If anything can be said of this wedding it's that it was a celebration of love, friendship and family in a fun and festive atmosphere. Sabrina glowed with bridal grace and Rohland was a ever gracious and dignified groom. The day ended up being a very rainy one, but nothing could dampen this lovely couple's day. Shot by the talented Carmen Roberts and hosted in the beautiful de Charmoy Estate, this wedding is one to remember.
THE
BASICS:
Full
names of the bride and groom: Rohland Lablache de Charmoy and Sabrina Lablache
de Charmoy
Date
and year of your wedding: 11 May 2013
Colour
and/or Theme: Rustic Vintage
So what's your love story?
Roh
and I met during varsity through a mutual friend. After University, Roh took a job in JHB. I
didn’t see much of him during my final year.
He didn’t enjoy what he was doing in JHB so he resigned and moved back
to Durbs to start his business, Clyral. He slotted right back into my social circle
and we began to see much more of each other. Our friendship progressed, we had
a lot of fun but I didn’t think of Roh anything more than a really good friend.
From Roh’s perspective, things were a bit different ;) One night he got in
touch and asked me if I wanted to do dinner. I was game however I didn’t think it would
just be the two of us! I proceeded to invite the rest of our social group- not
realising this was supposed to be a ‘romantic’ dinner for two. I arrived an hour late with 4 friends!
Suffice to say, Roh took that as a sign that things weren’t meant to be. However, he conjured up the courage a few
weeks later to broach the topic with me directly. I didn’t want to risk losing him as a friend
and thought it would be best to stay friends. I didn’t see much of Roh the next
few weeks and when I did things weren’t the same. I began to give the prospect more thought and
it seemed like I was losing him as a friend anyway, so I took the plunge. The
rest, as they say, is history :)
How did he propose?
Roh
was quite sneaky because he organised a last minute weekend away to recuperate
after a stressful few weeks at work. I knew what was going on at work, so I
thought nothing of it. We started looking at places together, and we even
looked at some self-catering places in the berg where we could go with friends
(Roh was playing me!). On the Monday
before the so called weekend away, he got in touch to say that he had booked
for us to go to Leopard Mountain for the weekend. He’d heard it was an awesome
venue and that it wasn’t that far away. When the Friday arrived it was pouring
with rain, Roh hadn’t done his homework very well and it took us over 3 and a
half hours to get there! We phoned ahead
to say we wouldn’t make it on time for dinner. When we finally arrived our
guide told us that we had a romantic candlelight dinner for two scheduled in
their secluded dining area which included a private campfire. To be honest,
this made me a little suspicious for the first time, however, NOTHING happened!
I was later told that it was intentional to throw me if I had had any suspicion
of anything happening ;) We had an awesome dinner and got to bed exhausted
after the week and stressful drive in the bad weather. The next morning we woke up and Roh had
booked for us to check out the Elephant Experience at Bayete Zulu which was incredible! We got back to a
packed picnic lunch and settled down for an afternoon nap. When we woke up, we showered and got ready
for dinner. Roh opened a bottle of red
wine and we sat out on our veranda (we had an incredible view). After chatting
for a bit, he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him! Happiest
moment ever!!
What was the best lesson your learnt through planning your wedding?
You
can’t always please everyone, just enjoy the planning and being in the
moment. It is the most exciting time!
Any tips for brides to be?
Enjoy!
Soak up all the excitement.
How did you decide on the colour or theme of your wedding?
Pinterest
was a lifesaver - I got most of my ideas from there! Just chatting with family and
friends helped me develop my ideas further and adapt them to our venue.
How
involved was your husband or family in the wedding planning?
My
family was very involved. My mom was so
supportive with all of my ideas and we just seemed to be on the same page so we
started planning straight away. Roh’s
mom was incredible, she helped tremendously and was also so supportive and on
board with my ideas and what I wanted. With
it being at my in-laws venue, this meant that both families were very involved
in the décor and planning. Rohland was
also quite involved. I always ran things
by him, and we then worked on what we both liked and where we differed. But, it was more the moms that were
involved! My best friend, Jordan’s mom,
was also a HUGE help with all of the décor and table runners. She helped us with the shopping of material
and we went to her house to do the cutting etc.!
What
would you change about your wedding day if you could?
I
would not change anything, not even the pouring rain! It was just perfect and
the mud around the bottom of my dress is going to be a talking point for years
to come J We were so lucky
with our photos, the weather cleared for a brief moment so we could get a few
shots in. The talk up until that point was to have the photos done the next
week!
Were
there any elements of your wedding that you did yourself?
Yes,
we bought all the hessian and lace and cut it ourselves. We also bought a lot of bunting from In Good Company, which we then hung up ourselves. My father-in-law got someone to make the
wooden signs for me with various quotes inscribed (these were placed
strategically around the venue) and the blackboard place mats.
Did
anything unexpected or extra special happen on your wedding day that surprised
you and your husband? (Or just you!)
Yes!
As I said previously, it was pouring with rain and we were supposed to
have all our drinks and canapés in the garden!
Our wedding was also in a marquee so we were planning on no rain- after
all – it was May! My poor dad was up all
night stressing about the weather! He
kept asking my mom what we were going to do! I however, was so excited that the rain did not phase me. It was unbelievable what came over me -
nothing could dampen my spirits. I was
however, surprised to hear when we did arrive at the reception, that my poor
husband, groomsmen, father-in-law and
uncle were busy all morning trying to pump water out of the ground as it was
saturated where the main table was. The
groomsmen were absolute life-savers, they bought green
felt, which they then put down under the main table to compensate for the muddy
ground! The weather drama was averted but we had another surprise in store.
Thirty seconds into Roh’s speech, his uncle passed out right in front of
everyone. The speech had to be aborted while everyone attended to him. He was
put on a stretcher and rushed to hospital. Thankfully we received news soon
after that he was fine and that it was related to his diabetes. The wedding
celebrations resumed, but that could have turned out very differently!
What
was your wedding song?
Our
wedding song was a cover of ‘Just the way you are’ by Boyce Avenue. Hear the song here.
What
was the flavour of your cake?
We had
a vanilla and chocolate tiered cake.
Did
you go on Honeymoon? And if so, where did you go?
We
went on honeymoon to the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
Service Providers
Coordinator: Cathy
Lablache de Charmoy
Dress
(including bridesmaids dresses): Brides dress was from Bridal Manor in
Pretoria and Corinne Horn made
the bridesmaids dresses.
Labels: Durban, realweddings, sabrina+rohland, weddings
