Dylan has surprised me with since we met.

The Tale Of Their Proposal

Natalie sheds some light on the modern day romantic proposal that Dylan had in store for her: Dylan planned our proposal to be in the form of a Geocache, he had hiked up Table Mountain an entire week prior to proposing and had hidden the ring under a Protea. The following weekend he staged a hike and invited some of our good friends, our goal was to hike up Ascension Ravine to find a cache named Psalm 119. I thought they were all pretty silly to misinterpret the last clue of the Geocache as I was the only one who seemed able to correctly interpret the exact details of the hidden location… only to realise that they were all behind me taking pictures as I opened the ‘cache box’ that had my beautiful ring safely stashed in it. We then all sat on the top of the mountain, had champagne and enjoyed the majestic view of Cape Town from what felt like the top of the world.

Protea & Rustic Fynbos Wedding Reception

 

Rustic Pinwheel Decor: Beautiful handmade pinwheels were one of their favourite DIY projects that added a sweet touch to the table seating chart. Created by the mother of the groom, the pinwheels were also used to dress up the sweet table and to embellish the back of the chairs at the ceremony.

Protea and Rustic Fynbos Wedding Décor: The decor was kept simple, so as to complement rather than detract attention from the floral centrepieces. A few key decor pieces such as a vintage door, vintage table, wooden crates and tree stumps were used to add an outdoor, rustic feel that warmed up the space.

 

Protea and Rustic Fynbos Wedding Flowers: A mix of flowers in soft colours inspired by the colour palette found within the King Protea were selected and styled in a natural way. Loose stemmed Proteas and antique roses with bunches of babies breath, snap dragon and penny gum were arranged for a wild and earthy effect.  the only actual arrangements being the bouquets. The combination of the flower gardens at the venue and all of the loose flowers in the reception created a wild, fresh fragrance that was so memorable.

 

 

 

(Above Left) Rustic Wedlibs: The couple wrote their own wedlibs that were made into a lovely little card that each guest completed. Wedlibs are always such a good laugh and a great way for guests to entertain themselves and each other while waiting for any proceedings to start that may be taking a bit longer than expected.

 

 

(Above Right) Protea and Rustic Fynbos Wedding Favours: Angie from My Pretty Vintage suggested that they try make the wedding favours to be as versatile and integrated into the wedding as possible and so that guests could each take a piece of their wedding home with them, and essentially have a little part of their ‘mountain top’ proposal. Guests were treated with a baby succulent favour presented in a little glass jar that was placed on the tables and had name place cards beautifully tied around each jar thanking their guests for sharing in their special day. The baby succulents served as favours, name place cards and added to the table decor, not to mention succulents are really easy to look after so hopefully even the most forgetful guest would be able to keep them alive!

 

 

Rustic Wedding Sweet Table: The couple also had a sweetie table with little takeaway bags bearing the couple’s personalised stamp, which they can always treasures and use after the wedding as a ‘signature’ stamp for any letters or cards.

Wedding Cupcakes: Throughout the planning of the wedding Dylan and Natalie kept joking about how they would have loved to geek out and get married on International Star Wars Day (4th May) so on their wedding day, Natalie surprised Dylan with Star Wars cupcakes that were placed in the suite where he and his groomsmen would be getting ready.