Our dream wedding

The perfect wedding day started off disastrously. The bride was having a meltdown: her false lashes had fallen out, her brother who was meant to give her away was stuck in traffic and someone mentioned a missing CD with her favourite walking-down-the-aisle song. Phindi and Jack Maswangaye had envisioned a stress-free big day. But now, minutes away from saying “I do” she felt that everything was going horribly wrong. She wondered if she’d always remember the 22nd of May 2010 as the worst day of her life. The stress of organising a wedding in a month had also gotten to Phindi.

Her famous wedding planner Sophie Ndaba had pushed her in a flurry of e-mails to make decisions about her dress, the cake, décor, hair and makeup, and the play list. With so many decisions to make in a short space of time Phindi wondered if she’d made the right choices. This until she reminded herself what this big day was really about. At age 34 Phindi thought she would always be part of the singles club, and Jack, with several failed relationships behind him, had given up on looking for that special woman.

The chance to say “I do” became a possibility when they met, fell in love and won the BONA wedding of their dreams competition. Now as she looked at herself again with less tears in her eyes and surrounded by her four bridesmaids fussing about her, she felt beautiful in her designer Bride&co wedding gown. Phindi thought of her 100 guests comprising family and friends, and her husband waiting for her at the simply decorated Thaba Ya Batswana church. And it indeed turned out to be a perfect day as Phindi sashayed down the aisle (with her brother on her arm) to one of her favourite gospel tracks, drawing ululation and a smile from her husband-to-be looking sharp in his silver suit. [e]