My Eco Wedding in Africa: December 2010

Celebrate Christmas in your garden, enjoying all the joy a South African summer has to offer.

Choose a spot in your garden where you can either comfortably place an umbrella or ideally where a tree has enough of its branches overlapping your table. The tree or the umbrella needs to provide shade from the midday sun and a place to hang your lanterns and decorations for the evening.

Chamdor Faktry sales have an amazing assortment of ribbons and trained staff to help you find exactly what you are looking for. We chose ribbons that stuck to the colour scheme of our Christmas lunch table, which were silver, white, green and earth. We also used hemp from their collection for the tablecloth. I loved the natural colour and texture of the fabric and it can be bought and used for just about anything, (wedding dresses included). Chamdor Faktry Sales sell the hemp for around R129.95 p/m. Please consult our directory pages for your closest shop.

Cut and tie your different coloured ribbons to your lanterns and chosen Christmas decorations and then hang at varying heights from the branches or umbrella. We used apples as decorations for each plate and cored the centre. Put a little lemon juice on the apple to stop them going brown and place a tea light candle in the centre. The Garden Shop in Broadacres has beautiful flowers still in their trays and all we did was wrap a ribbon around the tray and use some of the other ribbons to scatter over the live flowers. They have since been planted and I am sure that they will bring us great joy in memory of lunch for many years to come.

For the centrepiece, we used a glass bowl that we already had, used pine cones from the garden, Christmas baubles, tinsel and apples. Use a little oil to shine your apples for the best impact. Hydrangeas from the garden were added for the final touches. Silver goblets that have been around for decades were used for the table but wine glasses would work just as well.

ALWAYS try and compliment your surroundings with colours that appear naturally around your table.

Our ladies were lucky enough to receive gift bags with goodies in them from all of our Eco Christmas shopping suppliers. We had a fantastic time and the ladies were introduced to what it means to live Eco, what with all the amazing products and services available to us, its never been easier. Then it came time to go for Sangria at the Throbbing Strawberry in Douglasdale, Johannesburg. The Throbbing Strawberry is a fabulous outdoor venue with great food and an awesome vibe, with yummy sangria and mojitos. Fabulous fun was had by all.

Thank you so much to all of the GREEN COMPANIES that supplied products for the day.

1. Tierhoek Organics www.tierhoekorganics.co.za

2. Pure Beginnings www.purebeginnings.co.za

3. Recharge your feet www.rechargeyourlife.co.za

4. African Organics www.africanorganics.co.za

5. Meadowsweet www.meadowsweet.co.za

6. Grow a Tree www.growatree.co.za

7. I’m Green www.intelligentmarketing.co.za

8. Chamdor Faktry Sales www.chamdor.co.za

9. The Garden Shop www.thegardenshop.co.za

10. Live out Loud

11. Green Spa Guide www.organicspa.co.za