Sian & Darryn: Boschendal, Franschhoek, South Africa

Names: Sian & Darryn Fourie

Wedding date: 04.01.2020

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Boschendal, Franschhoek, South Africa

How we met and the marriage proposal: We met in 2008 at an 18^th birthday party while in the line for the bathroom! We were both plus ones. 10 years later, we had a trip planned to Thailand and the night before flying we decided to start the holiday early and go out for dinner. Multiple cocktails down and a delicious paella later, we walk back home. (Little did I know, he had his sister Chelsey back at our place ‘ ‘setting up’)

As I opened the door, the floor was covered in white rose petals that lead into our dining area, where there were fairy lights all over the living and dining space, a bottle of champagne and a giant bouquet of white flowers. He told me to walk over to the dining table and read the card, it said ‘Say Yes’ and as I turned around in shock, he was down on one knee proposing!

The week in Thailand was the best part of the early celebrations, now fondly remembered as our ‘engagementmoon’. This is where I suggested, we should go back to Darryn’s home in South Africa for the wedding.

We knew how beautiful Cape Town is and hoped we’d have a few keen Aussie friends (thankfully we did) that would love to join us for a holiday & wedding combined!

About our wedding day: We chose to stay at our Wedding venue for 2 nights. Our wedding venue - Boschendal, is the most stunning vineyard tucked away in a small town in South Africa called Franschhoek and is surrounded by this incredible mountainous landscape. Waking up to the most spectacular views on the morning of our wedding was the most surreal moment!

We spent the night apart, and when my alarm went off in the morning (but let’s be honest, I was wide away already), I got up and went for a healthy breakfast at the café with my bridesmaids.

The morning spent getting ready at the time felt like it went forever! The anticipation, the waiting, the slow sips of champagne (trying to make the two-glass-maximum last!) was filled with excitement and nervous energy all around!

I walked down the aisle to To Build a Home by Cinematic Orchestra, surrounded by our 81 special guests of friends & family – both who all travelled from around the world, Australia, UK, America & other parts of South Africa.

We kept the ceremony quite simple, using traditional vows & one poem that summed up our relationship quite beautifully. Originally, I did want to write our own vows, however planning a 4-week holiday as well as a wedding became a bit too much and the thought of adding anything else to our list made us feel dizzy. Instead we actually wrote personal vows (that neither of us have read yet) and ‘stored’ them away with my wedding dress, where we’ll one day open (maybe on our 10 year anniversary) and read them to each other J

Following the ceremony, we had our ‘cocktail hour’ with a live Acoustic guitarist & where we served our two favourite cocktails – Darryn’s was a Whisky Old Fashioned and mine was a Pink Gin Fizz with French cherry liquor – all at our ‘Drunk in Love’ cocktail bar (we chose the words for a bit of fun).

We gave ourselves the first 20 minutes following the ceremony to socialise, hug and chat to all our guests which we loved doing! We then went off and snapped all our family photos and the bridal party before it was time to move into the reception.

The reception was the most magical set up I had ever seen! Our incredible wedding Planner, Jessica Thiart really went above and beyond to capture our day and the table settings and flowers were no exception.

During mains we had both our Father’s speak, as it felt like a representation from South Africa (Darryn’s Dad) and Australia (my Dad), then we had both the Best Man, Alex & Maid of Honour, my Sister Leah. Darryn then finished off (the rather long speeches) with a speech of his own.

Just before the sun went down, we went out and captured my favourite photos from the whole day, the ‘golden hour’ shots. Boschendal has the most incredible mountain backdrop and just as the sun is setting it turns them golden.

We had a DJ for the dancefloor duration playing our favourite tunes and shots of tequila flowed steadily for the rest of the night! I found myself too busy dancing and socialising to ever have a drink in my hand (which was great for the next day recovery) and it was so great to see everyone enjoying themselves.

Our wedding style: We’re both quite ‘modern minimal’ humans at home, however wanted that special extra touch for our wedding day – something we would remember.

We had white flowers and heaps of greenery for the bouquet & floral arrangements. And touches of black through the candlesticks on tables.

Our ‘bonbonnieres’ were gold acrylic luggage tags etched with each guests’ names, it worked as a table placement as well as a take home gift.

I also have a guilty pleasure for fairy lights and festoon lights, so we managed to incorporate both in the reception area and cocktail area outside.

Finding my wedding gown and couture experience at Suzanne Harward:

Already knowing Suzanne Harward from past Brides, I booked my one on one experience in the Collingwood store as my first stop on day 1 of wedding dress shopping!

I found ‘the one’ on dress number two at Suzanne Harward! The experience was so personalised and welcoming I’d highly recommend it to any future bride!

It was so nice to know my group would be the only group present during the booking (with my mum, nan & sister), and they already had prepared dresses in my price range & styles I had communicated I’d be interested in – but I also had no idea what I’d like, so the options when looked around were vast and endless.

Both assistants were incredibly knowledgeable and helped me during the fitting. I’m an awkward introvert, so I was pretty shaky coming into my first dress shop! But left with a huuuuge smile on my face that I couldn’t get rid of! I felt so at ease and they answered every question I had and gave me so much information I left feeling so confident about my trip. I highly recommend SH to any of my friends that ask me how my experience was.

First dance song: Following the entrées we had our first dance to Vance Joy’s ‘Snaggletooth’ an old favourite of ours, I then danced to the first 30 seconds of Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison with my Dad, before the rest of the bridal party and guests joined us on the floor.

Advice for future couples: Don’t sweat the small stuff on the day. At the end of it all, small things can go wrong but none of it matters, all that matters is marrying your favourite human in the whole world, surrounded by your loved ones. I found myself stressing so much in the lead up, that I wish I gave myself more time to relax and be more in the moment.

And trust in your vendors, they know what they’re doing – they’re absolute seasoned professionals and I was so lucky to be surrounded by such incredible, professional people on our day.

Honeymoon destination: Long Beach, Mauritius