The wedding of Erin and Guy at Hillcrest venue Camp Orchards was glamorous while still casual enough for guests to kick off their shoes and loosen their ties on the dance floor. With the bride wearing a Berta wedding dress and high flying tulips coming all the way to the east coast from Cape Town, huge effort was made into bringing this event together. The couple shook things up a bit by serving burgers for dinner and ice cream for desert. Who doesn’t love a good juicy beef burger before a big ‘jol’ hey?
Supporting cast:
Venue: Camp Orchards
Photography: Vanilla Photography
Wedding co-ordinator and decor: Emily Lockhart
Florist: Blossom & Bloom by Sue Akerman
Stationery: Paper Cut by Kendall Snyman
Wedding DJ: Vivian Westergreen
Live entertainment: Tyler D and The Kickstands
Catering: Rays Kitchen
Gold cutlery : Crystal & Vine
HOORAY: Camp Orchards is one of KZN’s premier wedding venues for multiple reasons. What made you and Guy fall in love with it?
ERIN: One Saturday morning we jumped into the car, and decided we were going to go find our wedding venue (spontaneous I know). We knew we wanted to get married in February, but that is as far as our thoughts went. In one day we travelled to the South Coast, The KZN Midlands and the North Coast and at the end of the day all I had was one very grumpy fiancé. It then dawned on us that we didn’t need to look far from home to find our venue. I had attended many work functions at Camp Orchard and was familiar with its beauty, Guy however had never been there. When I mentioned it to him he said, “Ive never been there, but I trust you”. So we made our appointment with Giselle and went up the following weekend. Driving through the gates, Guy turned to me and said, “this is perfect”. I think it was the avenue of trees that sold us, oh and the cows in the fields – Guy is a farmer at heart.
HOORAY: Can we discuss your flowers for a second! Those suspended tulips and that flower wall! Who did your Flowers and was this your vision. Did you work together to bring it to life? How did you even find tulips?
ERIN: We had the most amazing wedding planner, Em Lockhart. The vision was all hers, with the help of flower extraordinaire, Sue Akerman. My only instructions to them were, “lots of flowers” make sure it looks like a “Summer Wedding”, and she sure did listen. The tulips were especially flown in for the day and exceeded all our expectations.
EM: The tulips were grown in Rawsonville in the Cape hydroponically. We had them flown up to King Shaka airport, high flying tulips. I had amazing creative freedom with the Rangers, a coordinators dream. Erin and Guy expressed their look to be Classic modern. With a few mood board changes we decided to go with the grand tulip chandeliers and tight almost posy like table arrangements giving you a modern but classic look.
HOORAY: Loving the gold cutlery! Were did you find from?
Our wedding planner Em Lockhart arranged them through Crystal & Vine.
HOORAY: Lets discuss the favourite part of your morning getting ready with your bridesmaids. Any stand out memories or something you would have done differently?
ERIN: The morning spent with my besties, was a highlight of my day. Having our hair done at a salon, is a definite must, so relaxing and much quicker. After our hair appointments we were treated to a quiche lunch in the main house at camp orchard. It was then a mad rush finishing off make up and getting into our dresses. Such fun with many laughs.
HOORAY: Your photographer mentioned you wore a Berta wedding dress. Custom made or off the rail? Tell us a little more about your experience and how you came to “the one”.
ERIN: We had planned a London trip already to attend the Rugby World Cup, and it was perfect timing to visit some boutiques and find my dream wedding dress. I had to wait till the LAST appointment to find what I really wanted! The dress was custom made, and at first I didn’t want to try that particular one on. The lady helping me was a professional stylist and had worked in Dubai dressing the princesses, she did some heavy persuading and eventually I agreed. The minute I put it on, I knew that I had found it. All the previous dresses seemed less than adequate after this one.
HOORAY: White bridesmaid’s dresses. We ADORE. But a big no-no for some brides. Tell us about your choice here.
ERIN: I always wanted a green and white colour scheme, so the dresses needed to be in line and match the colour scheme. White is timeless, and therefore it was an easy choice. The dresses were totally different to mine. Short length, High neck so it wasn’t a biggie that they were the same colour as my dress.
HOORAY: Guy, did you hire or buy your suits?
GUY: Mine and my groomsmen outfits were all bought. We managed to get the pants, shirts and belts from Country Road. While the jackets were ordered online from Linea – stocked at House of Fraser in the UK. And believe it or not, we had to purchase the vellies online from Lyle & Scott in the UK. Bizaar buts it the only place we could find the right coloured vellies.
HOORAY: I love your alter – who’s idea was this?
ERIN: ALL the wonderful Em Lockhart.
EM: I came across two beautiful shutters while trawling through Second Treasures which sparked the initial alter inspiration. We then incorporated a tulip chandelier to create a flow into the reception where we had 7 more magnificent tulip chandeliers.
HOORAY: What was your favourite moment during the ceremony?
GUY: Im not sure if I could single out one specific moment, but I thought I was relatively calm before the ceremony. I didn’t know what song Erin had chosen to walk down the aisle to. As the song, You and Me by Lifehouse began, I was overcome with emotion. The bridesmaids looked stunning.. and then seeing Erin in her dress for the first time was an absolute breath taking moment. Im not sure much can top seeing your bride looking so beautiful. In saying that though.. hearing Tom (our priest) announce to the guests.. I now pronounce you husband and wife was epic. Everything just seemed so surreal. It was awesome.
HOORAY: How cute is your tree planting ceremony? What did you plant and where will it be going in the future? Your house? Stay at Camp Orchards?
ERIN: Chatting to Tom in the weeks leading up to wedding, he mentioned to us that having an outdoor ceremony was awesome but if we were planning to light a unity candle we should be aware of the challenge of trying to light it in its windy. This gave us something to think about. We brought it up with Em and she said she would have a think about it and come back to us. So, enter the tree. What an awesome idea, thank you Em. We are in the process of immigrating to Australia, so we are planting the Lemon Tree at Guy’s cousin house. (Scott and Nikki Stanton). They have agreed to adopt the “love fern” from us.
HOORAY: Your harvest table looked amazing! Tell us what it was like dealing with Ray’s Kitchen and your menu in general.
ERIN: We are loving a more minimalist menu and are so over the huge steaks and lamb shank meals – who’s idea was it to go with burgers and was it a hit with your guests? To be absolutely honest, dealing with ray and Paul was so easy and chilled. We gave them the idea of what we wanted and they just ran with it. Paul came back to us with a “provisional” menu.. and it never changed. They got it spot on first time. I’m (Guy) a burger fanatic.. so when Erin and I discussed our menu, we wanted it to compliment the people we are and how we envisioned our day. We wanted our guests to relax and enjoy them yourselves. It was a celebration rather then a wedding function for us. I said to Erin what about Burgers? Once I had convinced her, it was matter of making sure we had the best burgers in town. And, who’s burgers are better than a Franks Beef Burger? No one. Luckily we have a good friendship with Paul, Billy and Ray from Marco Paulo and Ray’s kitchen, and they agreed to it. As far as we know, our guests loved them. To this day, we still have people complimenting the catering at our wedding and that’s massive credit to Paul, Billy and Ray.
HOORAY: We love the idea of an the Ice-cream bar – fill us in a little more here too and please share where you got your amazing sign from?
ERIN: We LOVE Ice cream, and this desert table idea was perfectly in line with the vibe we wanted to create. Everyone was able to pick and mix. Paulie arranged the ice-cream through SCOOP, situated at the litchi orchard in salt rock, it was a big hit. My Mom and I chose all the toppings and purchased them. Em had the sign cut for us.
HOORAY: Your favourite moment during your reception/speeches.
GUY: Where do we even begin? The Reception was awesome. Our MC, Dave Cameron, was an absolute gem. He was the perfect MC. The speeches were all brilliant and had the guests laughing and crying at times. Dave being the type of person he is, surprised myself and Erin with a “couples game” in front of all of our guests. Basically, the bride and groom sit back to back. We take off our shoes, and hand one of our shoes over to the partner. So we each sitting there with each of our shoes in our hands. Dave then proceeded to ask us questions about our relationship, and depending on what the answer was, we would have to raise the shoe pertaining to the person. It was an absolute hit with the guests and it really just caused everyone to cry with laughter.
HOORAY: What song did you choose for your first dance?
ERIN: An Accoustic version of Beyonce’s XO sung by the kickstands. Guy chose the song, it was a complete surprise to me, as was the song I chose to walk down the aisle a surprise to him.
HOORAY: Your “Polaroid Line” super cute! Did your guests participate as well as you thought and do you have some crazy memories? Where are they all stored now?
ERIN: This was my beautiful mother’s idea, she arrived from Australia with a Polaroid camera and the rest is history. I think the guest’s participation surpassed our expectation. We ran out of Polaroid cartrridges. All the polaroids are with us at home, and once we have settled in Aus, I’m sure we will have them put up in the house.
HOORAY: Your live entertainment looks like one of our all time favourites – The Kickstands? How long did they perform for? Were they a hit?
ERIN: Apart from The Kickstands, we had a young Musician, Tyler D – who we highly recommend – play before the ceremony while guests were arriving. Once the ceremony began, Tyler set up at the Canape section and played through the afternoon. This guy is super talented and our guests were blown away. The Kickstands came in just before the main meal was served and they set up. They played for our first dance and then probably spent about another hour and half / two hours playing. They got the dancing going and our dance floor was packed. They have got to be one of the most talented bands and were outstanding. As always, they were a top hit. Just super awesome. Fortunately, when the Kickstands left, we had DJ Vivian to carry on.. we have been to a few weddings and functions where he has played and we don’t think there is anyone better. Our dance floor was never empty.
HOORAY: How long did you stay and party with your guests?
ERIN: We were the last to leave, we stayed till everyone had left. I think we even tried to convince Sarah and Giselle from Camp Orchards to please let us carry on longer. When we arrived at the main house, we found my entire family sitting in the lounge drinking coffee and eating ham sandwiches. Many of my family had travelled from far to be there so only after a full post-mortem of the day, did we eventually crawl up to bed.
The post Erin & Guy | A glamorous tulip affair appeared first on Hooray Weddings.