Louise and Bing

About the Bride

I’m 29. Bing and I have been living in Brisbane, Australia for the past 2-years now.  I work for the Brisbane City Council in Organisational Change Management.  Bing and I have always wanted to marry one another, ever since the first month we started dating.

About the Groom

Bing is 27, he lives in Brisbane, Australia and grew up here.  Bing manufactures furniture and wanted to get married because: “I found someone that was right for me, and it didn’t happen when I expected it to, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from marrying Louise”.

How did you meet?

Bing and I met on Christmas Eve 2005. I had been living in Shanghai, China for 2 months and was at a Christmas Eve party when I was introduced to Bing. He was different from anyone that I had ever met before. We spoke all evening, but eventually went our separate ways, without getting each others contact details. A week later I was walking to the gym and Bing was on his way to the supermarket when we walked past each other and stopped to chat. Bing has always referred to that chance encounter in a city of 10 million people as ‘serendipitous’. He asked for my number and asked me out on a date the following evening. A month later we were living together and 4-years later we’re married.

How long were you together before the wedding proposal?

3 years

About the Proposal

Bing and I play indoor netball on Wednesday nights and usually walk home after the games.  On this particular night we spotted a horse and carriage waiting along the road.  Bing suggested we talk to the carriage driver who offered us a ride down to the South bank parkland nearby our house.  Once we reached the parklands Bing suggested that we go on the Wheel of Brisbane (a Ferris wheel similar to the ‘London eye’).  At that time it had still not dawned on me that he was going to propose (despite the horse and carriage!) and I merely thought that he was wanting to confront his extreme fear of heights by going on the Ferris wheel.  Once we got in he became very nervous and as we reached the top, he was sitting with his head in my lap, unable to look out.  At that point he asked me if we were at the top yet, once I said that we were, he took the ring (which was in his pocket the whole time we were playing netball!) out of his pocket and said:” I’m more afraid of spending the rest of my life without you, than I am of being up here.  Will you marry me?” To which I responded:” Yes” 

How far in advance did you choose to have your wedding after the proposal? And, why?

December of that year.  We needed about a year to plan the wedding.

How did you go about the wedding planning process? Did you do it yourself? How long was the planning process? How did you find it?

As I live in Brisbane and I wanted to get married back home in South Africa, Bing and I decided to choose a wedding coordinator to coordinate the wedding for us. I looked at several coordinators' sites and spoke with a few coordinators, but in the end we went with Timeless Weddings. I chose Timeless Weddings as their style was similar to mine and in speaking with Noreen Swartz from Timeless I was confident that she understood what I wanted and was able to help me with my preparation for the big day. 

It was all a breeze.  There was no way that I would have been able to pull the whole wedding together the way Noreen did for me. I simply told her what I wanted and she provided me with options. I would then choose the option for me. Noreen made great suggestions and as someone who has never been married before, it was wonderful having someone who knew what they were doing and making sure that things were taken care of in a timely manner!

I gave Noreen a budget, which she stuck to and it made me feel a lot more comfortable knowing that she had worked with all of the providers before and that they were all reliable and professional. I would never have been able to arrange the wedding that I had with so little fuss from so far away without her.

Did you have a hen party / kitchen tea / stag night / bachelor / bachelorette party? If so, what did you do and what did you enjoy most about it?

I ended up having two bachelorette parties - one in Brisbane and one back home in Cape Town. For the Brisbane one my friends arranged a somewhat risky evening by hiring an art teacher and nude male model. My friends and I spent the evening learning how to sketch the human form. It was great fun. Afterwards we went out on the town and as the bachelorette I was required to complete a ‘scavenger hunt’ of sorts. I’m proud to say that I managed to complete all of my tasks within the prescribed timeframes.

My husband rented a house by the sea for the weekend and had 40 of his closest friends come celebrate his ‘last hoorah’. I have no idea what he got up to, and probably wouldn’t want to know!

Back home in South Africa, my sister invited several of my friends, cousins, aunts and sisters for a dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Cape Town. I got some great gifts for the honeymoon and enjoyed a particularly delicious frozen margarita!

Wedding Details

I really wanted the theme of my wedding to be an explosion of colour and to incorporate the two cultures in the wedding – East and West.  So with the design of my wedding dress I opted for a traditional style – a bone corset, long train and veil, but the top part and part of the train I used fabric with the traditional Chinese silk wedding pattern on it. Traditionally the red and white top part of my dress would be material used for the whole dress of a bride in China. The rest of my dress was the traditional western white wedding dress. I was a bit worried that the dress wouldn’t blend well and the transition from top to bottom and from skirt to train would look a bit to abrupt and not have enough cohesion. Fortunately it seemed to all work out well and I absolutely loved the dress. I also opted for a long train for the walk down the aisle, but one that could get hooked up to create a puffy skirt for the remainder of the evening. Noreen suggested that I wear red shoes to balance the look out, and I’m glad that I went with her advice, as the red shoes peeping out the bottom worked very well.

For my bridesmaids I asked them to wear traditional Chinese qipao. Noreen suggested a great seamstress in Cape Town who made the dresses for them, and as I wanted them to like the dresses I told them to pick their favourite colour for the dresses. This contributed to the explosion of colour, which was in theme with the wedding. We also decided to go with parasols for the bridesmaids, and everyone commented on how lovely the parasols looked. The actual wedding day ended up being rather warm, so the parasols served a dual purpose of keeping them cool as well!

The flower girls wore bright red tutus, with leotards and ballerina slippers. They simply loved the long tutus and played with the skirts the whole day. The also looked beautifully colourful and cheerful.

On the wedding day I arrived at Clouds in time for a light breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, while having my nails done. The day was mostly spent in the honeymoon suite (the most beautiful room that I have ever stayed in!) getting my hair and make-up done with the mothers and bridesmaids. It was a great day and a great bonding experience for all of us. We were all pampered and it was like visiting a spa for the day.

Sooner than one realised my Dad was at the door ready to collect me and walk me down the aisle. After the ceremony, we went to sign the register in the downstairs chapel and were strewn with rose petals, which the little flower girls handed out, on our way back up to join our guests for drinks. We chose summery cocktails like mohito’s and sangrias with some delicious platters of food. After a few moments of mingling with guests, we went on to take our formal wedding photos. Unfortunately, we didn’t think to check what the sun would be like at the location we had picked out for photos, which resulted in many of the group photos being a bit bright with people looking a little squint-eyed. If I had it over again, I would have taken charge and insisted that we moved the group photos into the shade so that everyone had nice smiles on their faces. The photos of Bing and I were great though and Clouds is an ideal location for photos with plenty of backdrops to choose from.

After the photos we proceeded with the rest of the evening.  We decided to break the speeches up between the starter and mains.  Which helped make it feel like there weren’t too many speeches and provided some entertainment.  The evening wasn’t overly structured and thanks to the coordinator, I just sat back and enjoyed myself.  It truly was a great evening.  The food was amazing, the cake looked amazing and everything just came together brilliantly.

Tips and / or advice for future bridal couples?

There will be things that will go wrong, no matter how much you plan for the day, the unexpected will happen. In the end, our wedding day was the least stressful part of getting married. All the unexpected things that happened in the run up to the wedding were stressful. So you’ve simply got to make sure that outside influences don’t interfere with your enjoyment of the special day.

Be aware of climate.  We were lucky that we had a bit of a breeze on the day, as it occurred to me afterwards that even though we planned to start the wedding on time to prevent our guests from getting too hot sitting out in the sun for too long, the wait could easily have been too hot without the breeze.

Double-check photo locations to avoid photos taken directly in the sun. 

Otherwise, simply relax.  Eat a good breakfast, don’t drink too much champagne before the ceremony and enjoy your wedding day.

What was the most memorable part of your wedding day?

The look on my husband’s face as I walked down the aisle.  He seemed so happy and excited about the life that we were about to begin. The whole experience was a great exercise in partnership and working together as a couple, and I’m happy to say that we walked away stronger and closer together than ever before.

Did you go on honeymoon? If so, where? And, why there?

Yes, after spending Christmas with my family in Cape Town, we flew to England where we rented a car and spent a month in Scotland and England as well as mainland Europe. I’ve never seen the mainland of Europe before so we visited Belgium, Holland, Germany and France and my husband is a whisky enthusiast, so we had a great time driving around Scotland. It was also good visiting these areas in winter, as you’re inclined to cuddle up close together in the evenings.

Related Information

•  Cape Town Weddings
•  Cape Town Real Weddings
•  Cape Town Wedding Specials
•  Cape Town Wedding Competitions
•  Cape Town Wedding Planners