Our very own fantastical wedding! II

In the 7 years we have been together leading up to the wedding we have been to various parts of Mozambique about 8 times so all along we have known we have wanted to get married in Mozambique. To make things easier for our guests brave enough to make the trip up, we settled on the gorgeous Tartaruga Maritima in Southern Mozambique. Everyone seems to think destination weddings are hellishly expensive, and while maybe the travel can be, our actual wedding was kept on a VERY tight budget!

Andy and I were both very hands on and we crafted and made pretty much ALL our decor! I hand sewed the bunting, my gran, mom, Andy’s mom and I knitted all the placemats. (which I have now sewn into a big blanket) We collected all the jars (we are recycling nuts though so that wasn’t hard), and we really tried to make all our other decor be meaningful to us as a couple. We had little Landy toys (in case you hadn’t noticed, we are a bit Land Rover obssessed) We used our collection of old cameras we have accumulated over the years and put photos of us over the years in the jars. We also had little jars of speckled eggs, our favourite naughty treat! I also have an amazing crafting sister in law (and brides-lady) who crocheted tons of flowers we used all over the place. As taking flowers over the border was a bit of a problem, we vied for beautiful dried lavender which was super easy to transport in boxes! We had amazing day of co-ordinators the Love Bucket, they are amazing and also organise Mozam weddings! I would highly recommend a day of co-ordinator, they made things far less stressful! People seem to think these days that weddings on average cost R80-100 000, but ours came up to the princely sum of R30 000. So it is totally doable having a rocking wedding on a budget :) (see  after the pics for more ways we cut costs but not awesomeness)

Okay, so enough nattering, here are more pics!

tin mugs inspired by Stace and Wes’ wedding :)

We also wanted our reception to be as inclusive as possible so we arranged our tables in a horse shoe shape

We had a ring monkey instead of a ring pillow

We walked down the aisle together led by both set of parents. This way, we were entering into our marriage together!

First dance to Biffy Clyro

As the music got a bit heavier and rockier, so too did the mood! Gotta love a crowd surfing husband!

Our reception became the most rocking dance party all with a little help from our itunes and a PA system. We made our own playlists to have parent friendly hits from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, some Classic rock, radio hits, and as the night progressed, the music turned heavier and darker to resemble Andy and my’s fave heavy rock! That way everyone got some takkie squeaking time without paying a DJ :)

A good friend did our make up and I did my and the brides-ladies hair. All the dresses were bought on sale and accessorised from Mr P. which also saved big time! My dress was ordered from a vintage US website as was Andy’s waistcoat, everything else was picked up at local shops.

The groomsmen’s shoes and the blankets at the ceremony were from PEP, paper lanterns and fairy lights (which we put up ourselves) were bought from a wholesaler, and we set up our own photo booth.  We bought all the booze from a bottle store which saved a bunch and made a big punch, which people seemed to spike more and more the whole night! There are lots of fun ways to save for your wedding! Its the most fun thing to do with your partner leading up to your big day!

Hope you enjoyed the pics :)