Hello wedding lovers!  I’ve got such an unusual wedding to share with you today!  Henriette & Johann brought some African style and sunshine to the UK for their intimate wedding in a Safari Park, complete with rhino couple portraits and sweet touches of home!  I love their bold blue & yellow peacock-inspired colour palette which perfectly brightened up their day, especially with their bright yellow matching Converse and Henriette’s gorgeous gold & blue eye-makeup.  This couple weren’t afraid to do things a little differently, infact, non-traditional was their wedding planning by-word, pulling off a unique, stylish and above all fun celebration!  Their day was photographed by Tamryn Henn, a talented South African living in the UK, who perfectly understood their African influences and captured the atmosphere & details so beautifully.

We are both from South-Africa, but met in London through mutual best friends. He proposed to me on Valentine’s Day on a small Beach in South Africa in 2010 called Infanta Nature Reserve. Johan secretly placed a message in a bottle on the beach with the help of his family and we strolled down to watch the romantic sunset, and there it was… a message in a bottle, asking me to be his future wife!  His family was hiding behind some rocks with the champagne in hand… it was amazing!

We got married at Port Lympne Safari Park in Kent. The atmosphere is the closest to home (South Africa) we could find, and it is absolutely stunning. The gardens, venue and scenery is to die for! We treated our guests for an overnight safari experience and watched the wild animals pass our luxury safari tents early the next morning!

My dress was from the designer Rosetta Nicolini and it made me feel like a Princess. I decided to wear yellow sneakers because I wanted to keep some of my adventurous personality, and it fitted in with my beautiful sunflowers. I like being different, and I hate wearing heels.  I had a lot of peacock feathers in my theme (in my bouquet and in some of the favours and at reception) so the bridesmaids dresses were also fitting in to my peacock theme. I also wore a peacock feather headpiece to complete the look. I am lucky to have Gemma Fee (a professional make up artist) in my group of friends, and she agreed to do my hair and make up as a wedding gift.  She is absolutely gifted. We had a trial run before with my colour scheme (yellow, orange and teal) and I loved the way she incorporated the colours of the peacock on my eyes.

We found lots of inspiration on Pinterest, and I loved The Pretty Blog, Rock & Roll Bride and b.loved!  Inspiration and ideas were flowing from my bridesmaids (Shirley Gilks-Oosthuysen – who is also a photographer and gifted artist) and one of my best friends who I came with to the UK to explore the greener grass.  I also had a lot of African inspiration and my cultural background.

I planned all the décor myself, and also made 90% of the decor with help of my family, friends and husband. We created our own flower jars, own favours, reception décor, signs, etc. I wanted to have a personal touch in everything, seeing that it was a very intimate and special day with our closest family and friends. There were late hours and nights with my mother and mother in law doing all DIY projects ourselves (all the stationery, and décor, jars etc was handmade by myself) and my Husband, Johan as well as some of my friends who helped for long hours on the day to set up a perfect day.  I had an abundance of sunflowers with blue delphinium, crepsidia, and wheat, all hand-finished with natural hessian to tie our colour scheme together.  They were arranged by Karen from Wild For Flowers, a lovely little flower shop in Folkestone, Kent. She is the most calm and friendly person! She knew exactly what I wanted and made my day perfect with her touch.

My photographer was the lovely and talented Tamryn Henn. I was introduced to her by my bridesmaid, Shirley, who is also in the photography industry. She was also from South Africa, which meant she knew exactly what I wanted to create, and how I wanted my photos to capture the little special moments of the day.

favourite moment

I was the first bride to have a live animal encounter with a 40 year old female Rhino at the venue with my new husband. This was very special!!

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Suppliers Photographer: Tamryn Henn from iamtamryn Photography // Dress: Rosetta Nicolini from the Provonias Collection // Accessories: Hairpiece bought from Etsy.com //  Shoes: DEICHMANN // Bridesmaids dresses: Ever Pretty // Groomswear: Marks and Spencer // Florist: Wild for Flowers // Cake: Kuppycakes // Stationery: all handmade by us // Hair & Makeup: Gemma Fee // Venue & Catering : Port Lympne Safari Park  // Music: created our own playlist for the wedding with all of our favourite songs