Anastasiya & Emile

About the Bride and Groom

We are an adventurous, fun-loving, sometimes-crazy couple. We love the outdoors, delicious food and our two cats are our babies.

I’m a dentist and Emile is a mechanical engineer. We’re currently living in Rustenburg since Emile works in the mining industry and I’m in private practice, so it was easiest for me to relocate.

We’re both from Port Elizabeth and we went to high school together, but we only started dating when we both attended the University of Pretoria.

How did he pop the question?

Emile proposed while we were barging through Burgundy, France. We were exploring an old abbey and he asked me to come look at the altar and he got down on one knee in front of it. I was so shocked, didn’t hear a word of what he said.

Tell us about your wedding

Since I lived in PE during the year we got engaged I had to plan the wedding mostly by myself while taking videos for Emile and trying to get his input best I could from Rustenburg. We knew we wanted a simple yet elegant style wedding, but also something picturesque with an outdoor vibe.

Why did you choose The Plantation?

Driving up to the Plantation, I already knew it was a major contender since the path toward it is already so stunning.

When I got to looking at the packages the clear winner was the all-inclusive Fairytale Package. It simplified things to a big extent for us since I knew I’d be moving to Rustenburg in two months and wouldn’t have time to get together with many suppliers etc. Not having to deal with caterers was a major plus for me. Also all the previous fantastic reviews made me feel like I could entrust the Plantation with the details for the wedding without panicking.

What was your theme?

Out theme was simple and elegant. We went with white flowers and greenery with gold details. What’s special about the Plantation is that it’s such a beautiful venue already, you don’t need to do much with it, but the staff all have wonderful suggestions of simple things to do in order to create the look you want.

When it was time to choose the menu for the canapés, starters and mains, it was a bit challenging because everything sounded so great! We eventually chose from the Heritage menu and we didn’t make a mistake, all the guests loved the food, we had a couple of overseas guests and the traditional style South African food was such a big win with them.

The garden games during canapés were great, all the guests had a good time.

What was the highlight of your day?

Our highlight was definitely seeing each other for the first time in the chapel, we just locked eyes and it was game over! The rest of the day went so smoothly, the whole day was just perfect, we can’t choose a single highlight.

Any advice for brides to be?

Just relax, visualize what it is that you have to have and go from there, be flexible, accept advice from people who have been doing this for years.

Suppliers

Décor and flowers – Floral Creations and The Hire Warehouse

Lynley is a magician, the best in the business and I’m so thankful that the Plantation hooked me up with her.

Photography – Ron Harding Photography

Most definitely the best in the business, knows the venue really well and our photos came out beautifully

Videography – Dirk Moggee

Such a great person, makes you feel at ease, also helped a lot with the logistics of our timeline which we knew nothing about. Our wedding highlights video was the best day of our lives following the actual wedding day, seriously fantastic!

Scroll to the end of this post to see the wedding highlights video

Music – Enjoy Productions

Craig, also suggested by the Plantation was easy to coordinate with from far and had a really great music selection at the wedding – the dance floor was never empty

Dress – Olivelli Bridal Johannesburg

Hair – Marlize Knoetze (MK Hair Boutique)

Make-up – Tarryn Harding

The best MUA out there!