Wedding bliss at special service for Michelle

A quaint church in the heart of Riversdale was home to an exceptionally beautiful and emotionally loaded sermon when the

Mossel Bay Advertiser’s own Michelle Coetzee promised to be the best wife Arthur Reyneke could ever wish for.

The stunning looking

Michelle could not keep her eyes off her handsome husband-tobe and the special bond between the two was evident from the moment she stepped into the church on the arm of her father, Altus.

Michelle opted for a classical dress that complemented her figure and a very informal hairstyle.

Her blue eyes shone like diamonds and her flashing smile was in abundance.

The only sad element to this wedding was the lonely candle burning on the altar - a tribute to her grandfather Peter Rudd, who passed away earlier this year.

The Rudd family has made the Anglican

Church their own. Peter’s wife Ruth and her 10 siblings grew up in the church and their four daughters Joyce, Shirley (Michelle’s mom), Penny and Dot were all married in this church. The only son, Ralph, was married elsewhere. The church is also where they had paid their last respects to grandpa Peter.

The Reynekes were therefore the fifth couple in this family to marry in this church. Michelle, who is extremely sentimental, opted for the ring and dove centrepiece that was on the top layer of her grandparents’ wedding cake 63 years ago.

The knife used to cut the wedding cake has also done the rounds with the grandparents, the parents and their siblings and now the Reynekes. The pearls Michelle wore came from her godparents, Ralph and Hanlie Rudd and the something blue was tucked in under her beautiful dress. Although the wind howled at top speed, nothing could contain the bliss the Reyneke couple and their guests oozed.

The reception was held at Privelistea, a venue high on the hill overlooking Jongensfontein, a little town in Hessequa that also has a special meaning for the Rudd and Coetzee families.