This blog posting is one of a series of ten that will describe our wedding planning and the event itself. It has been written specifically for those dear friends and family of friends who could not share the day with us... this series will be interjected by other curious and odd happenings in our lives and will always be written significantly long after the event.. enjoy!
Today is about 3 days to the year when John and I decided that we should have our wedding in South Africa. We were actually in Chicago, at a friends wedding when we decided this, not fully realising the impact on our lives (my life) for the next 11 months, such a project would create.
Well if it were not for the internet, great friends and the world's most organised bridesmaids (Nothando, Thevendrie and Eva), I don't think we could have done it. Between the decision on wedding location and actual week of wedding, I spent all of 7 days in Cape Town. The first weekend was in late January when Nothando (Notty for short) and I went to look at wedding venues. I had shortlisted 8 farms and we started early on Saturday and decided that after number 4, we settled on Vrede en Lust, a wine farm near Franschoek in the Western Cape.
After making our decision, Notty and I decided to have lunch at the restaurant in order to evaluate food. I ordered a salad and cheese plate and a bottle of wine.. the food was good, the wine crisp so we felt satisfied with our choice. Given the number of other couples who were at the farm that day, I knew I had to lock in our date as soon as possible - the weekend of Thanksgiving, which we hoped would suit all of our American friends and family.
The wedding industry, the world over (and I speak from experience), like the baby industry is not a hard sell... it is amazing how the price of a cake for a wedding is often 3x that of any other event.. its still the same cake.. so if I ever decide that I am tired of the male world of investing, it is in these two industries that I will start a business, perhaps something project management related, given how my skills have improved as a result of planning this wedding. Layer on that you are flying in from the US to plan the event and all you get to hear is the upsell.. "Madam, you should go with the Norwegian water for your guests as local bottled water is not very good! " You would be amazed to hear some of the lines I heard..
Not to mention when Sarah Jarvis and I decided to head to Nordstrom on a Saturday morning to look at wedding dresses. Dressed in our jeans and not looking at all as if we were big spenders or on a big budget, we were first told that we had to make a booking. Then through Sarah's smooth talking, the salesperson decided to let us try on a few dresses - starting price $4,000 - for a dress.. The salesperson then began contacting me on a fortnightly basis, sending me little notes and invites to events as I guess selling one wedding dress is as good as probably two months on the floor in any other department.. Sarah, she is still calling me..
Back in the US, 3 days after my first time in SA, John and I put down the first deposit on the farm. We felt that we were done for now.. All we needed to do was send out a "Save the date" and we could put our legs up and relax a bit... yeah but not for too long..
1 comment:
Ha! Don't blame me - it was that RING that got us in the door! And then when she heard the wedding was in South Africa...she thought she'd hit payday for sure!
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