Mrs. Cargo

30th of September 2016 was officially the greatest day of my life.

When S and I got engaged we decided that we would have a intimate ceremony this year and then follow it with a bigger celebration next year so that guests from South Africa would have enough notice to plan.

 My mom had been in Michigan for a week at this point and one of my close friend who is currently studying at Harvard was able to fly into Michigan.

The day was nothing shy of perfect. S and I didn't see each other from Thursday night and he left early to spend the morning with his parents and get his hair cut. I had breakfast with my mom and then left to get my hair and make up done.

I had a great FaceTime with my sister back in South Africa who was able to calm my nerves and remind me not to cry too much cause my make up would be ruined. I was an emotional mess all day thinking about how excited I was to marry my best friend.

Five-thirty approached and it was time to jump in the limo and make my way over to Heritage Park in the pouring rain which was proving that it would not let up but it surprisingly did not matter!

Walking down the pathway to the gazebo and seeing S for the first time was truly spectacular and something I will forever cherish! We exchanged vows in the most intimate perfect way and we were then pronounced as husband and wife which is a surreal feeling which is I will never forget.

We ended the night with a great dinner downtown with the stunning views of Canada in the background.

We have been married for almost two weeks and my oh my it is officially the greatest feeling in the world.

My heart

Family 

Cargo Party of 4

The Cargo's!!

Love

Bronwyn

Update Time!

Things have been crazy busy since I last updated as I have been traveling back and forth to Michigan (and Indiana) and working and S is coming to visit this week. 

So many fun things have happened in the last three weeks, we celebrated 4th of July in Indiana, we found a home, I found a wedding dress and I have 50 days left on my contract. 

4th of July in Indiana was so much fun considering it started a day late with a cancelled flight and I could only get another one a day later! We met up with S's college friends and had a blast. Spent the weekend with his family eating and surviving the rain at Conner Prairie in the rain. 

The house hunt was so stressful and was resolved in the strangest but best way, S's room mate decided to move in with her boyfriend and S really loves the house so instead of her finding someone else to move in and us finding a home we decided that we would sign a lease agreement with her for approximately the next two years.

Since we found out I have been busy planing what I want every room to look like and on Sunday we hit Bed Bath & Beyond and Target and shopped like no ones business. We have bought almost everything for the bathroom and master bedroom which is a relief. Today we found a spare bed and will hopefully get that asap as my mom needs someone to stay when she arrives soon. 

Another exciting development involved our commitment ceremony for this year. Once we got engaged, we knew that we would not being able to plan the special wedding that we would want for friends and family from both South Africa and America so we decided to get married this year with our families present and then next year have the wedding in a church and reception for everyone. This year we will be getting married under a beautiful gazebo and I knew that I needed a dress to match. I was able to find one at Nordstrom from the Adrianna Papell brand and I cannot wait to wear it when I marry my best friend and soul mate. 

I tried on the navy but will wear the rose gold.

The last weekend was spent in Michigan, where I had the best time with S and the more and more I go the more it feels like home. One highlight of the weekend was that on Saturday night I made a South African Chicken Curry for S and my future in laws (recipe to follow soon).

Finally, I have just 50 days left on my contract so I am making the most of the time that I have left with the family and we will be travelling to Florida next week which should be a blast!!

Sorry for the long post. I hope you enjoyed reading! 

Love

Bronwyn

Fire Island Adventures

When I first moved to Long Island, the place that people kept mentioning that I should visit was the Fire Island Lighthouse and this weekend I finally did.

The weather on Saturday was perfect for a trip to the Lighthouse, it was an hour and some change drive from Garden City where we were staying and I am always down for a road trip whether it is an hour or five.

Pulling up to the lighthouse in the distance was a sight to savor, its right on the beach so you can hear the ocean and see all the people excited for a day at the beach and all I could think about was the beauty of the lighthouse.

We walked along a board walk towards the lighthouse with different vegetation including poison ivy on either side of us which is indigenous to Fire Island. Poison Ivy turns red and is believed to be on of the myths surrounding the origin of the name as in the distance it looked the island was on fire which was the changing of the color of the poison ivy.

We opted to climb up the 182 steps of the historic lighthouse which is the 7th highest in the country and highest in NY State. There are viewing spots on the way up and one of my favorite is that every spot has a completely different view.

I will allow the pictures to speak for themselves.

Once we were all done, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go to one of our new favorite restaurants in Garden City called Seasons 52 which is farm to table restaurant which adapts its menu to the current season. The food is amazing with reasonable prices and a great vibe to compliment everything.

Love

Bronwyn

Hairdressers and House Hunting

Last weekend I decided to return to my natural roots of brunette and at the same time S and I are house hunting.

Being blonde was so much fun but it was time to return to my dark roots, I felt like the change would be as good as a vacation and get me out of the hair rut that I was in.

The impending move to Michigan which is 78 days away is fast approaching and S will be moving out of the house that he currently shares with his room mate and we will be starting married life in our first home together.

I could not be more excited about having a home with S and having a space that is ours and home (excuse the pun) for our marriage to grow.

To say that the process has been something is putting it lightly.  As I am still living in Long Island, I am constantly looking online (thank goodness for Zillow and Keller Williams Realty) and calling and then S is viewing the houses and reporting back.

We thought that we had found our home, we both loved the layout, location and the house in general. We put in an application and unfortunately another party was just ahead of us in the application process and so we were back at the search engines.

We will be looking at two more homes this week so please hold thumbs!

Here is a little peak at master bedroom inspo board.

Images from the internet.

Love

Bronwyn

Flowers, Flowers & More Flowers

Wedding plans are officially well underway as the venue and church are booked. 

Anyone planning a wedding knows that the flowers will make or break the entire day, I was luckily enough to be gifted my flowers from a fabulous company named Iluba. 

Iluba, "true beauty never fades", and the beauty of these stunning flowers do not easily fade. 

The flowers are no ordinary flower, the company has managed to master the art of preserving fresh flowers where they have a six-month vase life, require no maintenance or water but have the look of a fresh cut flower. Their products include but not limited to steams, rose heads, Proteas and foliage.  

One of my favorite elements of the flowers are the stunning colors which the flowers are available in from various shades of white, pink purple, blue, black, yellow, green to name a few. The complete list of colors can be found here.

International distribution of the flowers is available in Asia, Europe, South Africa and North America which ideal as our wedding will be in Michigan. 

I am so appreciate of the wonderful of the most spectacular flowers which I without a doubt will elevate our wedding and allow us to achieve the elegance that we crave for ourselves and our special day. 

Please visit their Facebook, Instagram and Official Website here.

Disclaimer: I received no remuneration for this post, however the company is a family business run by my extended family. 

Philly & Bridesmaids

The City of Brotherly Love served as the latest city on the adventure of S and B!

A 3 day weekend lends itself perfectly for an opportunity to take visit a new place (for S) and partake in our favorite activities - traveling!

Last year I was fortunate to visit Philadelphia to see Taylor Swift live which was a phenomenal trip and S has yet to travel to Philadelphia so it was a perfect option! 

Our hotel was located in Center City right near Logan Square and I could not say enough amazing things about Embassy Suites, definitely one of my favorite places we have stayed and we have stayed at a ton! 

We immersed ourselves as both locals and tourists from visiting The Mint, Besty Ross House, Liberty Bell, Logan Square and enjoying local cuisines (Philly Cheesesteaks!) at local recommendations. 

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the trip!

In wedding planning news two major elements have been checked off the list! 

S and I booked my mom's air ticket from Johannesburg to Detroit for our civil ceremony! 109 days and counting! I also asked my nearest and dearest girls to be my bridesmaids and I couldn't be more excited that I will have the best girls by my side when I marry my soul mate!

Love

Bronwyn

Strawberry & Banana Spring Smoothie

Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely love to cook so I decided to start a new series of my favorite recipes on my blog, I will share my personal favourites from smoothies to cupcakes to dinner date ideas that I love to make!

I made a yummy spring smoothie this week and thought I would share it with you all!

Strawberry & Banana Spring Smoothie:

3 Strawberries
1 Banana
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of ice

Combine in the blender for approximately 2 minutes. 

It is yummy and filling!

Perfect for Spring!

Love

Bronwyn

Viewing Venues!

I am officially eating my words. 

A couple weeks ago I promised myself that I was going to enjoy being engaged and not stress about our upcoming nuptials which we have officially decided on a date for and now at the end of the month I will be looking at a potential wedding venue. 

Planning my wedding has and will be a different experience than most brides-to-be, it usually spent planning with your friends and family (read mom) but as my family and friends live in South Africa and I am getting married in Michigan, it is tricky. I am however super grateful for S and my wonderful future mother-in-law. 

Once the guest list was finalized after many cuts, negotiations and back and forths we settled on a perfect 125 guests for the wedding as I would like a more intimate affair and to know at least half the guests and to also be considerate to the fact that it may be harder for more of my friends and family to make the trip. 

Venue became the next topic!

The venue, which we are going to view in 2 weeks, is absolutely spectacular, and lush as described by my sister! I hope that all our plans fall into place and it will be the venue in which S and I have our wedding celebration. 

S and I decided to have our wedding ceremony at the Catholic Church in Allen Park, where he grew up going to (and still does), which is an element that I am still familiarizing myself with. We have been "penciled in" for our date  pending our meeting with the Pastor. 

My dream wedding may just come true! 

When deciding on a color scheme, that was probably the easiest decision. All white everything!

Below is one of my many inspiration boards! 

Images from the internet. 

Love

Bronwyn

Indianapolis

What an amazing weekend I just had! 

One of my favorite things to do is to travel, it's one of the main reasons I moved to the States. Thankfully my amazing fiancé loves to travel too. 

We have visited a number of states together and the latest one on our list was Indianapolis, Indiana. 

We were visiting a friend of Stephen's for his 30th birthday, traveling from New York started off with a delay due to terrible weather but I thankfully made it! It was so exciting to see Stephen cause after only 8 days I missed him terribly! 

We went to Charleston's for lunch which was divine! We spent the day catching up and officially meeting his friends.

The evening activities included a trip to a brewery which was definitely not my thing - I wish I liked beer but I don't! It got amazing praise from everyone else! Dinner was at a yummy Italian restaurant followed by drinks downtown. 

The trip ended with a 5 hour drive back to Michigan so that we could spend Mothers Day with my future Mother in law which was a treat! I also miss my mom a little extra on Mothers Day, as I not quite accustomed to missing them yet! 

It's safe to say wedding planning is officially underway! More on that soon! 

What another amazing weekend! 

Love

Bronwyn

Engaged... Now what?

Hello,

Well its true, being engaged is one of the best feelings in the world. My fiance and I got engaged a couple weeks ago and nothing had prepared me for the outpouring of support that we received. If you haven't read our Perfect Proposal, you can here Our Proposal 

Once all the congratulations and excitement died down all of a sudden we were being hit with questions about when it will take place, where, have I looked at dresses, thought about my hair, potential guests and the list went on and on.

I was so overwhelmed and shocked that people could possibly think we have discussed all of that within 2 days of getting engaged. So I flooded my poor fiance phone with all the questions and we were able to narrow down a few answers.I downloaded a ton of wedding planning apps and was starting to research venues when I decided to take a giant step back and stop.

Stephen and I just got engaged, I am still living in Long Island, he just started at his new job and we just want to enjoy that for the time being. I could not be more excited at the prospect of planning the most perfect wedding but I believe that it is definitely important to enjoy being engaged.

We just celebrated my birthday in Michigan, it was the most amazing time together. I spent time with my future mother in law doing what all girls love, getting our hair done and pedicures! We took in our first Detroit Tigers game together, had a family dinner at one of my favorite restaurants and just enjoyed spending time together which is our favorite thing.

I was able to extend my trip by two extra days which was sheer bliss!

I do know that I need to sit down and seriously start thinking about our wedding, South African guests expect "Saves the Dates" before you know it!

Love

Bronwyn

Welcome

Welcome to Protea Dreams Apple Blossom Living!

I am so excited about the launch of this new and exciting blog. I decided to start a new blog after my au pairing blog seemed to have lost the substance and purpose for which I started it.

Protea Dreams Apple Blossom Living is so important to me as it is an illustration of my new adventure which I am embarking on. The national flower of South Africa is the Protea and the state flower for Michigan is the Apple Blossom, its South African dreaming while living in Michigan. 

I will share wedding plans, moving adventures and nightmares (eek), day to day activities, life in Michigan, food, and travel. 

I hope that join in this amazing adventure!

Love

Bronwyn