The Bride Wore Brandon Maxwell for Her South African Marriage ceremony

“We decided to host an array of events to allow everyone to experience the best of Cape Town and Stellenbosch. To welcome all of our guests to Stellenbosch, we hosted a welcome garden party at the most surreal Dylan Lewis Sculpture Garden.”

“I wore the Monique Lhuillier Petal dress from their F/W 22 bridal collection and paired it with transparent Amina Muaddi mules. From the moment I saw their campaign, I knew I had to have the dress! I typically lean more toward neutral dressing, but I loved the shade of pink and how the pattern was hydrangeas—perfect for a garden party. I also loved how the campaign styled the model with a bow in her hair, so during alterations, we took a piece off of the train and made it into a ribbon.”

“Barry, myself, and my parents are such fans of Dylan Lewis, so having his garden as one of our locations was a dream.”

“My grandma is 95 years worn, so it used to be in reality particular for her so that you could build our wedding ceremony.”

“Dylan Lewis spent years forming this garden—from every hill and every curvature to the exact locations his sculptures were placed. He did it for a reason, and it shows. The sculpture garden is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it was so special to host everyone there.”

The meals served on the welcome celebration.

“I brought about 100 hats from my brand, Cafe Society—some custom for the wedding and others from my current line—as a gift for the guests upon arrival at the garden. The hats were a hit, and every single one was taken. I eventually managed to snag one for myself at the end!”

“We hosted our rehearsal dinner in a different part of the garden and ended the night with dinner in an old water reservoir.”

“Our rehearsal dinner began with Barry and I surprising our families with a traditional wedding blessing.”

“Due to the weather, we decided at the last minute to change our rehearsal dinner from being outside in the garden [to] inside the water reservoir, and I am so glad we did. It set the mood of the evening, and the yellow flowers and candles lit up the inside and made for a very intimate and warm setting. The evening was filled with delicious Peruvian food, speeches, and my favorite dessert, a pavlova, which Barry and I were able to put the finishing touches on.”

“For the wedding blessing and rehearsal dinner, I wore my dream Bernadette gown with ivory patent BY FAR sandals and Agmes earrings. I love to match my looks to the settings, and this yellow gown was the perfect pairing for the yellow flowers I chose for the dinner.”

“My wedding dress was custom-made by Brandon Maxwell. It was a true ‘pinch me,’ full-circle moment having Brandon Maxwell and his team design my dress. When I worked at KCD, I fell in love with Brandon and his brand and said to myself, ‘One day when I get married, I would love for Brandon to design my dress.’ A few years later, I was standing in his atelier working with his team to create my gown.”

“[I] wore a Lunya robe during hair and makeup. I also wore slippers by Leset and a pearl B necklace by Timeless Pearly for Barry. For my makeup, I worked with Renee De Wit to create a natural glam. I wanted to keep my makeup very neutral to compliment my dress. For my hair, I worked with Marios who is a local hairstylist in Cape Town. Without doing a hair trial, Marios understood my vision for a classic low bun for the ceremony and vintage waves for the after-party.”

“The morning of the wedding, I got ready with my mom; my two sisters, who were my maids of honor; my sister-in-law, who was my bridesmaid; and my oldest girlfriend. Having a small group on the day made it so special and stress-free.”

“The first step of designing my gown was coming up with the inspiration behind my look. I knew I wanted something classic, a fitted drop waist, and a long train. When I was in the atelier trying on some of their current and past pieces to see different silhouettes on my body, I immediately fell in love with a ballgown from their current collection. From the fabric to the silhouette, the gown was perfect and became our main inspiration and starting point.”

“From the original gown, we made changes to the neckline [and] added thick modern straps, a low back, and an even longer train. At one of the last fittings, Brandon had the idea of adding the delicate ribbon to help cinch in the waist and give the dress a more delicate feel—this became my favorite detail of the dress. When it came down to shoes, I needed something with height, as Barry is a foot taller than me. Brandon said that he believes all brides should wear a closed-toe shoe, so I found the perfect Aquazurra satin platform pumps.

“When it got here right down to my jewellery, I sought after to conserve it quite simple and blank to permit the get dressed to in reality be the primary point of interest. My mother’s diamond earrings become my ‘one thing borrowed’ for the moment.“

“After Barry and I were engaged, my parents and I traveled to Cape Town to meet our wedding planner, Anne Mann, and scout locations. Barry and I did a lot of research for locations in the Winelands, Stellenbosch, and Franschhoek (about an hour from Cape Town), so we made sure to see the ones Anne thought were fitting for us and our wedding size as well as a few she was familiar with. 

“For our wedding ceremony venue, we needed the environment to talk for itself. Stellenbosch is so gorgeous, and we needed to turn it off to our visitors. It used to be all concerning the location for us, so after we got here around the Manor Area at Quoin Rock vineyard, we knew it used to be our venue. The fields and disciplines have been impeccable, the view allowed you to peer all of the approach to Desk Mountain and we have been surrounded by means of the gorgeous mountains, and the Cape Dutch–genre Manor Area used to be precisely what we have been on the lookout for.”

The groom and bride arriving for the rite.

“Barry and I had a friend as our celebrant, and he made the ceremony so lighthearted and fun. At one point during the ceremony, Barry mixed up a few words, and when it came to my turn to repeat after our celebrant, I was laughing so incredibly hard that I could barely speak. Everyone was laughing, and it truly made for an unforgettable experience.”

WWW Weddings tip: “Let your officiant know beforehand to step out of the way during your kiss.”

WWW Weddings tip: “Take 15 minutes out of your wedding day (and each event you may have before/after) and go somewhere with your partner. A few people told Barry and I this tip, and it was so worth it! Weddings can be overwhelming, so those 10 to 15 minutes away from the crowd allowed us to have a moment without any distractions and look over at everyone having a great time at an event you spent so much time organizing. I now tell this tip to every couple getting married!”

The bride dressed in a customized Brandon Maxwell wedding ceremony get dressed.

“Our wedding ceremony invites have been designed and created by means of Pale Press London. I was adamant on finding a designer that created unique yet simplistic invitations, and Pale Press London creates beautiful bespoke stationery. Ash, the owner, was so helpful and made sure our vision was seen and created. As we wanted our invitations to match our neutral wedding aesthetic, we moved forward with a letterpress design for the invite and a vellum, slightly transparent, details card.”

WWW Weddings tip: “No cell phones during the ceremony! It’s always so sad to see everyone’s cell phones in your photos, and we really wanted our guests to be present for the entire ceremony. Our officiant kindly asked everyone to put away their cell phones before the ceremony, and everyone understood. Moments later, a choir came singing down the aisle and set the tone for the ceremony.”

A choir appearing on the wedding ceremony rite.

“Barry wore a black Gucci tuxedo for our wedding. We were in Paris in December three months before our wedding and decided to pop into Gucci, as Barry had found a suit online that he liked. We arrived, and the suits they had in stock were either not his style or his size. Just our luck, our retail associate found one suit in his size that was said to be completely out of stock! We bought it on the spot and had it tailored in New York. It was a beautiful black tuxedo with blue silk inside, and he paired it with a matching Gucci bow tie that had the gold logo on the corner (my dad wore one to match) and some Gucci cuff links that my dad gifted Barry on the day of the wedding.”

“For our reception, we wanted a party. It was the first and probably only time that we would be having our friends and family from around the world in one place, and we just wanted to have fun!”

“Barry and I really wanted the location to speak for itself. We didn’t want to cover it in florals.”

“Our vision for the dinner definitely had my creative team and I up for the challenge. Due to the unpredictable weather that Cape Town was experiencing, we opted for a marquee setup. I was originally planning for the dinner to be placed in the open garden with the mountains behind, but the safest option was to go with a marquee, which was fit perfectly for the garden and allowed guests to still see the scenery from every angle. For the inside of the marquee, I wanted to do something different rather than a floral structure or lights hanging from the ceiling. I brought up the idea of having fabric hanging everywhere to my wedding planner, Anne Mann, interior stylist Jana Gouws, and florist Heike Hayward, and they were up for the challenge. Heike is one of the most creative florists I have ever met, so I knew she was going to create something amazing, which she did! I was in love with the hanging fabric element.”

“Barry concluded the dinner portion of the night and introduce our particular visitor, Bongeziwe Mabandla, an implausible South African soul singer.”

“Once the band was completing their set, I quickly changed into my second look and came out to cut the cake and throw my bouquet. Once those two moments were complete, it was time to dance.

“My 2d glance used to be customized One/Of by Patricia Voto. I used to be first offered to Patricia when I used to be on the lookout for a fashion designer for my wedding ceremony get dressed. I used to be so interested in Patricia, her emblem, and her accountable option to model that I knew she used to be easiest to manufacture my 2d glance. My eye for my 2d glance used to be one thing amusing and semi-sheer, as my wedding ceremony get dressed used to be at the conventional facet.

“My dress originally included a sheer slip underneath, but as it took away from the cute lace bloomers Patricia had created for me to wear underneath, we decided to cut out the slip and go full sheer. It was a bold move for both of us, but we knew it was right. I had so much fun in my second look and couldn’t have dreamed of wearing something else!”

“We started the dancing (after the father-daughter dance and first dance) with a band followed by two different DJs. We were on the dance floor until 3 a.m., and everyone had the best time. We also had two different tequila fountains on deck, and they were the stars of the bar!” 

WWW Weddings tip: “Be open with your photographers/videographers about what you expect and create a shot list so you make sure you get all the photos you are looking for.”

“On the Sunday after the wedding, we hosted a recovery party, which was held at a beautiful private estate in Stellenbosch. It was the perfect setting for everyone to wind down from the celebrations.”

“I wore a swimsuit by Belle The Label, Dress by SIR, and a custom Cafe Society bucket hat.”

“We couldn’t let our guests go home without a proper South Africa braai so we had lamb on a spit, braai broodjies, boerewors—you name it. We swam, we ate, we relaxed.”