Caroline & Shaun : Palmiet Valley Estate

Caroline and Shaun were married at the beautiful Palmiet Valley Estate in Paarl at the end of November 2014. Both Caroline and Shaun live in Scotland so naturally there is a story as to what brought them to South Africa for their wedding.

Carolin met Shaun 7 years ago. They were first flirty friends but after their first date they both knew they were meant to be together. Shaun is South African, although he has lived in Scotland for most of his life. Shaun introduced Caroline to South Africa and every year they would holiday here travelling all over the country. In 2012 Shaun returned to South African to work on his parents farm for a couple of years to help them to get it established. Caroline continued to visit and on their 5 year anniversary Shaun proposed.

Caroline says she always knew she didn't want to get married in Scotland. As most of the venues are either hotels or castle type places she dreamed of something more. They decided that Cape Town would be the place that they said "I do" and after visiting several vineyard style venues they fell in love with Palmiet as it had everything they were looking for - gorgeous moutains, vineyards, stunning gardens, Cape Dutch houses and the romantic cellar!

I met the lovely couple fleetingly whilst they were in South Africa. Caroline had already put her vision together. My brief was that she wanted soft pink and white flowers arranged in bird cages she had already purchased. She loves Protea's and really wanted to include them in her centrepiece flower arrangements as well as in her bouquet. Everything else would have a country feel, relaxed whilst still elegant. We managed to use King Protea's in all the arrangements as well as brunia and indiginous foliage together with lisianthus, roses and pink peonies. For the boutonnieres we used Sea Holly as it is thistle like so fittingly a slightly Scottish flavour.

Caroline says that planning everything from abroad had its challenges and she said that the most difficult part was not being able to nip to the venue over the weekend to chat and plan where she wanted everything. She had to rely on her memory and photos!! Communicating with suppliers was sometimes frustrating as she found they did not get back to her straight away, sometimes for a couple of weeks (I am sad to hear this as keeping contact via e-mail is so easy. All it takes is, I have received your e-mail and will get back to you shortly).

By nature Caroline is an organiser so she kept herself cheered by creating mood boards to keep everything on track. Whilst she loved doing everything she feels that in retrospect it may have been better to have worked with a wedding planner.

Caroline, I think you did a great job and it must have been rewarding to see the months of work coming together so successfully. It was easy working with you as you made everything so easy with all your pictures and information. I loved the venue and would highly recommend Palmiet to future clients. The staff were so friendly and helpful. I fell in love with the little chapel. It is so quaint and has a great atmostphere.

We loved doing your flowers. I hadn't worked with Proteas for quite some time so really enjoyed myself doing every single arrangement. Thank you for putting your trust in Bright and Beautiful, Flowers & Table Decor.

Caroline kept her guests entertained whilst having pre-dinner drinks with a slush machine and the caricature artist Martinus van Tee. The photographs by Samantha Jackson capture the magnificent scenery that surrounds Palmiet.

(a couple of photos are "own" pics).