May 24, 2020

Fadzai & Huli's South Africa Wedding

When Fadzai first stepped in to my store with that beautiful smile of hers, she was a breath of fresh air! I knew she was a romantic at heart and that she needed a gown that would show off her wonderful personality & give her different looks throughout the day! The gorgeous tulle over skirt was a definite! I had so much fun during her appointment with her, I felt very priveleged to be a part of her wedding journey. Every dress she tried on, I could just feel her excitement of being engaged and that she couldn't wait for the moment to walk down the aisle. Miss you in store Fadzai. xxx

THE DRESS "So I had always told myself that I was gonna get a dress online from one of those cheap online stores. I then decided to go for dress window shopping so I can see which styles suit me before ordering online. Then one day as I was browsing on facebook I saw an ad for a trunk show and thought that was my chance to go try dresses. So the plan was to go to the bridal store then pretend that I want to buy haha….

I walked into the store, Samy asked me what I was looking for in a dress, and I told her that I always imagined myself in a mermaid off-shoulder dress. She went straight to this dress that I thought wasn’t definitely my style as it wasn’t white, it had sleeves and a sleet. Quickly told her to keep searching….

I tried on the first dress, the off-shoulder mermaid dress and I didn’t find it flattering. I tried a ball gown, oh my I could hear it screaming “I’m getting married!” Then I lastly I tried the one that Sam had first picked. It wasn’t even close to what I had imagined but I fell in love. I shed a tear. It was beautiful, it was sexy too and made me feel like a princess. I turned to Sam and told her that I had also fallen in love with the ball gown look, she turns around and puts on a skirt over the dress. This just completed the look. I forgot that I hadn’t come to purchase a dress and I just paid the deposit there an there.

The dress was beautiful and timeless. We got married 15 months after that but it was still fashionable. The best thing that I loved about the dress is that it gave me 3 gorgeous looks. I plan on giving it to my daughter if God blesses me with one. She might not wear it for her wedding but maybe transform it for her rehearsal dinner."

HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET? "Huli and I met in Perth in July 2017. I was 24 and he was 26. I had occasionally mentioned to my uni friend that I only wanted to date a Zimbabwean boyfriend and she was like oh I actually work with a guy from Zim and I brushed it off. My friend went ahead and told Huli also that she had a friend from the same country as him and he also brushed her off.

One day I passed through my friend’s workplace and before I even saw her, I met this middle aged Croatian lady. We started having a random conversation and from nowhere she was like where do you come from and I said I come Zim. She had a weird grin on her face and was like do you have a boyfriend and I said no I don’t haha. She goes on to say don’t worry I’m gonna hook you up with this Zimbabwean guy that works here. She went ahead and called him and when I saw him I thought nah he is obviously not from Zim until he spoke to me in my language. Long story short, Huli later realised I was the same girl that my friend had mentioned to him before and that’s when he asked for my number.

About a month or so later, we went on our first date…diner at the Esplanade hotel. We had a few more dates after that including a road trip to Bunbury and before we knew we were a couple."

THE PROPOSAL "6 months after dating Huli calls me inviting me to his house for dinner. I was at uni and I kept on texting him if I should come already and he kept on stalling. I finished my lecture and went straight to his house. When I got there there were rose petals from the door all over the house. We had dinner by candlelight and some champagne and I was like okay what's the occasion. He takes out the ring from his pocket and says, “Fadzi lets get married”. Dude didn’t even go on one knee haha but yeah I said yes."

FAVOURITE MOMENT "Planning our wedding wasn’t really a walk in the park. We had a lot of uncertainties to the point that the only time that we were sure that the wedding was happening was just a week before the wedding. To us it was indeed a miracle. Walking down the aisle was definitely the best feeling ever knowing that God had seen us through. Having dad by my side, the love of my life on the other side of the aisle and the musicians playing great is thy faithfulness in the background was like a dream."

THE VENUE "Our venue was stunning. Despite having to plan the wedding without being at the venue in person, when we finally went to the venue, we fell in love. The tuscan village and the greenery was breathtaking. Our florist also did a very great job with the deco. We used all fresh flowers and I can say it was worth every cent."

ADVICE FOR FUTURE BRIDES

Something will go wrong but your guests won’t even notice because they have no idea how things were supposed to be like, so live in the moment and enjoy every bit of it because the day goes so fast.
Invest in a good photographer and videographer. Those are the memories that will stay forever.
You don’t need a 5 tier wedding cake! We had so much left over cake so much that we had to stand in the hotel foyer offering random people cake haha.
If you are having a destination wedding, get on the plane with your dress you are most likely to get an upgrade to first class or at least they can give you the honours of boarding first. I was lucky to get an upgrade.
It's never too early to start planning, pay for whatever you can as early as possible because some unanticipated expenses will always come up. Bought my dress 15 months before the wedding. Best decision of my life because if I had not bought it then, I would have afforded it and there will be unexpected expenses that will just come up. Like we had our rings stolen just a few weeks towards the wedding and we had to get new ones.