A simple and modern wedding dress mixed with the South African wilderness at real Stella York bride Pamela’s wedding. With stunning mountain scenery and a handsome groom, this UK bride was the belle of her own ball. We love how Pamela mixed a boho braided hairstyle with touches of yellow in her wedding day look.
The proposal
Like most people, our family is very important to us, especially as we have both lost a parent. Byron organised for his father to visit from South Africa and to join us and my mum for a hike at Durdle Door. It was a beautiful day in April and he proposed with the backdrop of the British Jurassic Coast. Keeping secrets from me isn’t the easiest! He made it so special. Packed a sneaky bottle of champers in the hiking bag and booked lunch at the lovely Lulworth Cove Lodge.
Finding the perfect Stella York wedding dress
I was never a girl that dreamt of a certain style dress. Emma from Bride To Be was amazing. First, visit trying on dresses ever. She suggested I chose a dress from each style/ shape to try on. My big sister, Michelle joined me. Emma listened to everything I liked and disliked about each dress and went and picked up the Stella 6581 dress to try. I immediately fell in love with it. So simple, but beautiful. My sister thought it was very Audry Hepburn. I felt like a bride and got that feeling that everyone talks about. I chose a cathedral veil, two-tiered with ribbon trim and small sparkly bits. Accompanied by my sparkly Jimmy Choos, it was truly beautiful and everyone commented that they loved the dress!\
The wedding details
We were very lucky to have a legal wedding in the UK on valentines day. I wore a jumpsuit and we went to a decorated UK pub in Richmond upon the Thames. We had dinner, my brother said a speech and danced the night away. I felt like I had my wedding day already!
I was absolutely blown away by our actual wedding day in South Africa. We were so lucky to make it a holiday too, so not just one day with our guests but 40 of the 106 people that joined also came on a 2-day safari with us the next day!
Byron and I chose to have our table names as the pretty and incredible birds we have seen together like the crested crane and secretary bird. My mum’s friend drew the birds for us which was amazing. We chose yellow for our theme as this was my late dad’s favourite colour. My friend made my guests candles with our logo (a stag) that were also seen throughout our stationary and we also provided elderflower shots for all guests to cheers together. I love balloons so we had lots of 36″ round huge balloons, decorated with homemade tassels. My nephews were ushers who carried a balloon staying here comes the bride. Another nephew had a sign saying “hurry up I want cake” and another “hooray.”
All of our music was managed by a Chris Jensen a South African musician who played guitar to a hymn in a church, played saxophone whilst guests had drinks and canapes on the meander and accompanied our first dance to Nat King Cole L.O.V.E and then become an amazing DJ. Chris played at Byron’s late mums birthday so was very close to his heart and truly made our wedding day.
I wanted the day to feel magical, that was the aim and that was truly what we got. My husband is from South Africa, so we were lucky enough to get married in the Drakensberg mountains. The most special memory of the day, aside from the dress, of course, was the spectacular views. The chapel had a large window which looked out on the mountain range. It was truly breathtaking.
