Rural Farm Wedding With Crisp White Accents & Stunning Protea: Jana & Conrad

Today’s gorgeous wedding is a heady mix of rustic rural farm charm and clean, crisp, organic styling with beautiful antique silverware.

A relaxed, family affair – Conrad & Jana tied the knot on their beautiful family farm just outside Corneila in South Africa. Such a gorgeous day and sweet, sweet couple!

Words by Jana. Images by GingerAle Photography.

We have always wanted to get married on the farm, it’s one of our favourite places in the world. We also wanted to get married at a venue no one else could get married at – we really wanted our wedding to be unique.

This was the first dress I tried on, and I knew it was the right one. It was so elegant and understated. It did not have a heavy skirt or boning and it was light and airy – perfect for the setting and the weather.

My dad, Johan walked me down the aisle to ‘Tear Drop’ by Massive Attack.

Conrad and I went to Maputo in November 2013 for his birthday. We stayed at the beautiful Polana Serena Hotel, and even though I thought it was a bit elaborate I just thought Conrad wanted to spoil himself for his birthday.

On his birthday, he booked a table at the hotel’s restaurant, and that’s where I started to get suspicious. We were the only people in the restaurant.

Conrad was very nervous and kept disappearing and I was sure the waiters were giving me funny looks. Before I knew it, he was down on one knee. Obviously, I said yes.

GingerAle Photography were our wedding photographers – I am so happy that we used them. The photos are amazing and they are just the nicest people.

My mother and my aunt did the flowers. Proteas and fynbos are my favourite flowers and were perfect with the white linen and antique silverware.

Conrad’s description of the day summarises the look we were going for: Crisp white linen, lined with pitted silver and miscellaneous artifacts set on a rural farm.

For the women, my mom and I made vanilla extract and gave each woman a bottle of vanilla extract as wedding favours. For the men, Conrad got our logo printed onto beer glasses.

My mom sourced all the antique silverware and tea sets she could find (from friends, family and local antique shops).

I really wanted a simplistic, uncluttered and clean ‘white’ look, so we went with layered white tablecloths, white bunting (with our logo transferred through silkscreening) and not much else.

The farm itself is so beautiful in December, it was not necessary to do too much to it.

Our friend, Tim Burnz, was the musician and we asked a friend of a friend to DJ.

My mom, Conrad’s mom and all the aunts did the catering. We wanted a down-to-earth and personal wedding, and we have great cooks in our families.

What was you most memorable moment of the day?

It has always been our dream to get married on the farm. Yes, there are a million mosquitoes, and a very strong possibility of rain in December, but we were determined that it had to be there.

At some point during the wedding reception, Conrad and I walked away from the crowd to get a full view of our wedding. We turned around and looked at the chapel, the farmhouse and the tent draped with fairy lights and ivy and we were blown away with how perfect it all was.

Everything looked beautiful and even though it had been raining every day in the week before the wedding and it was overcast the whole day, not a single drop of rain fell during our wedding.

If you could impart any words of wisdom to a future brides planning their wedding day, what would they be?

Don’t lose track of what is important. It is not a competition – it is your wedding day and it should be a reflection of the two of you as a couple.

Some things will go wrong, and even though you can plan as much as you can beforehand, just go with it on the day – you are probably the only one who will notice.

wedding credits / photographer: gingerale photography / wedding venue: family farm / brides dress: lunar life / grooms suit: trenery / brides shoes: lunar life / bridesmaid dresses: poetry / bridesmaid shoes: their own / hair & makeup: salon carine / florist: mother & aunt / wedding cake: mother & aunt / catering: mother & aunt

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