Peter & Alicia Breedt

Venue: Homestead & Conservatory

Guests: 120

Photographer: Patrick Furter

2010-03-26

Once in a lifetime...

By Alicia Breedt

Peter and I met at my friends wedding on the 19th May 2007. He had accompanied a friend of the brides to the wedding. I had been brave and attended the wedding by myself, not expecting to meet the love of my life. I hadn’t paid much interest to him, seeing that he was there with someone else, but towards the end of the night, he walked up to me and the first words out of his mouth were “you’re absolutely gorgeous …” of course, I was taken aback.

We only spoke a few words and then he asked me for his number, but having just received his phone and not really knowing how it worked, he took a little too long punching in the numbers and within seconds, his not too impressed date soon whisked him away from the wedding. Later that night his friend asked me for my number to pass on to Peter.

Peter sms’d me on the Monday and we spoke for about two weeks before I agreed to go on a date with him. I was very reluctant to go due to the age gap and also that it would be to one of his friend’s birthday parties, but thanks to my sister who urged me to go, I have never looked back.

Peter proposed on Valentine’s Day in 2009. We always went away for special occasions, so I thought nothing of it when he took me away to Dullstroom for Valentines Day. The Saturday night we went for dinner in the dining room and in the middle of the main course, the waiter brought along two Kinder Joy eggs on her tray. I took one and passed one to Peter thinking it was dessert. I love Kinder Joy eggs and though that it’s probably part of the resort’s Valentine’s Day festivities. Then Peter said that I should open it. I opened it in half and opened the leaflet that holds the toys to see what toy I got, and there was an engagement ring. He had gone to so much trouble - opened the flaps, removed the toys and inserted my ring and lastly super-glued the egg back together ….so sweet. I was so shocked. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, but didn’t expect a proposal at all.

When I looked up he stood up and kneeled down next to me and proposed. I immediately said yes. Only then did I have a look at the ring, and luckily before I could say anything about it, he explained to me that he didn’t want to buy me a ring that I wouldn’t like, so he bought me a diamond and had it set in a silver ring therefore allowing us to design my ring together.

I finally got my ring on my birthday on the 20th April. Once again, he surprised me with it at a birthday dinner with friends.

Planning began immediately. We went to about 5 venues and none of them had what we were looking for (not that we knew what that was). Peter went away for a weekend and my mom came to visit and we decided to drive to a few venues on the Saturday morning. We drove passed Oakfield Farm and my mom convinced me to stop there. It was about 9am in the morning and Oakfield was still closed, but there were staff that showed us around and I immediately fell in love with the gardens. I phoned Peter and told him that I had found our venue. We went to have a look later in the week and put down a “date deposit.”

It was very difficult to decide what venue to choose as I loved the Summerhouse and Conservatory and he wanted the wine cellar in the Homestead. I gave in and today I am so thankful that we went with the Homestead and Conservatory.

I wanted a simple, classy wedding and it was definitely what I got. Our wedding day was perfect. Nothing went wrong and all the guests had a blast. I was so relaxed throughout the day. Our opening dance was a French song called “Life in Pink” by Edith Pilaf. As a surprise Peter had the French words as well as the English translation printed on a Pink canvas and displayed at our venue for our guests to see. Next to it he placed a blank canvas for all our guests to sign instead of a guest book. It really was a special touch. We are planning on hanging the two canvases along with a third canvas with a picture of us next to each other, along our stairway for all to see.

We gave the men lotto tickets and the ladies Pashmina’s as we knew that it would get a little chilly later on. The ladies loved the idea and most of them wore them throughout the night. I finally managed to get the last guests home at 01h30, but not without them buying bottles of alcohol to celebrate at the guesthouse later. All I wanted to do was enjoy our lovely honeymoon suite. We sat on the bed for about an hour opening gifts and talking about the days events. It was sad to leave our beautiful suite early the next morning, but we had breakfast with our family before heading to the airport. We couldn’t get away from breakfast and nearly missed our flights …. It really was a memorable time.

I wouldn’t change anything about our day. Everything was exactly how I wanted and expected it to be. Once in a lifetime …..

Thank you so much to Alana, AJ, Doreen and Mike. Without you our day would not have been the same.