Freya and Fafa's D'aria Wedding

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Like they say, love can cross borders! Today on Wedding Friends we are sharing a unique kind of wedding, the wedding of two people who could not resist their love for one another. Renee Frouws from The Famous Frouws is not only one of Wedding Friends closest friends but also a superb photographer who captures moments in her own unique style. Renee had the honor to photograph the wedding of Freya and Fafa at D'aria Winery in the Western Cape. Two different individuals, with different backgrounds and different cultures, who simply fell in love and tied the knot. Freya and Fafa are sharing their story with us:

{I Propose} - Elaborate on how the two of you met or on how the proposal went down.

I moved to Taiwan in March 2008 after living in South Africa my whole life. I had just graduated from university and wanted to broaden my horizons. I figured I'd stay for a year or two but it has been almost six now! The main reason? I met the love of my life, Freya Wang, shortly after I arrived. We were both in arelationship at the time and were only friends for the first 6 months or so. Around August 2008 our respective relationships had both ended and we started dating in September.

{Bride & Prejudice} - Express some memorable experiences you had during the planning

After being with Freya for a considerable time, I had not met her parents yet as there is a significant language barrier. Even after living in Taiwan all those years, my Mandarin is still quite atrocious! I did, ofcourse, meet Freya's parents after a while but wasn't really able to converse with them. When the time therefore came for me to ask their permission to marry Freya, I had to improvise a bit. I wrote out what I wanted to say in English. My friends and Taiwanese co-workers then helped me translate it into Chinese and read it back slowly to me. I then wrote down the sounds of the wordsphonetically and practiced reading it over and over again. It was a big hit with the in-laws when I asked their permission in my iffy Mandarin!

{My Fair Wedding} - Describe an event that you feel was unique or even funny.

The wedding was absolutely wonderful. We had only 36 of our closest friends and relatives there. We were married by my father who has been a minister in the United Reformed Church for 35 years. It was a beautiful service where we celebrated the fact that two people from vastly different backgrounds such as ourselves could end up getting married. It was a celebration of love and universal respect for one anotherthat was truly memorable. The guests all had a wonderful time with us and our photographer, Renee Frouws, did an unbelievable job of capturing all those beautiful moments.

{Don't Tell The Bride} - Reveal something that happened behind the scenes.

My father, Sakkie Potgieter, had been studying mandarin Chinese for a while. He realised that he was getting a daughter-in-law who is Chinese and such is the nature of the man that he took it on himself to start breaching the language barrier between us and the in-laws even before he met them! He surprised everyone when, at the ceremony, he spoke Chinese and told an ancient Chinese story that he later translated for the guests. It was a very touching moment and showed how two cultures can merge as longas there is mutual respect and love.