Lowvelder.co.za’s bride Anni Schwirzer shares the ins and outs of her and husband Jacques Marais’s big day. Like what you see? We’ve also included vendors and their contact details! Many a Lowvelder will recognise or know Anni from Meat Delights in Nelspruit.
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Anni & Jacques Wedding Trailer from DESIGNflow on Vimeo.
Bride’s name: Anni Schwirzer
Groom’s name: Jacques Marais
Anni shares their story:
“I have found the one whom my soul loves” – Songs of Solomon. This is very true for our love story. Jacques and I met last year in September, went skydiving together, jumped out of a plane and fell in love. Everything just fell into place as we fell in love. As cheesy as this sounds, it’s true.
After three months it was clear that we were made for each other. On January 10 Jacques asked me to marry him, I obviously said yes! On May 30 this year we tied the knot with a very teary ceremony at Sudwala Lodge. Jacques completes me, as I do him – neither of us thought it possible to find someone so perfect in every way! Someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, who you can’t wait to see and tell them about everything that happened during the day, someone we can be quiet with, laugh with, cry with and be yourself with, without feeling judged. I have truly found the one whom my soul loves! So I married this wonderful man seven months after we met and can’t wait to wake up each morning and see him next to me – for the rest of my life!
Wedding date: May 30, 2015
Theme/style and colours: Colourful German-Afrikaans, rustic/farm, shabby chic
Wedding town/city: Nelspruit
Wedding planner: Anni planned her own wedding
Venue: Sudwala Lodge – 013-733-3073
Cake: Nannie Snyman (private)
Flowers:Bridesmaid – West End Florist, table flowers bought from Ilrosito, but made up by the family.
Dress: D&G Bridal – 082-653-6060
Bridesmaids’ dresses: Own traditional German dress
Groom’s outfit: Euro Suit – 013-757-0264
Make-up: Gina Marote – 082-386-9140
Hair: Michelle @ Hair Quarters – 013-742-2248
Special/additional decor: Sudwala Lodge & Sawdust Art
DJ: Johan van Vuuren – 079-275-5167
Pastor/wedding officiator: Ds. Koos Kriel – 084-500-1082
Stationery/invites: Self
Wedding favours: Biltong & dry wors by Meat Delights – 071-657-1343
Photographer: Liana & Johan Lues (Jolians Photography) – 079-839-2018
Anni’s advice to other brides-to-be:
We did not have a wedding planner, no real theme, no colour scheme, but knew more or less what we wanted and I made it happen with the help from family, friends and the wonderful staff of Sudwala Lodge. A lot of the items were made by myself and Mike our gardener who has been working for our family for 20 years). It was a team effort: husband-to-be, my three brothers, sister, sister-in-law, and in-laws (to be) were roped in to help. I made all the wedding invites myself, wrote the programmes (a two-pager, in English and Afrikaans), the table lists, place names, etc. In hind sight having a wedding planner would have taken a lot of stress off me, but would then also have taken away the personal touch I believe our wedding had. Every item at our wedding was chosen by us and most of it handmade, nothing was just thrown on to a table, or left to some random person to make a decision about. It was hard work, and if you’re not a very organised person who can handle stress and who are very good at time management I would not recommend having a DIY wedding or doing the wedding planning yourself as this is not an easy job in anyway. Make sure you have a maid of honour (put some thought into this) who wants to help or pray you have some wonderful friends (like I have, Rene and Nicola). I would recommend Liana Lues as photographer (trust me she is much more than just a photographer, she can do magic). All three of them life savers! Of course also the staff at Sudwala Lodge, Tannie Marie (amazing food), Anke (who can double as a make-up artist) and Quinton who runs the brilliant venue!
