Lisa and Rosco

How did you meet?

Rosco and I met after he joined the IT Dept where I was working at. A mutual colleague introduced us in passing soon thereafter. Then 2 months later he joined the team that I was working in and we started working closely together. We would chat for many many hours via RealPopUp - shhhhh… dont tell the boss! :)

About the proposal

On Saturday, 13 June 2009, Rosco took me out for an "end of semester" dinner at Pigalle's in Green Point as the previous day marked our last exam for our first semester. When the waiter first came to take our order, he insisted we order starters, mains and dessert but I told the waiter not to be ridiculous because I didn't know if I'd want dessert and shoo'd him away.

Rosco ate his dinner very fast while I enjoyed every savouring bite of my ostrich steak while listening to the soothing background music. After mains, Rosco called the waiter over and insisted I have dessert - he just went ahead and ordered baked cheesecake for me cos "you like baked cheesecake!", he said.

When our dessert arrived, mine was delivered on this huge silver platter covered with a huge silver dome. The waiter took the dome off and placed the platter on the table - infront of me was a piece of baked cheesecake and a silver treasure chest. Rosco opened the chest (*sparkle*), took the ring out, went on bended knee, told me that he loved me and then asked me to marry him! I proceeded with plenty of "Are you SERIOUS?!? …SERIOUSLY!?!? …oh my word! …SERIOUS?!?!". Then I said YES! We kissed *smoooooch* and I enjoyed my cheesecake while looking at my ring!

Preparation on the wedding day
 
We are both studying our BTech in IT part-time so last year after our engagement party, we approached the course head to find out the semester dates and workload for 2010. From there we pinpointed Saturday, 03 July 2010 as the perfect date …even although it was smack bang in the Soccer World Cup!

We then checked various wedding checklists on the web as we had no idea where to start! It all directed us to start with a venue. So we looked for venues near the city but with each appointment and venue we looked it, it just didn't feel right. By chance my Mom mentioned our dilemma to a friend who recommended the Simondium Country Lodge. We went the same afternoon to view it and wow! It took our breath away! It was extremely romantic…

From there the rest of the arrangements started to fall into place. Looking back we had a lot of fun arranging our wedding. There were so many choices to make and with each choice it just felt so right.  

About the Wedding

We had a traditional Catholic nuptial mass as we are both Catholic, so both our parish priests performed our nuptial mass together. That's quite unusual but not as interesting to non-Catholics I guess.

Something unique we did do was let off Chinese sky lanterns (to honour my late 90 year old half Chinese Granny, fondly known as Queeny, who passed away in March 2009). We had to apply for special use of air space in advance and was given approval on condition we call pre and post the lanterns. Guests let it off one by one so it formed a warm glow of lights in the sky - it looked absolutely magical!

With the post lantern call, the controller told us that he already had a few calls from the Paarl area saying that there were strange lights floating in the sky! LOL

We exited the reception at 22h30 via a traditional wedding arch whilst the DJ played Sister Sledge's "We are family". Our guests sang along and wished us well!

Guest Feedback

The feedback we got from our guests were that of total enjoyment and gratitude. Most of our guests are still talking about the sky lanterns at our wedding and about how beautiful the experience was. It makes all those hours of planning so well worth it.

Best Memory of the wedding

We share the same sentiments about this in that the vows were special to us because we zoned everyone else out and focused on each other, as if we were the only people there!
 
We also cannot forget the sky lanterns and our dances.

We didn't want to do a boring slow first dance (yaaaawn) so instead we had our DJ mix a slow song, then make it skip and break into a salsa track, by Gloria Estefan! When the track first skipped people started giving the DJ dirty looks, us as well (just to play along) ...but then the salsa started and we started shaking our stuff LOL …the guests then realized what was going on and started clapping and cheering us along! The salsa part was just over a minute and it was a ball!

Traditionally, the retinue and parents join in on the couple's first dance but instead we did a separate dance with them. To do this, we dragged our parents and retinue to salsa classes with us, where our instructor taught us to do a circle meringue. The dance also allows partners to change so everyone danced with everyone… with the result, I got to dance with husband, my Dad, my brother, my father-in-law and my husband's bestman. And Rosco got to dance with me, his Mom, my Mom, his sister and my friend. We messed up a little but no one knew any better! And we had an awesome time dancing!

Anything you would change if you could have the day all over again?

I wouldn't be so nervous about all those eyes on me - after all it was just our family and friends. And I would definitely not allow the day to fly by so quickly without soaking more of it up.

About the Honeymoon

We honeymooned on the Garden Route. Our first 2 nights were at Lodge on the Lake (Wilderness), then 2 nights at Bradach Manor (Knysna) followed by 3 nights at Lake Pleasant Living (Sedgefield).

During our first stay in Wilderness we were treated to a complimentary foot treatment at the lodge. We also went to the Wilderness Hydro for a couples massage package.

Whilst in Knysna we went on an Eagles Encounter tour. And at Lake Pleasant Living we enjoyed another couples massage package and splent a glorious afternoon in the heated pool overlooking the lake while it rained outside.

Anything funny/weird/bad/memorable happen while away on your honeymoon?

When we were at the Eagle Encounter tour the guide kept on having the eagles fly through the crowd and we were getting whacked in the face and on the head with a wing. And everytime this happened I would *shriek* (I don't need to be so close to the birds). Eventually the little girl infront of us forgot to watch the show and kept on staring at me in anticipation of my next *shriek* LOL

We also got sick on the last 3 days of our honeymoon with a tummy bug. Luckily the suite at Lake Pleasant living had 2 bathrooms! We thought it was the fresh oysters we ate in Knysna (we were on honeymoon the same week as the Oyster festival) but later on found out from Rosco's colleague that it was the water as she and her friends had the same experience.

But the most memorable thing to us both was the special time we spent together and the warm hospitality we were given by everyone we met. Every establishment went out of their way to make our stay extra pleasant!
     
Oh and two weeks ago, we got a R200 love letter (aka speeding fine) from the Hessequa Municipality …I guess we were a bit anxious to get to our honeymoon suite *giggle* Nonetheless, the fine went into our wedding memory box!

Related Information

•  Cape Town Weddings
•  Cape Town Real Weddings
•  Cape Town Wedding Specials
•  Cape Town Wedding Competitions
•  Cape Town Bridal Wear