We love, love stories! How did you and your husband meet and how did he propose?
I did not have any plans to meet someone and get married, it was the start of a new year, a new job and all I wanted to do was focus on my career as a teacher at Boskop Primary. The friends I made at this new school were all married and kept asking about my love life and when I want to get married, I told them that if they wanted me to get married it was up to them to find my husband because I’m too busy and not interested. My friend, Elsie Dreyer, took it very seriously and sought out a husband for me. She told me that I was the exact description of a friend of her husband’s perfect soul mate. I did not believe her, but when she arranged for me to meet him at her house for a burgers night I thought that maybe I should just go to be polite, since she has gone through all the trouble to arrange it. Morné Coetzee walked through the door and for the first time in my life, my knees nearly caved in. If you do not believe in love at first sight, believe me, it happens, and it happens quite unexpectedly. I liked him from the start, and all I wanted was to see him again and again and again! We did! I fell hopelessly in love! He didn’t want to wait very long to get married, he knew he wanted to be with me forever, and I felt the same, nine months later he proposed. He took me away for a weekend to Dullstroom, one morning in Dullstroom he gave me a storybook full of our photos and the story of us, at the end of the book the words were written: Will you marry me? I cried so much, and of course my answer was yes!
What was the favourite part of your wedding day?
There were so many moments that I felt out of this world happy, I cannot pick just one thing, I guess in the beginning getting dressed and having our hair and make-up done was so much fun and filled with laughter, but the moment my father walked in after I was ready to walk down the isle was my most precious memory of the beginning of the day. He cried, and of course that made me cry as well. It was a beautiful thing! The obvious next favorite part was when I walked down the isle with my father and seeing my future husband looking at me in my dress for the first time, his expression was priceless! After we got married and took many wonderful and beautiful photos my next favorite part was walking into the beautifully decorated hall for the first time before any of the guests just to see what it looks like and to take it all in, it was beautiful! I hugged Zavion and thanked him. I then realized I was actually living the dream, I HAD my dream wedding! The next special moment was when my sister did her speech; to me it was the best speech of the evening and made me cry and long for our childhood. It truly was the best day of my entire life!
You fitted a variety of wedding dresses, how did you know when it was ‘the one’ and what did you love most about your wedding dress?
I fitted MANY dresses, the thing is, I had an idea of what my dress should look like and what I would look like in it. I didn’t want a ball gown dress and I wanted something loose and comfortable and not poofy. We all have our dream dress in mind, but as soon as I let the idea go and try on something new that I didn’t expect would suit me at all I was mind blown! I did not come to mind that trying on different styles would work for me, but it did! As soon as I tried on “the one” it was quite obvious that I wasn’t going to like any other dress, it made me look and feel divinely beautiful! I was so happy!
How did you decide on the look and feel you wanted to have as a bride?
The overall look of my wedding at to somehow represent a Greek island, it had to have a Santorini feel. The reason for this is because my grandmother, who passed away three three years ago from cancer, loved Greece, it was her dream to go there one day. Sadly she never did. The second reason is because my mother’s favorite movie is Mama Mia, she watches it at least twice a week and the mother and daughter characters remind her of us. Greek and Greece has been a theme in our family ever since, so it was an obvious choice! We even broke plates after dinner (my idea), it was so much fun. Recently we’ve been to a wedding, my husband’s friend got married, and they loved our idea so much that they too copied our Greek theme and even broke plates the exact same way as we did. We were so happy to see that we started a trend in the Afrikaans community!
What advice would you give future brides when it comes to wedding dress shopping?
My advice is this, do not go dress shopping with too many ideas, it is best that you go with a blank canvas and only paint and fill it once you try the dresses on. We often have an idea in our mind and more so than not we end up with a completely different dress that suite us better. Pinning dresses is fun, but trust me, you are unique, your style will be unique, and what you’re going to wear might not be what you thought you would, it will be BETTER!
