Tag: Tradition

5 Articles

Laughing Chefs August 13, 2018

Themed weddings: Star-studded

Theme: Star-studded

Inspiration: Celestial

Trend: Shimmer and shine, crystals, dark rich colours

Colour: Shades of blue

Venue: Planetarium, or somewhere outside under the night sky

Dress: Corset-style with a ballerina skirt. Coloured shoes!

Groom: Dark suit

Flowers: berries, lilies, hydrangeas, baby’s breath, gip

Decor: lights – fairy lights, bulb lights, copper wire lights, oh and candles

Cake: naked cake with berries, fresh fruit, meringue and other toppings

Favours: Matches, or sparkles

Entertainment: star-watching, sparkles, a firework display

Take inspiration from the night skies with a wedding any star would be comfortable at. Lots of lights, candles, and heavy textures. Long dark tablecloths or wooden tables with velvet runners, floral arrangements that dwarf the table, or that hang from the ceiling. Candles on the floor and surrounding the dance floor. Food bars and interactive stations, with a dessert buffet that includes s’mores and a chocolate fountain. Opulence and over-the-top is key!

Laughing Chefs August 06, 2018

Themed weddings: Wonderland weddings

Theme: Wonderland

Inspiration: Alice in Wonderland

Trend: Pop of colour, balloons, relaxed and fun

Colour: mint green, rose pink, burnt orange

Venue: anywhere!

Dress: romantic and flirty

Groom: informal suit

Flowers: “veld” flowers, roses, baby’s breath, lisianthus, ranunculus, anemones

Decor: paper flowers, assorted glass vases with single stem flowers

Cake: romantic yet fun, go for an inventive flavour like naartjie with passion fruit buttercream, pecan praline with mocha ganache, etc.

Favours: macarons, small bags filled with biscuits, adorable sugar cookies. A mini pie or tart!

Entertainment: magician, caricaturist, or a sketch artist

Nail this ever popular theme by incorporating fun and unique elements. From paper flowers and home-made confetti to different runners on each table, use your imagination and start dreaming! For the food, think interactive starters bar with an assortment of canapes and salads, and for dessert a pie station with different kinds of pies stacked on top of each other. Designing a personalised cocktail specially for the night is another fun idea to make sure your guests see you and your partner in every detail. play croquet and lawn games during the couple shoot and remember this is the perfect theme to use should you wish to make your four-legged friend part of your special day.

Laughing Chefs June 26, 2018

Themed weddings: Whimsical wedding

Theme: Whimsical wedding

Inspiration: Airy, breathy, windy beauty

Trend: Single stem flowers in clusters of vases, feathers, relaxed formal, green installations or runners

Colour: Shades of blue

Venue: family home, library, botanical gardens, clubhouse

Dress: understated elegance, textural details such as a woollen shawl, ballerina skirt

Groom: Navy suit

Flowers: airy and breathy. White with pops of colour. Baby’s breath, gip, daisies, asters, lilies and carnations.

Decor: clusters of vases with single stems in, interesting tablecloths with texture, glass and feather elements

Cake: Naked cake with chocolate drip, lots of fresh flowers

Favours: bags of meringues or angel kisses

Entertainment: lawn games to start the day with, and a champagne bar throughout the night

Whimsical. Light, fresh, and fun. Not to be confused with rustic, informal or simplistic. The look that you are going for is coordinated elegance, a streamlined effect with pops of blue, grey, and dirty pink (or whichever other accent colour you choose). Think lace and knitted runners, soft tablecloths, sparkling glass vases, lush greenery and single stems to give height to your tables. Luxurious cloth serviettes, polished wine glasses and silverware already set on the tables. The feel is of almost accidental grace, of effortless style. Guests must feel relaxed, but in no way question whether they are at a wedding or merely another get-together. Lots of champagne, plated food, and a cake with elaborate tiers and cascading fresh flowers complete the look. Cake flavours that will go down a treat include blueberry with tart lemon cream filling, caramelised toffee with raspberry jam or almond praline!

Laughing Chefs June 19, 2018

Themed weddings: Fairytale weddings

Theme: Fairytale

Inspiration: Snow white in the forest

Trend: Dark and moody, coloured candles, naked tables with a textural runner instead of a tablecloth, velvet.

Colour: Apple red, forest green, gold

Venue: Woodsy outdoor venue

Dress: White or off-white ballgowns or more classic designs, but to be really on trend go for red! Corset tops, capes and elaborate bows also play well into the theme (and are on trend).

Groom: Classic black suit

Flowers: Red, dark green, with touches of white to lift the tables a bit. Gerberas, Tupis, ranunculus, anemones, dianthus, daisies (sprays), tinted succulents, calla lilies and amaryllis. Mix it up with greens. Our go-to foliage would be penny gum, silver dollar, ferns, succulents and grasses.

Decor: Minimal with emphasis placed on candles and greenery to create that moody wood effect

Cake: Simple yet elegant. Play with the red and green, especially in the flavours! Think matcha green tea buttercream icing, gold leave and spun sugar for the dramatic.

Favours: Something edible – take the theme all the way and give candied apples! You can also include the favours as part of the late night snack – guests who leave early can take theirs with, and guests who want to stay and party can nibble on theirs together with a few other bites.

Entertainment: A jazz or blues band to create the mood

The word “fairy tale” usually conjures up images of princesses, unicorns and fairy dust. But every fairy tale has a darker side. Not necessarily the villain, but the underlying feeling of anticipation, excitement, even fear. Of course, you definitely do not want negative feelings associated with your special day, but why ignore the moody beauty that these emotions can inspire? For a slightly different take on the fairy tale theme, take inspiration from Snow White. The forest, the apple, and the eventual golden crown.

The benefit of using these rich colours include getting away with minimal decor and flowers but maximising the visual impact. Adding candles (which you can hire in at a fraction of the cost of buying new ones) will increase your wow-factor exponentially without breaking the bank. For your flowers, roses are beautiful but don’t get stuck – there are countless other red flowers that are just as beautiful, and most probably less expensive. For the greens, go for leaves and stems that have volume. This way, you use less. A bag of dehydrated moss takes you very far and can be used to bulk up arrangements, fill out foliage runners or cover oasis for more structured centrepieces.

Fairytale wedding moodboard Laughing Chefs Boersjiek themed weddings

You can go all out with the theme, incorporating it into your cake design, favours, decor pieces, etc. or merely use it as inspiration for the feel of the day – rich, moody, emotional, with touches of wonder.

Laughing Chefs February 16, 2018

Elopement

Elopement. Colloquially defined as running away to get married, usually done in secret and more often than not assumed to sprout from a forbidden relationship. The word has a very strong negative associated, so strong that you are forgiven to forget that elopement can also mean spontaneity, impulsiveness, and unbounded joy. Sometimes, a moment of love can get so big so fast that all you can do is get married, because that is the only way that you can express how much you love the other person. Of course I am implying that marriage is the only way that you can show someone how much you love them. But getting married does have its own magic, and brings a certain feeling of contentment with it. I guess that is why the instant-wedding trade in Las Vegas is booming!

But back to eloping. Elopement does not always occur on the whim, sometimes couples plan months in advance. They plan the day as they would a traditional wedding, they just don’t send invites out. If they do tell people about their plans, and even if they invite guests, it is usually a very small number compared to the more mainstream weddings. I would say less than 10 guests in total. Usually the parents, siblings, and best friends. Often, the ceremony is similar to a “normal” ceremony, the couple exchanges rings and vows and everything we have come to know as the rites of marriage, and the reception is then still held afterwards. This reception, because it is usually a very small group, can be held in someone’s home, at a restaurant, or even catered for at an intimate venue. It will all depend on the couple.

I always thought eloping was romantic. Finding someone you wanted so spend the rest of your life with, not wanting to wait months for an available date to get married on, saving all that money so that you can invite a large group of people, spending all of that money… versus eloping – deciding you want to get married, finding your nearest court building, handing in the necessary paperwork, and that is that! Saying your I Do’s and then breaking the news afterwards. You can always have a big party after the fact, where you can invite all your family and friends, to celebrate you becoming husband and wife. It can still be special, maybe even more so since you eliminate the chance of family fights, wedding debt, and other issues that seem to always arise when you are planning your wedding.

We have done our fair share of “elopements” – couples who got married in court, then celebrated with a small handful of guests afterwards. In most of the cases it was not because the family didn’t like the partner, or didn’t approve of the match, or even because they didn’t have enough money to have a big wedding. For some people the glitz and glamour, or extra work, or attention, of spending of unnecessary money is exactly that, unnecessary. They want something small, intimate, and fast. For them it is about the marriage that follows, not the wedding itself. In other cases, their situations have changed drastically and quickly, leaving them no time to plan or wait for months. They need to get married within the week, stripping them of the chance to have the big wedding.

No matter what your reasons are, everybody should be able to have the wedding day that they would like to have. If you want to get married in court, with no hoohah then please do. If you would like to have the more traditional wedding but have no time or money, then there should be an alternative to getting hitched in court by a judge. We want to offer that alternative – a wedding venue for a 1-2-3 wedding. 1 – you pick the date and time so we can arrange the person who can legally marry you, 2 – you let us know how many guests to expect so we can invoice you, 3 – after paying the invoice you merely show up. What will you get? A forest chapel beautifully decorated, a person to marry you, beautifully set tables with flowers and centre pieces, a 3 course meal, sparkling wine for your toast, a bouquet for yourself, and a boutonniere for your partner. We can arrange the photographer as well. Want a wedding cake? No problem, we can quote on that too. In and out in less than 3 hours, you arrive as a Miss and leave a Mrs! And the price? Should you be interested, or want more info, send us an email to find out more.