 Mark proposed to me in Paris , under the Eiffle Tower on New Years 2001/2002. It was perfect, I had absolutely no idea he wanted to marry me as after 7 years of being together. I thought he maybe did not want to get married but he was just throwing me off the scent. He bought my beautiful two tone and diamond ring in The Canary Islands where we had gone for that Christmas. As he is a Scotsman it was fitting that we happened to meet up with a few Scottish people just before new years in their full Scottish attire (in Paris can you believe it, obviously meant to be) kilt and all. Mark had somehow managed to get the man to put my ring in his Spurn to hold for him, and on strike of twelve new years eve, he went down on one knee in front of everyone and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised I did not know what to do and think I may have made him wait for ages before giving my answer of YES, YES, YES!
The Scottish man then came up to me and said 'I think you'll be wanting this then pet' (meaning my ring which he took out of his spurn). It was fantastic we had champagne cheered, cried, took some photos and then promptly headed back to our hotel to ring the family who of course already knew as Mark had asked my father the night before for my hand in marriage. And the rest is history.
We set a wedding date of 12 November 2004 and held off planning until January of 2004 when the planning went into full force for our 42 guests. As I am a graphic designer I was fortunate to be able to design and make all my invitations, menus, order of service, entrance for reception sign, place cards, etc. I designed everything from start to finish.
The wedding theme was stars, as in made in the stars and our colours were silver, white and purple. Although there wasn't much purple in the decorations at all as I wanted simple and stylish with the white and silver.
I wore a beautiful white dress that was strapless with gorgeous detail of flowers sewn onto the bodice and skirt with crystals and beads. the waist had a piece of white chiffon draped down to one side with crystals sewn i the ruffles. My dress also had a gorgeous train which hooked up after the ceremony. It was made by Peter Trends of Australia.
My bridesmaids wore a beautiful rich dark purple rushed bodice and straight long skirt made out of satin. The flower girls wore gorgeous white dresses that flared out and had small lilac roses sewn onto the bottom with a sash around their waist tied into bows, with hand made satin ballet shoes with purple ribbons and butterflies.
I arrived in a white Jaguar and we had a beautiful, relaxed ceremony under a flower arch with vows and words chosen by us which made it very special. The most romantic moment of the wedding was saying my vows and looking into my husbands eyes though closely followed by Our last dance of the evening too which was to I've had the time of my life from ‘Dirty Dancing’.
The reception at Northridge Country Lodge was personal, emotional and full of love and family as well as special singing from my new uncle-in-law dedicating their wedding song to us and all the kiwi's doing the haka for the Scotsmen and South Africans.
On the lighter side and perhaps something to keep in mind when choosing your MC, when our MC went on forever with his speech I eventually stood up and asked if anyone else would like to be mc which everyone seemed to think was rather funny, only light hearted though!
I decide to follow the wedding traditions: something old was an old silver bracelet, something new was a gorgeous ring my sister bought me with purple stones in to go with the colour theme, something borrowed was my sisters diamond earrings and something blue was on my garter.
With my husband being Scottish his heritage was also an important part of our day. Mark wore his traditional Scottish attire of the kilt etc and we also had a horseshoe on our table which is Scottish good luck (something all Scottish couples do apparently!)
Everything there was not a thing that went wrong, I was so surprised as had been trying to prepare myself for mishaps and problems but it was all perfect I am so pleased with every decision I made.
We have not honeymooned as yet as we had lots of family staying with us from overseas, so it is still to come so stay tuned.
And Heather’s advice on married life: “Married life is wonderful, I had been with Mark for nearly eight years before we got married so we knew what we were getting, no surprises there, so nothing is really different except there is this wondering special feeling always that lingers with us, I feel so honoured and grasp any chance I get to call him my husband as I feel so lucky it is such a sacred union and your every day after the wedding feels so sacred.”
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