Radio and TV presenter, Bailey Schneider and DJ Sox give us an exclusive look into their beautiful wedding weekend.
THE ENGAGEMENT
Sox completely and utterly surprised me. Obviously, a Monday afternoon is the perfect time for a proposal! I mean! Who would ever have thought? Not me! When Sox invited my parents to celebrate and experience his culture at Greek Easter, I had a few friends suggest that it might happen this weekend. Ironically, I had never been more certain that this weekend would DEFINITELY NOT be the weekend.
On the Monday afternoon we decided to head up Table Mountain – a place Sox and I had gone on dates to at the beginning of our relationship. In hindsight, I can’t quite believe I didn’t pick up on it. Now that I look back, there were so many little clues, but because I wasn’t even thinking about it, it wasn’t obvious at the time. Clue number one should have been the fact that he was constantly fidgeting with his pocket. I just thought that his car key or wallet might be making him uncomfortable. Mean time, he had taken the ring out of the box – you can’t quite conceal a box in jeans – and kept checking to see it was still there.
Sox suggested that we go further on and wait on some rocks overlooking our favourite view, whilst my mom and dad are walking around take photographs. We started reminiscing and chatting about life and love and all of a sudden he started saying, with a big mischievous grin: “You know I’m going to irritate you for the rest of your life, right?” and I started laughing saying: “No, no no… I’m not signing up for that!” His face faltered a little, which is unusual when we are joking around. (That should have been clue number two.)
I started laughing and told him I was kidding. He then started saying the most beautiful things that I will treasure forever and in my head I was thinking a trillion thoughts a second: Wait. Hang on a second. Is this…? Is this what I think it is? Oh my God! It is!!!! Bailey! Concentrate on what he’s saying! It’s happening NOW! Oh my God!!!! Before I knew it, he was down on one knee and his hand was in the pocket he’d been fidgeting in and pulled out my beautiful engagement ring. All I could answer was: “Are you serious?” a few times over and eventually he packed up laughing and said: “No, I’m joking. I’m taking the ring back!”
THE PLANNING
I’d love to say it was easy, but we definitely weren’t immune to the wedding plan stress! We had a venue cancel on us 4 months before our wedding, caterers cancel 4 weeks before our day and so many other stresses, but it was actually a blessing in disguise because we ended up with even better service providers! I also feel like the stress is a rite of passage and I was really proud of how Sox and I dealt with it together to find solutions and make it a magical time. Considering the stress we were placed under often, I am really proud to say that I didn’t become Bridezilla! I’m normally a pretty chilled person, so I’d like to think I kept my cool more often than not.
THE DRESS
Having two weddings means two gorgeous wedding dresses! Designed by Hendrik Vermeulen, my dresses were exquisite. I felt like a queen! I couldn’t stop swirling! Each gown was perfect for each ceremony. The Greek dress was very regal and elegant: Silk Dupione wrap around neckline, re-embroidered and hand beaded Chantilly lace bodice over a silk Dupione full circle skirt. The English ceremony dress was ethereal and dreamy: 3D effect re-embroidered and hand beaded Chantilly lace bodice over mesh, mermaid cut panelled silk chiffon skirt and removable silk chiffon petticoat. Once removed, the chiffon had two sexy slits for my legs! I wore the same veil for both days – a long Cathedral veil made of Italian veiling.
THE SUIT
Sox wore a custom-made suits which had a very classic and clean look. He wore a navy blue suit, tie and pocket square with tan shoes. On Saturday, he added a navy blue waist coast and changed the colour of his tie. He also wore personalised cufflinks with his initials carved into the wood.
THE WEDDING WEEKEND
It was actually a 3-day affair and one of the best weekends of my life. It started on 4 March 2016 at the Greek Orthodox Church, which is absolutely spectacular – it’s painted in murals from floor to ceiling. After the ceremony, everyone made their way to Greyton and checked into their respective accommodation. That evening we had a casual meet and greet welcome party with a Build Your Own Burger Bar. It was a fantastic ice breaker.
THE WEDDING DAY
The bouquet…
My bouquets were absolutely exquisite – full of green leaves, touches of gold, white cluster roses and Dahlias! As for the bridesmaid’s bouquets, we chose something quite unique. On the Friday, they wore fresh flower belts on their navy blue dresses in the Greek Church. On Saturday, my bridesmaids wore mint dresses and held gorgeous green leaves and white flowered wreaths! I loved that it was something different from the standard bouquets.
The ceremony…
Sox and I are happiest when we are in nature, so we had the English ceremony under the trees, in a forest, by the river. At 5pm, I walked down the aisle with my Dad in the forest, where Sox and I said our vows under the trees. We had glass bowls of white rose petals and herbs (rosemary and lavender), which represented love, fertility, blessings, happiness and abundance. It gave our guests a choice on what blessing they wanted to throw on us! We had our one-and-a-half-year-old godchildren as a flower girl and page boy – they were super cute and we heard lots of “awww cutes!” from our guests!
The venue…
We chose Elandskloof Farm in Greyton because we both fell in love with it’s beauty. It’s on an apple farm, with a river running through, gorgeous forest like areas and it’s romantic stone barn, which was a perfect reception area for us to create the party we imagined. Since we were having a destination wedding with our friends and family coming from all over the world, we loved that it could accommodate half of our guests.
The cake…
We had an exquisite ‘forest fairytale’ three-tiered cake. The attention to detail was incredible and all the flowers and leaves were edible – sugary delights! We had carrot, red velvet and chocolate tiers.
The reception…
We had the reception in the beautiful chandeliered stone barn. As we had a very natural element, we didn’t want it to be too rustic. Our colour palette was mint, greens and white. We had lots of candle light for ambiance, fairy lights, greenery, green leaves and white flowers. We used mint coloured succulents to bring in the mint colour that acted as a place name and a party favour for guests to take home. The chandeliers had green foliage in them; the tables had runners of green foliage and white flowers, candles and white tablecloths.
We had four banquet tables of guests. It was ‘family style dining’, so big plentiful platters were on the table for our guests to enjoy and taste a little bit of everything on offer. It gave it a real Mediterranean/European feel. We had platters of vegetables, bowls of sweet potato chips, pieces of chicken and sliced rump. We had a gorgeous dessert bar with huge helium balloons filled with confetti, candles and home made Baklava and Greek biscuits, made especially by Sox’s mom, Bowls of Swiss Chocolate that my Aunt and Uncle brought from Switzerland.
The after party…
We did something different when opening the dance floor. We started with the father-daughter dance as a rite of passage. My Dad and I danced to Butterfly Kisses. Then he handed me over to Sox for our first dance to Lonestar’s Amazed– a special song to us. The dance floor was officially opened, and our DJ ensured there was never anyone sitting down! We then had the Traditional Greek dancing and smashed 1 000 Greek plates and burnt whiskey – it was absolutely incredible to behold. Our party went on until 5am.
Service providers: Venue: Elandskloof Farm; Photography: Shantelle Visser Photography
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