too late to apologise?

Dear blog.

I am sorry that I haven't called or written in so long. I know the few pictures I sent you hardly count as a contribution.

Please understand that I am a newly-wed in love with my man and my newly-married life.

In the lead-up to the big day and the ensuing endless honeymoon-of-perfection there were so many little normal things left undone and some human friendships slightly neglected. Then there is the mountain of presents that generous guests need to be thanked for and since the registry did not perform its function in the least and unruly cards are wont to fall off presents, we first have to figure out who gave what and return the many multiples!

And now it is the holidays and Christmas is rapidly approaching and we're headed off up and down the coast to see all the lovely family members who made our wedding day such a fantastically wonderful experience.

So I hope you understand, and realise that I love you still and always will.

I will be back in the New Year, and I'll bore you to tears with all my wedding adventures. I'll upload so many photos that you'll want to block me and you'll beg me to move on from the wedding, eventually.

And then I will.

And then we'll be great friends once again.

So you have yourself a merry, blessed Festive Season and a banging New Year.

Love always,
Marli

details

wed!

1. He wore a tie, just for me, and looked smoking hot!
2. I was super relaxed, ecstatic, excited all day long
3. The ceremony felt so intimate, loving and real
4. The photo session was a blast
5. Things went a bit wonky over dinner but our lovely guests made it go away
6. The reception was a massive, crazy, marathon dance party, which I never expected, and loved, loved, loved!
7. Overall it was just imperfectly perfect and I couldn't be more thrilled.







We leave for Bali in about 12 hours, I can hardly wait.

ooh lordy

I've been completely calm, so calm I fell asleep during my mani/pedi this morning!
Now that I'm sitting here writing the final post before the day, I can hardly type... Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
See you on the other side.
Eek.

the wedding: super quick update!

Hello blogosphere, how I miss you!
Sorry it's been so long?
BB is snoring cutely upstairs and I finally have half an hour to myself so here I am, forgive my absence!

The past week has just flown by in a blur of happy activity.

I had my hen night, the best night out of my life, it was fantastic. Embarrassing pictures later!

And then so many of our friends who live far away have arrived in town and now it's daily breakfasts and shopping and lunches and wine tours and sun-downers and dinners and on and on and on...

BB and I really miss our copious amounts of alone-time together, but also realise that there will be years and years for that, so we're living it up and absolutely adoring having so many fabulous people gathered for this celebration of ours.

Monday night I finally had all my bridesmaids together in their entirely individual black dresses and they looked so uber-stylish and drop dead gorgeous, every one of them, it was too exciting!

Arrangements have moved along steadily enough, hiccups and surprises galore but I've just been in the most zen-like state of calm, peace and pure joy, nothing gets me under.
I thank the wedding gods for this state of grace, I swear I'm not even on the Calmettes (yet!). I actually think it's from reading on so many blogs how important it is to maintain focus on the true priorities of the day and not sweat the small useless stuff you can't control anyway? Either way, it's working like a charm and I am an ecstatic bride-to-be!

Things that went wrong:
Darling photographer cancelled our venue recce, was not impressed but it will be fine, he'll come early and do it on the day.
Dear friend of BB's brought an extra guest to stay, unannounced... Long story but we're coping well.
Dear family member of BB's has to go in for a hip operation today and won't make it to the wedding. (Best of luck and strength to her!)
2 Good friends' parents home was flooded in storms last week and they missed the hen night :-(
Storms last week! Crazy, heavy rain and insane winds... If my wedding was last weekend I just can't imagine how it would've been!

Things that are going right:
Weather forecast for Saturday looks just perfectly balmy, slight breeze, bit of cloud... exactly what I ordered!
My dress fits like a comfortable glove. An unbelievably beautiful, glamorous, ethereal, feminine glove.
My bridesmaids look amazing and have been getting on great.
Our lovely guests are making it such a fun week for us.

I can not wait to marry my man.
My man, my man, my man.
What a good man.
I love him!
To pieces.
Yay.

And here's just a sneak peek of some little sentimental pretties that might feature on Saturday!

I can't wait.



I CAN'T WAIT!

jewel

My childhood friend, Jewel, who became my high school friend, my varsity friend and then my friend for life, got married on 07/07/07 in a beautifully indescribable shade of pink.

It was the middle of the winter, she wore red feathers in her hair, her daisy-covered vintage Beetle served as the wedding car and the groom was in jeans. The strap of her dress snapped just after the ceremony, the itunes acted up for a little while, someone spilled a beer all over her somewhere during the crazy snake dance and we all got soaked to the bone while trying to find our overnight accommodation...

Regardless, it was the most fun wedding I've ever been to. A perfect celebration of love, joy and friendship. Just awesome.





























Love you Jewel! x

blonde bombshell

I have five bridesmaids. Four have (newly shortish!) dark hair and the fifth, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Bombshell came home from London to get married to her fabulous man in January 2007. I don't know how the poor dear planned such a glamorous, sumptuous party from afar, when all we did was have our bridesmaids dresses made! But it was a classy affair from start to finish, at a stunning hotel in Cape Town's famous Waterfront.

The day was filled with champagne (the real deal no less, it was that kind of party!) and giggles and ended in a truly gorgeous meal and hours of dancing. It's so hard to pick out my favourite pictures, sadly the inept photographer made the choices more obvious. I refuse to make a rant out of this post, so I'll leave it there.



















The Choos darling, the Choos!



My favourite memory of the day is how Bombshell never, ever stopped smiling her infectious little-girl-in-a-candy-store smile. So, so beautiful.









Oh happy, happy day.

yesterday, today, tomorrow

Yesterday I wanted to cave under the pressure. I felt out of control, overwhelmed, unprepared and just swamped. I knew this was irrational and untrue, but I have a hard time managing my stress levels with cognitive reasoning. I'm working on it okay?

So I got a couple of things done, not the least of which was tasting and booking the fabulous cupcakes of Cape Town institution Charly's Bakery for our wedding cake. Their slogan is mucking afazing cakes. Nuff said.

Today I feel calm enough to think back nostalgically and reminisce over wonderful weddings gone by.

My dear friend Venus* from student days got married in April 2005 in her home town, a tiny little place in a vast semi-desert. The girl reflects the place she's from: warm, dramatic and uniquely beautiful with a heart as big as the wide African skies.

Venus and I had lost touch since studying together, living in different countries before everyone had Internet access at home. Finally we were both back home, she got engaged to her beautiful boyfriend of ten odd years and Nightingale (one of my best friends) was to be a bridesmaid. Venus was the first of my friends to get married in the big way; white dress, lots of bridesmaids, big reception. In the months leading up to her wedding, I was so excited to join in and help out in the search and planning efforts, she ended up asking me to be a bridesmaid too. I could also assist by doing her make-up for her, as there aren't too many professional make-up artists out in the Karoo desert!

The make-up and veil trial. I was so nervous to be responsible for her wedding pictures, luckily she's a natural beauty... I never let anyone else talk me into that again!







I can assure you that zero Internet research or blogging inspiration was involved in her wedding, but thinking back to the details today, that girl had some great style and intuition. She bought a dress off the rail at a weddingy chain store and we altered it a little bit with hand made rose corsages and a feathery beaded brooch. She also designed and made her own birdcage veil, years before I would know that's the name for it! We sat down together for a couple of days to make a rose brooch for every female guest and wrote and decorated table numbers, lists and menus ourselves. Each bridesmaid picked her own dress in a similar dusty pink colour and we accessorised it with a vintage feel.

All the guests stayed over on her parents' farm or guest farms in the area for the whole weekend and it was a wonderfully intimate, sincere, no-fuss wedding. The entire ceremony and reception was planned for outside, under enormous trees in the desert sunshine. Everything went great throughout the ceremony (if you discount the fact that her veil blew off the second we got to the altar!) and off we went for pictures. The next minute a thunder storm drenched guests, tables, starters and bridal party to the bone. A nightmare in any bride-to-be's books, but somehow I don't remember Venus freaking out, not even just a little bit. I remember that it made for my favourite picture as we all ran into a little shed nearby, I remember us girls treating Venus to a luxurious bath and foot treatments the night before and I do remember dancing for hours after our little stint in the rain.

Years before the sexyredframe, there was the not-so-sexy black frame!













I absolutely love and adore this next picture. If you look closely you can see her darling father in tears at the big moment. Tears of happiness, I assure you as Venus, her boy and their angel son are a wonderful example of a beautiful family in love!



My favourite photographs follow. You can see how wet my arm is!









Killer legs, awesome photography.



All of which just reaffirms my current mission.

Tomorrow, I solemnly vow to stop feeling anxious, nervous or distressed about ANY of the silly party fluff surrounding our wedding next Saturday. I will truly stop and smell the rosy fragrance of this beautiful time in our lives and relish the thought of bringing all our favourite people together for one special day.