Carien’s Carnival Celebration

The Proposal

My husband and I had been talking about getting married for a while but getting the perfect engagement ring was holding my husband back. I saw an engagement ring on a local second hand store’s Facebook page, but when I got there I found another ring which I loved. He kept it hidden for a couple of months before he finally proposed in the Kango Caves in Oudtshoorn. We bought the ring for very cheap and when we had it evaluated it turned out to be worth quite a lot! We felt like we had won the lotto!

The Planning

I have my own stationery business Cardiac – Cards from the Heart, so being in the industry for so long, I knew exactly which service providers I wanted to use. I organised and booked everything within three days. I designed and made everything myself, which was of course my favourite part of the wedding. We had a self catering venue, so we had to rent everything. We decided to have a carnival wedding with food stalls that offered sosaties, hamburgers and pannekoek. The setup and taking down part of the wedding was very time consuming and stressful and I turned out to be a very exhausted bride on the wedding day. But it turned out exactly like we wanted so if was well worth the effort! I had a wedding dress disaster two weeks before the wedding, so had to rush to find a dress, but luckily found one just in time!

Looking Back

My favourite memory is when my mom agreed on the day of the wedding to walk me down the isle. Being a single mother, that was super special to me! If I could do it all over again, I would definitely have a DJ and would have someone that could setup and take down everything for me so that I could relax on the day. My advice is to use a good make up artist and the best photographer you can find. It is well worth the money!