Juliette & Justin’s Wedding:

Being close family friends, the wedding of Justin and Juliette meant a lot to me and to my extended family who were invited to join in the celebrations, and, as with every wedding I do, I wanted it to be perfect… naturally! We loved creating another luxury wedding in Cape Town for this special family.

In 2010 I had the privilege of doing my first Collins family wedding for Juliette’s sister Jessica, and her hubby Andrew. I was called upon by Juliette and Justin to do their flowers and decor and to assist them with their wedding coordination, both in the build up to and on the day of their wedding. Bridget, Juliette’s mum, and I worked closely together, planning their special day from beginning to end. We’d had the practice doing it together 5 years earlier and it was such fun working together again, meeting over many coffees, doing site visits, suppliers visits and mock ups and working through the intricacies of the wedding planning details.

Juliette on how she and Justin met….”We both decided independently of each other after University (Stellenbosch and Ole Miss) to do a single “ski season” in Aspen. Justin arrived a year before me and met a couple of my friends. When I arrived a year later our close friend Sarah introduced us. I didn’t remember meeting him the first time but he says it was love at first sight for him 😉 We started hanging out more and more over the next couple months and now the rest is history. We both ended up staying in Aspen for a couple of years before returning to South Africa. We got engaged in March 2015 whilst on a run in Camps Bay. Being engaged was such fun but marriage has been better 🙂 ”

The Rose Cafe’s role in this wedding and it’s proceedings began in March of 2015. Together with Bridget and Juliette we discussed the ins and outs of the approaching wedding day, Juliette and Justin’s preferences, likes and dislikes and what they wanted the overall feel of the day to be. Words that came up were, sophisticated, elegant, smart, fun, relaxed – all words synonymous with The Rose Cafe. We needed to run a very slick operation, to make this day a seamless one, transitioning perfectly from one ‘formality’ to the next, creating a garden wedding reception at which the guests could celebrate this very special union in style, in a breathtakingly romantic summer setting, with the towering mountains beyond.

Juliette was so lovely to work with. Unfussy, trusting… what more could a florist and planner ask for in a bride?! Her mum and I discussed the details regarding all the hiring items, quantities and quotes and we were all on the same page right from the start in terms of the aesthetics of the design and overall concept. Juliette wanted a neutral colour scheme with grey-green runners of greenery down the centre of the tables with a mix of all neutral flowers. Fresh and classic.

When asked what their dream for their day was Justin said “We wanted it to be like a fairy tale, well Jules did, and I just wanted all my friends and family in one place celebrating us and life. We got married in the Henderson’s garden in Bishopscourt. Jules was adamant to decorate a venue with completely our ideas (Well Angie, Bridget and Jules) and not something that had been recreated over and over again. I was happy for anything as long as the music was great and my family made it. It exceeded my expectations.”

“I actually hit the nail on the head on my first visit to Robyn Roberts. I had other options planned but cancelled them as soon as I left her rooms. She is excellent, professional and calm . I tried on LOTS of different styles and basically we narrowed down what I liked about a few of them. We moulded the dress, making tweaks every few weeks until it was finally complete. She lets you decide what you would like but has the most incredible way of giving you fantastic suggestions without you feeling like she’s making decisions for you or changing your mind. She has been doing this for MANY years. All my dress fittings were attended by my mother and her close friend Margs which I am so grateful for. Their advice and overall excitement for me made the whole experience that much better. Margs was also the one that found my shoes. She knows I am not a shopper so gave me a heads up. I raced over to Cavendish, danced around in the shoes, fell in love with them and bought them all within 15 minutes. I can make decisions fairly quickly when it comes to clothes.”

Justin always wanted everyone to wear blue suits. “I love everything blue. My mother bought the ties in America which I loved. She also bought funky socks for all my groomsman. I hired the suits from Eurosuit in Canal Walk.”

For her bridesmaids Juliette opted for nude gowns and wanted to pair these with very simple neutral rose bouquets, complimented by soft white babies breath and dainty flower crowns.

Juliette had her beautiful golden hair flowing down her shoulders in loose curls and wanted a few sprigs of flowers for the gather in her hair which we made up from baby roses, lisianthus buds and babies breath. Her bridesmaids wore dainty babies breath crowns, complimenting this beautiful bride in her elegant, beaded lace Robyn Roberts creation.

“My hair was done by Michelle who owns the Lotus Hair Salon in the Cape Quarter. Since Carin and I were 16 years old she has been doing our hair. She is an incredibly calm collected woman who never stresses so she turned out to be the perfect person to have on the day. Everyone was incredibly chuffed with her work and her timing was impeccable. I wouldn’t have chosen any other person to do it. Our make up was done by Tremayne West who is incredibly talented. She was recommended by a friend after doing the make up for her wedding. She made everyone look like princesses even though our make up was all quite natural. I would recommend both Michelle and Tremayne to anyone, without hesitation. They are the people you want on the day of your wedding!”

For the men we did simple rose and babies breath buttonholes bound in satin with pearl pins. The groom’s had slightly more details, incorporating some lisianthus buds and tendrils so set his apart. The family portraits were also taken in the garden of family friends.

Juliette is very petite and the style of her gown complimented her lovely figure. Because she is so dainty she didn’t want her bouquet to overpower her or her flowing, graceful dress, but she loved the idea of having a slightly trailing, romantic bouquet. We created the body of Juliette’s bouquet using white and cream roses and cream dahlias with an open Casablanca lily. This was interspersed with lisianthus blooms and the trailing buds flowing into a gentle, babies breath cascade. We bound her bouquet with cream satin and pearl headed pins

We created dazzling table scapes with scatterings of mercury tealights, varying heights of glass stemmed candle holders adding height and light and gorgeous, centred white metal lanterns poised on wooden disks on each table. The effect was excellently suited to a garden celebration with the touches of wood combined with the clarity of the glass, the candle light and the oyster-white silk cloths.

The reception was to be held in Bishopscourt on the rolling lawns at the Hendersons’ Residence. We wanted the best of everything, from the gorgeous lazer-cut table lanterns and twinkly tealights to the gold rimmed feature glasses, personal rosemary wreaths at each setting and the beautifully handwritten place names. It was very important that we enlisted the help of the very best in weddings. My right hand man was Bjorn Salsone, a personal friend of mine and an incredibly talented event coordinator who ran with the on-the-day proceedings. Annalize of Escoffier did the most exquisite food, presented flawlessly, from the gorgeous canapes served upon arrival to the most delectable buffet for the main course, followed by a dessert table to swoon for. I loved working with Annalize. Her bubbly, lighthearted personality makes you want to giggle along with her and it’s clear that catering is such a joy for her, every step of the way. One of the most important things at a wedding is ensuring that your guests are well fed and well hydrated and it makes for a happy day.

The utterly gorgeous cake, made and styled by the incredibly talented Tanya Heathcote was almost too pretty to eat, but if you have any idea how delicious her cakes are you’d know exactly why they chose her.

Wine was supplied by Iona, the Grabouw based Wine Estate that Juliette and the hostess Jacqui work for, all served from a DIY bar, expertly constructed by the host Rob, where much Sophie te’Blanche was imbibed under the eves, surrounded by naked bulbs and dancing lanterns strung from the low-hanging branches of a nearby tree. The white bedouin tent, raised dancefloor and finely strung fairly lights, provided by Touareg tents, were the perfect canvas for us to work out our creativity. Graham from Touareg was incredibly helpful and his experience went a long way to assisting us with the tricky spacing and table layout on a not-so-even downward slope. The dance floor they expertly constructed allowed guests to dance the night away under the stars.

And finally some advice from the happy couple for those of you in the planning process…

– Do soft lighting 🙂

– Do have a substantial amount of food.

– Do have someone to help you on the day with all the behind the scenes work.

– Do keep the speeches sincere, special and avoid 17 pages long. I love speeches but you want everyone on the dance floor before 11 PM.

– Do use the right DJ – we used Liam from Mr DJ company. He was UNBELIEVABLE. Another thing that people are still speaking about and I have received copious amounts of phone calls for referrals.

– Do use our caterer – Escoffier Catering. Annalize was absolutely brilliant and people are still speaking about the food at the wedding. Her starters were so clever and delicious. She designed the menu around our favourites so we ate everything we loved and there was SO much of it. We had a dessert table filled with fruits, wedding cake, cheeses, biscuits and gorgeous champagne Lindt Balls. A friend mentioned that the only down side to his experience at the wedding was that he missed the announcement for the dessert table. He only found it on the way out so ended up staying a further hour.

and…

– Don’t over look how important it is to seat people in the right spot.

– Don’t have fancy food, extravagant decor and then rubbish wine. Drink Sophie 🙂

– Don’t forget that the most important thing is the marriage and not actually the wedding.

Justin and Juliette, thank you for including us in your special day and for allowing us to be a part of your celebrations. It was a privilege watching you marry and we wish you a lifetime of blessings and love.