Shepstone Wedding Alexander Smith
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How to Plan a Wedding in Johannesburg

ByThe Scribs & Nibs

Wilhelm and I were one of the many couples who had to cancel their weddings due to COVID. Just a month before our wedding, which was going to take place in Sweden in June, I finally gave up the notion that COVID was a temporary thing. Although we had (what I called), a never-ending engagement since it took two extra years to get married than planned, everything worked out for the best because we had the opportunity to have our wedding in Johannesburg, bringing all our friends and family from around the world to South Africa, and to our new home.

As we know, I’m not South African and so planning a wedding in Johannesburg felt like the unknown to me! I did a lot of google-ing, relied on friends, and our wedding planner to help me find vendors and make sure everything went smoothly. Our day was so so special and I hope yours is too!

Venues

Shepstone Gardens

In all honestly, we only visited one wedding venue: Shepstone Gardens. The city location in Houghton, the exceptional garden, and the lovely jacaranda trees really blew us away. The castle-eque vibe was reminiscent of our original wedding venue in Sweden as well.

Dates for jacaranda season weddings get booked a month in advance! We booked about 9 months beforehand and all the weekend October dates were already booked up for 2022. Instead, we booked the next best thing: the first Sunday of November. Although not all the jacarandas were still blooming at the time, there were still some purple flowers to be found.

If you love gardens, I recommend you get a tour of Shepstone no matter what as the venue is only open for viewings or on one of their open days.

Large wedding venues

Thinking of having over 80 people on your special day? Check out these venues that stood out to me on our Johannesburg wedding journey

Small wedding venues

I loved having around 60 people at our wedding! I think it was the perfect number. These are other venues that stood out to me that are great for hosting a small wedding:

  • Burkleigh House can fit 60 people and looks like the perfect combo of a garden + glass hall venue.

Do I need a wedding planner?

We opted to use the wedding planning services at Shepstone Gardens. I highly recommend this. I felt there was minimal stress (unless it was my own indecisiveness). Our wonderful planner, Sinead, kept all potential drama to a minimum. For example, when a month before our wedding my makeup artist canceled, Sinead had already found 4 alternatives who could be available for our date.

Our planner worked with all our vendors to coordinate and also sourced fun elements for us. All I did was show Sinead a picture from Pinterest, and she was able to find a vendor to provide! Our welcome mirror sign and the long-stem sparklers are perfect examples of this.

shepstone wedding vibes johannesburg
shepstone wedding vibes johannesburg

A wedding planner will help you manage the vendors, gets quotes, do all the googling, and basically act as your go-to. The wedding planners at Shepstone are incredibly kind and helpful. This was definitely worth it for us. Shepstone also managed most payments so we didn’t have to pay individual vendors, we paid Shepstone across 4 payments: three before the wedding and one after for any extras.

Florals

Shepstone has its own floral department that knows the venue inside and out. We opted to go with a white and green theme with hanging flowers and arrangements on the tables. I sent the floral theme some picture ideas and they developed a mood board that we worked on together until the vibe was just right!

The lovely table settings.

The floral team at Shepstone also handles the table settings, extra furniture, silverware, linens, and draping inside the dining hall. To be honest, this surprised me when I first looked at our floral estimate… how could flowers cost so much?! However, when you read the line items you’ll see all the extras included (which have nothing to do with flowers) and it makes way more sense.

Be sure to ask for Boutonnières for the groom and his men!

I loved my bouquet but didn’t get that many pictures with it! Sad, sad.

Me and my sister with our bouquets.

Check out Shepstone’s floral page on Instagram for all they can do. From bursts of color to an all-black theme, anything is possible!

Photographers

Alexander Smith

Alex is a regular at Shepstone. He and his team take excellent pictures and his demeanor makes the whole photo shoot process fun. We purchased the 8-hour package with videos and later added 2 more hours to our bill. Our picture took about 7 weeks to get edited and it was sooo worth it. You can see all the highlights of our wedding on his website.

Our friends, David and Julian, also used Alex for their wedding in Johannesburg! 

We chose Alex because of the natural and classic look of his pictures. A lot of the photographers I came across online have odd editing with either a sepia look or some grainy filers. I wanted the true colors of the day to shine in our pictures.

Check out the photo and video packages online.

Photos throughout the day

We did individual photoshoots, with friends, then our first look before the ceremony began. Later, we took one big wedding group picture and family pictures after the ceremony. Right before dinner, we had 15 minutes of a photoshoot.

Alexander and his team left after the cake-cutting. He managed to get some dancing pictures in as well! He had suggested another 30-minute photoshoot during our canapes but we opted to hang out with guests and have him follow us around so we could get pictures with our guests instead.

Therefore, we needed 10 hours of a photographer to capture our details and first look through to our cake cutting.

Other photographers

Here are some other photographers that we considered:

Tips for your wedding pictures

  • A week before your wedding, PRINT OUT a list of people who want pictures with. It really helps the photographer. I made a list but forgot to print it out the day before the wedding and I had some photo combos that I wanted to take at the wedding that we totally forgot about.
  • Take a picture of you and your love at your wedding arch after the ceremony, that way you won’t have the officiant in the pictures at all. Just redo your first kiss for the picture!
  • Do NOT trust a friend or a friend’s friend “who is a photographer” to take your wedding pictures. We had a different photographer for our other wedding events. We trusted him to take good pictures and it was a disaster. Make sure you ask to see their portfolio and tell them to shot in both RAW and JPEG.

How many people should I invite?

… To the wedding

We had around 65 guests at our wedding and were able to chat with everyone. We had budgeted 80 people. No matter what,  you’ll likely have a few cancellations at the end. I thought “no way will this happen at our wedding.” Surprise, surprise. On the day of the wedding, we had one family and one other person say they couldn’t attend.

Some things are unexpected but it’s way more irritating for the bride & groom to find out on the day that you can’t come. It’s easier to at least let them know in advance there is a chance you may not be able to make it. This affects the seating plan!

…To your bridal party

Because of the international aspect of our wedding, I wanted all my friends included in the celebrations. I had around 16 people get ready with me—including my cousins, aunts, mom, sister, and friends. It was a crowd!! It was fun to spend the day with everyone, but I think anything over 6 people gets complicated. My makeup artist and her team were working literally nonstop from 8am till 2pm. No joke.

Some pics with my BFFs!

… Should I invite kids?

This is tough. We had just two families with kids at the wedding. One family was one of the no-shows and the other, the kids were well-behaved. They left early, after the main course. However, more recently at weddings, I’ve noticed kids playing with their iPad at full blast in their parents’ laps during the ceremony. Idk. I guess this is a personal preference, but I’d opt for no kids. Or at least have your MC suggest that people with kids sit at the back during the ceremony. 

Getting your marriage license as a foreigner

I honestly cannot recommend the marriage officiant we used, nor her company. Even thinking about them makes me mad. Basically, she showed up late, said Wilhelm’s name wrong the entire ceremony, and people were asking if she was inebriated afterward from her demeanor.

I would recommend having a friend or family member perform your ceremony (as we started to do because our officiant was late. I wish she didn’t show up at all). We had several online and email meetings with her before our wedding and we couldn’t have done anything else to try to make it work but ya… unfortunately, the company is the only one that we could find that is able to legally marry foreigners.

I’d suggest only using their document services to register the marriage. They can come on the day and take your paperwork and have you sign it. However, be careful about this as well. My name was spelled wrong on our wedding certificate, and it was a hassle to go get the updated version due to poor communication. My mom was the one that noticed the misspelling only after asking to see the certificate for fun 3 weeks after the fact.

*SIGH* in any case, if you are a foreigner and want to get married here in Joburg then you’ll likely have to use them if you don’t want to stand in line at Home Affairs yourself.

Anyway, here is the link to the marriage officiant’s website.

Getting Ready

Dress

There are several bridal boutiques in Johannesburg. However, I ordered a dress from Pakistan from the online design shop Saffron Fashions. I communicated with them via WhatsApp and video calls. My dress fit perfectly and was even better than the pictures.

I suggest you start looking for dresses starting with the lovely secondhand dress shop, Relove Bridal.

I visited Olivelli Bridal Boutique in Northcliff for a backup dress option if mine didn’t arrive in time and I liked the experience. They had several dresses that would only need a week’s notice to alter if necessary.

Here are some of the other boutiques I looked at online:

Suits and shirts

Wilhelm used Khalaful Kouture, based in Pretoria, for his wedding suit. It turned out wonderfully. Terrence can source the fabric or you can find your own. We bought Wilhelm’s suit fabric at one of the shops inside Oriental Plaza.

I also suggest visiting M&P Trikam in Fordsburg for high-quality men’s suiting and shirt fabric. You can also check our regular tailor, Diamond Tailor, for custom suits and shirts. WhatsApp him at +27844842171. He’s just 2 blocks down from M&P Trikam; he was recommended to us by the staff there. He will come to find you if you can’t find his shop, which is located inside a little building where you have to enter through the cell phone shop next to this shop.

Hair and Make-Up

I used Kelly-Jean, who is experienced in large group bookings. She can accommodate around 15-20 people, with assistants. With so many gals to do hair and make-up, we had to start at 8 am! Some people loved their make-up and others didn’t… It’s a mixed bag with hair as well… But for the most part everything was great and everyone’s make up survived all night.

I was able to do a hair and makeup trial with Kelly-Jean about a month beforehand and I loved my look. I don’t like the way people look totally different with contour and Kelly-Jean feels the same. She did minimal contouring, which is what I asked for. Kelly-Jean also provided advice for my hair accessories and nails!

Other makeup artists you may want to look at:

Nails

My friend, Joyce, recommended getting in touch with Willly for my wedding nails. I was looking for someone to do the white-glazed look that was all the rage on Instagram. Willy lives up to the hype AND he does house calls. House calls are so important a couple of days before your wedding. It was such a luxury to be able to chill at home (mostly telling my brother and dad the errands they had to do for me). Willy brought another staff member as well to assist with our pedicure.

My nails have never been so perfect!

My nails were incredibly perfect and I kept them for 3 weeks. It was the first time I used acrylic nails as well and they looked super natural.

You can get in touch with Willy on WhatsApp at +27 61 774 9370.

The house call was R400. The wedding mani + pedi was R500 total! That’s it!

Accessories

If you want something floral and sparkly in your hair, I suggest checking out Bridal Hair Boutique or Kathleen Barry for bespoke pieces.

Lovisa also has a great selection of pieces from headbands to combs. My friend, Joyce, who organized my bridal shower for me, bought me a lovely floral crown for me upon arrival at my bridal shower.

Catering

We used Vicky Crease Catering, and it was amazing! They are experienced wedding and event caterers based in Key Arts Mile. Basically, anything is possible as long as you have the budget. We opted for 3 mains: one fish, one meat, and one veg. The team worked with us to get the best dishes and I loved our tasting experience.

One of our three mains

They also did our desserts and wedding cake. It was just gorgeous and so delish. I even froze some cake afterward and it tasted just as good 3 months later (no lie).

Vicky Crease added juices and breakfast sandwiches for the bridal and groom’s parties while we got ready. Ask for something like this from your caterer so you avoid getting hangry.

Planning things for your guests

Activities

Read the Joburg itinerary and top things to do in Joburg to give your guests ideas on what to do while visiting Joburg. Our guests’ favorites were: a Soweto tour, shopping in Rosebank, and visiting Ponte City.

Joburg Activities and Accommodations

Check out all my recommendations on where to stay in Joburg. All our guests used my recommendations from this post, which I wrote specially to help them find Airbnbs and hotels.

Other Wedding in Johannesburg Events

We basically had a destination wedding. Most of our guests flew over 10 hours to celebrate our special day with us. As such, we had several organized dinners leading up to and after the wedding. Check out my list of the best group dining restaurants for all our large dinner events. All the details for the below events (and more) are in the post.

Welcome Drinks

We had our early guests meet us at Ponte City for Dlala Nje’s Sundowners. It was an incredible experience. Afterward, we had a group dinner in Sandton at Hombaze. Our guests were shocked to go from Hillbrow to Sandton, and still be in Joburg. It’s a contrast.

Bridal shower

My bridal shower was held at Nice on 4th in Parkhurst. It was the perfect girly, classy vibe, and the food was amazing. For international guests, it was a great location so that they could walk around and do some shopping at the boutiques afterward.

Other fun locations for a bridal shower are:

Soweto Outing

While the gals from the wedding were at my bridal shower, Wilhelm had the guys and other friends go on a tour of Soweto that included bungee jumping from the Soweto towers. Reach out to Sifiso, a guide from Dlaja Nje, to plan your day in Soweto. You should hire a van or two to take you around if you’re a big group.

If you need a van recommendation, try WhatsApping Alex from Nali Travel at +27837559927 Roundtrip transfer in a 13-seater van is around R2000 depending on your destination.

Post Wedding Brunch

We hosted our post-wedding in Johannesburg brunch at Northcliff Boutique Hotel. Although it was raining in the morning, by the early afternoon things had cleared up. Everyone loved the food and although many swore off drinking… we were all indulging in mimosas within 30 minutes.

Other options for brunch are:

Extra touches for a wedding in Johannesburg

Live music

We had our friend Laurence’s string group, Gracenote music play for our entry and during the canapes. It was so magical. I highly recommend using them for your wedding and they have a great list of songs.

Stationary

We had a lovely mirror as our welcome board, obvi inspired from Pinterest.

Drinks

We offered Kombucha throughout the evening from my favorite brand, O’Halo.

A month before our wedding, we hosted a fun evening with our friends to help us choose what wine to serve at our wedding. We invited our friends for a blind tasting and had rating cards. At the end of each type of drink (red, white, and bubbly), we each rated the wines and served those throughout the wedding.

Your bouquet

I happened upon Forever Florals by chance literally two days before our wedding. Our wedding venue tagged a picture, with someone who had tagged a picture, with someone else who tagged a picture…. and I was led to Forever Florals! The lovely Vanessa at Forever Florals presses and composes florals from special occasions into frames.  Sending the flowers (post net to post net) was very easy. I literally went the day after our wedding. The instructions are easy to follow and some months later when the flowers are all dried, you’ll get your special piece!

Forever florals frame pressed flowers

Things you don’t think about

There were several things I didn’t realize when we were planning our wedding in Johannesburg. Here are some small nuggets of advice!

Feeding the vendors

You need to feed your vendors! It is a must. Your caterer will likely have a discounted meal option for your planner, DJ, photographer, videographer, and anyone else you need to keep on-site the entire day.

Trust your gut

If you have a bad feeling about a vendor, family member, or friend, let someone trusted know to keep an eye out for any extra drama. It’s your day and you can get what you want!

Jewelry

Check your jewelry beforehand to make sure everything sits correctly. My necklace was dropping a bit (as it was a family heirloom) but I wish I got it fixed beforehand.

Also, get your ring cleaned beforehand. I forgot to get my cleaned!

Tips

Take a walk-through of your wedding space as if you are a guest! We missed some of the elements, but don’t stress if this happens to you.

Need any other tips for planning a wedding in Joburg? Let me know in the comments or send me an email!

Most of the wedding pictures shown in the blog are from Alexander Smith.