Gabrielle and Douglas celebrated their love with a spontaneous ceremony on a secluded peninsula in Southern Mozambique, as the sun rose, reflected in the azure sea.

The couple first met as students, and what began as a friendship gradually blossomed into romance. One warm summer evening in 2019, Gabrielle joined a friend for drinks at a picturesque spot on the side of Table Mountain in Cape Town. As they wound their way up the mountain, Doug appeared, dropped to one knee, and proposed. They celebrated their engagement with a bottle of champagne as they watched the sunset. To their surprise, on their way down the mountain, they found a candlelit dinner waiting for them on the old tennis court on the Table Mountain Reserve, surrounded by close friends and family.

Their wedding day was deeply rooted in the connection they shared - with each other and with nature. The intimate ceremony took place at the boutique Hotel Sussurro in at sunrise. Gabrielle was a vision in our elegant Greta Gown at the reception that took place later that day against the backdrop of the setting sun.

“When we planned our week in Mozambique, we didn’t know which day we would get married on. We just got everyone to pack in their dresses and suits and we watched the weather and the tides once we got there. When the weather looked clear and the tide was just right, we threw a wedding!”

THE COUPLE 

Gabrielle & Douglas Heale

WEDDING DAY

March 20, 2021

GUESTS

18

TO US, MARRIAGE MEANS...

We have never believed in getting married because it is the “obvious next step”. We wanted to be intentional about entering into marriage. We spent a lot of time speaking about what marriage means to us, what kind of partnership we hoped to form, what type of home we wanted to create for our family and what values we wanted to uphold. For us, marriage represents a sense of foundation. It is a place of safety where we always feel held and seen. Marriage is a commitment to hold each other accountable, to support each other and encourage each other. Marriage is a place of feeling entirely accepted and loved, in your most raw and vulnerable state. I think that’s one of the most powerful things about marriage actually – feeling that you can be completely yourself and it won’t change how your partner feels about you. That’s a very special feeling.

MOST TREASURED WEDDING MOMENT

...the quiet, calm, warm morning whilst I walked down the aisle with my mom as the sky turned pink, towards my husband-to-be. I will never be able to fully explain that moment and how I felt but it felt as though the whole world was on pause, just for those few magical moments.  

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ayeh Khalatbari was our photographer and we couldn’t have asked for anyone better. She travelled with us to Mozambique and spent 5 days with us there. Besides her amazing photographic talent, she is truly one of the kindest and most gentle humans I have ever met. She has the most beautiful energy about her. She is a true light-worker in this world and we feel so lucky to have used her because we also made a wonderful friend.

FINDING YOUR DREAM WEDDING GOWN

Gabrielle had dreamt of wearing one of our gowns for many years, ever since a close friend introduced her to the brand. She scheduled her first-ever wedding gown fitting at our studio, where she immediately fell in love with the first gown she tried - our supremely elegant Greta Gown. A true Bo & Luca bride, Gabrielle resonated with our free-spirited aesthetic and Bohemian romance; "I have always wanted a very simple and elegant piece". Though she tried on many dresses during the months after that fitting, she kept returning to that unforgettable first gown; "...it was still the Greta gown that I dreamed of." When asked what drew her to this timeless piece, she reflected “it’s such a simple and elegant dress, which I love about it - but the real draw to this dress for me is the fabric. It is made from the most beautiful silk which looks like liquid when it moves and is draped perfectly."

She paired this wedding look with elegant Baroque pearls from Coast and wore Wanderlust by Michael Kors as her wedding scent.

WEDDING AESTHETIC

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted as a general feeling for our wedding from the start. We both knew we wanted it to be simple and earthy, with lots and lots of candles. I love heavy linens and earthenware and anything that reminds me of nature, in its purest, unadulterated form. I knew Kraak was the perfect team for this as they have a very similar taste and aesthetic to me so I was never stressed about this aspect of our wedding. I obviously also spent many, many long nights looking through Pinterest (as I am sure every bride does!).

Our ceremony was at the end of a wooden deck, suspended over the water with our guests sitting on beautiful Malawian chairs. The sky was a soft pink and it was warm and peaceful. I will never forget my mom walking me down the aisle, with the gentle sound of the water beneath us and the clouds starting to turn the most beautiful shades of pink and orange. It felt heavenly. 

We drank champagne and then all put on our costumes and spent the day swimming and snorkelling. Later that afternoon, we got ready for our reception dinner under the stars. 

The wedding reception later that evening was a beautiful, simple table on the edge of the lagoon which Kraak and the Sussurro team set up as a surprise (I had no idea where the dinner would be or what the table would look like). Our table setting was simple and natural, with nothing but some heavy linen tablecloths, pillar candles and some locally foraged pods on each place setting as “décor”. It was a perfect, windless and warm evening and we ate beautiful seafood, freshly caught from the ocean along with seasonal fruits and vegetables from the local village. We danced around a beach fire and ended our night with a swim under the stars between magical phosphorescence. It felt like a day out of a fairytale.

WEDDING RINGS 

Doug’s band is from Dear Rae and my band is a custom-made ring by Famke.

HAIR & MAKEUP

I did my own hair and makeup and the girls all did their own. I watched a YouTube hair tutorial two days before we left for Mozambique which I saved and used on my wedding day to help me do my hair. My makeup was very minimal.

 BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES 

I had the bridesmaid dresses made and had so much fun doing this. I designed each dress with each specific bridesmaid in mind – thinking about a dress that reminded me of each girl and a style that suited them individually. I spent many hours searching for beautiful fabrics around Cape Town. I used a mix of textures and tones, including heavy linen, rich velvet and pure, raw silks – all in a neutral, earth-toned colour palette.

FLOWERS & BOUQUETS  

We didn’t have any flowers on our table (only a few foraged pods and seeds). My bouquet was made by Lush in Cape Town, and travelled all the way to Mozambique with me in a box between my clothes!

SPECIAL SONGS

Songs that will forever take me back our wedding week include “Jikko” by Les Freres Guisse, “Makambo” by Geoffrey Oryema, “Namm Naa Leen” by Yoro Ndiaye and pretty much all of Ismael Lo’s music. I walked down the aisle to “Holocene” by Bon Iver and “Not About Angels by Birdy” (it was a long aisle!). 

Our first dance songs were “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (the cover version by Roo Panes) followed by "Buona Sera" by Louis Prima. It was one of my favourite moments, watching everyone dance around the fire on the beach under the stars.

WEDDING CAKE 

Sarah and her chef, Bianca, made us such a wonderful cake. It was a carrot cake with local cashew nut butter icing and topped with a simple foraged pod. It was delicious!

FOOD & DRINKS 

The Sussurro team set up big outside cooking fires where they cooked the most incredible freshly caught seafood including crab from a local fishing village and amazing crayfish! We feasted on seafood platters with sauteed capers and a tomato and basil side dish. Our dessert was Tamarind and Chilli Pineapple with coconut icecream (homemade with local coconuts) which was so refreshing on a warm summer night.

FAVOURS 

Thanks to Adam and Sarah who own Sussurro, we arranged a sunset Dhow experience the night before the wedding. This was a surprise for our guests. Kraak and the Sussurro team set up a Gin & Tonic station and we all piled into Sussurro’s beautiful, big Dhow. We played Ismael Lo and drank G&Ts while the sun was setting. We got each guest a cotton sarong and a disposable camera (which I made little linen pouches for), wrapped up in a piece of linen with a personalized letter to each guest. The guests used their cameras all week to capture it from their perspective and we recently got these photos developed which was such a joy! 

Doug gave each of his groomsmen pure linen shirts which come from our own clothing brand and I gave my bridesmaids lovely pajama sets from Linalina. I had linen gowns made for my mom and Doug’s mom as well as gold pendants which I had engraved for both moms.

THE WEDDING VENUE

Our original plan was to have a big wedding in Mozambique (not at Sussurro at this point). With the roller-coaster that was Covid, however, our plans twisted and changed many times. We eventually settled on having a smaller wedding and had locked in a venue in Barrydale for March 18th.

Six weeks before we were set to get married (and after we had already done the majority of the planning and booking, etc) we got a phone call letting us know that our venue had tragically burnt to the ground in the Barrydale fires! 

I was in floods of tears when my friend, Sarah Birkett (who is one of the owners of Sussurro) happened to send me a message suggesting Doug and I come to stay at Sussurro for our honeymoon or with some friends as the hotel was very quiet for March. I phoned Sarah straight away and she immediately suggested we have our wedding at Sussurro. It all worked out completely serendipitously – coming full circle at the last minute, and getting married in Mozambique like we had originally planned to. I will never be able to thank Sarah and her partner Adam enough for creating such an amazing wedding in 6 short weeks!

ADVICE FOR BRIDES-TO-BE

Someone said to me, right at the beginning of our planning process, to write down 2 or 3 things that are non-negotiables for your wedding. Things that are entirely authentic to you as a couple. And no matter how many twists and turns your planning takes over the months that follow, hold onto those 2 or 3 things. My biggest wish for every bride is not to overthink it, and to continue to come back to what it’s all really about – marrying your soulmate. I completely agree that a wedding is also a way of celebrating your community and the people who got you to this point, but I promise you that nobody remembers the colour of a napkin or the font on your menu. People remember how they felt and so will you.

Decide from the very beginning how you want your wedding day to feel, not what you want it to look like. Because that is what is really about. 

 

THE WEDDING VENDORS

Venue: Sussurro
Flowers: LUSH
Wedding Planner: Kraak
Photography: Ayeh Khalatbari