The Gorgeous Inner City Johannesburg Wedding of Devon & Ally in an old Power Station will blow your mind. We love city weddings. There’s something extremely sexy about them. City lights, people, laughter and one big celebration of love! That’s how we like to describe a city wedding. Devon and Ally got married at The Forum Turbine Hall in Johannesburg. An old power station with so many amazing decor elements. The stunning aged copper and steel to rust.
The talented wedding photographer Andstory photographed Devon and Ally’s wedding day. We are super excited to share their special day with you. This is the perfect showcase of what a city wedding has to offer. For fantastic wedding vendors, please have a look at our wedding directory of curated wedding vendors.
For their honeymoon, they went to Hamilton Island, Australia. The couple lived in Sydney and flew down to South-Africa for their wedding. For now, enjoy the gorgeous Inner City Johannesburg Wedding of Devon & Ally below.
Engagement Story:
Dev woke me up on a Friday morning and said we were going away with his folks to Welgevonden Game Reserve. Once we got to entrance of the Reserve, he said that his folks were not joining and this was a surprise weekend with just us two. We started the morning off with drinks and snacks before jumping on a game viewer to get to the lodge were staying at. Tshwene Lodge welcomed us with champagne as we dropped off our bags off and settled in.
Dev then decided we should go for a walk up the mountain. After a few hundred meters I noticed that Dev had arranged a table for two on a helipad overlooking the Game Reserve. On the table was a wonderful spread of lunch, flowers and more champagne! Before I knew it, he was on one knee with tears in his eyes and asking if I would marry him. And of course, my answer was YES!
Favourite Wedding Memories:
Devon:
That moment just after we got married and we were in the glass lift going down to the reception space. We looked at each other and said, “OMG we are married!”
Ally:
So hard to pick so have to give a few!. My mom & I spontaneously burst into a completely bizarre avocado inspired dance. Dancing with one another while getting ready to ease our nerves and connect heart to heart over this sentimental song and dance we share as mother and daughter. Another beautiful memory is when I saw my Dad for the first time before he walked me down the aisle. I remember feeling both us having the air knocked out of our lungs as we took in the gravity of the moment we shared. Lastly, I adore the memories I have of Dev and I at the end of the night in our hotel, wrapped up in fluffy bathrobes and eating a grilled cheese sandwich and cheeseburger on our gigantic bed, taking it all in and feeling completely gloriously in love and happy beyond imagination.
Advice to other couples:
Start saving yesterday and start planning early
Laugh often
Listen to each other’s ideas
Be patient and organised
Try to enjoy the planning as much as you can. This only happens once
Nobody notices any “mishaps” on the day except you
Choose great bridesmaids and groomsmen like we did ?
Don’t leave too much to do for the Groom ?
The Wedding Dress:
I didn’t have a lot of time to find my dress before moving to Sydney. I only went to a handful of stores and didn’t like anything I tried on when one of my bridesmaids suggested going to Vonve. After researching Vonve, I realised a dress I had pinned on my Pinterest page years back was a Millanova dress and Vonve sells that brand. It felt like destiny was knocking! Sure enough upon visiting Vonve, my mom and I discovered my dress in no time. A beautiful Millanove gown in a nude off-white colour with a fitted lace bodice and striking lace along the bottom. And guess what, it was the dress from my pinterest page! I absolutely adored my dress and felt invincible in it.
The Venue:
Turbine Hall is in the heart of Johannesburg CBD’s art and culture precinct. The building looks like a massive old factory but once inside, it unfolds itself as a thing of industrial beauty and is surrounded by pockets of beautiful city greenery, gorgeous old buildings, spaza shops, hooting taxies and the heartbeat of South African culture. We wanted a venue that broke the mould of traditional venues that try to emulate other cultures and are focused on society’s general idea of what beauty is.
Turbine Hall contracts old with new, stark industrial elements with touches of raw natural beauty and is authentically South African in its architecture, interior design, history and artworks. For us this symbolized our relationship and love for South Africa all in one – living in Sydney all we wanted to do was come home and get married in this extremely special place!
Wedding Decor and Colours:
Our wedding colour palette was very natural to complement the venue. Much to my mother’s dismay I did not want a single flower involved and instead opted for greenery along with neutral tones of white, cream, charcoal and copper.
Wedding Cake Story:
No story! This was not a priority for us – I actually didn’t even want a cake, because the Turbine Hall pastry chefs curated an exquisite dessert installation for us. However, my mom insisted on sourcing a cake for us, which was very simple but striking with a grey marble finish and topped with some succulents and copper leafing.
Musical Choices for the wedding:
Musical choices :
DJ Ultra Mel was incredible, we generally left the music choices to her but provided a high-level list of genres/artists we wanted to hear such as old school, really old school for the grannies and grandpas, dance, rock, Afrikaans, African and of course sing a long songs! Throughout the wedding we had very sentimental songs playing and actually decided on the song list with the help of families so was very special on the day in each special moment when those songs played and we all had been involved in deciding on them.
First dance song :
“A Whole New World” by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. As a kid Ally loved Aladdin and loved Princess Jasmine even more – that was her nickname given to her by her dad (PJ for short)! She finally found her “Aladdin” that she could live happily ever after with like the movie storyline.
Father and daughter dance :
“Fly me to the moon” by Frank Sinatra, selected by the father of the bride.
The Honeymoon:
We went to Hamilton Island, Australia. Since we were living in Sydney and flying back to South Africa for the wedding, we didn’t want to do too much flying all over the world and had limited leave to use as we both have demanding careers. We also wanted to explore Australia, see the great barrier reef and relax.
One of our best friends gifted us a honeymoon experience which was a seaplane flight over the great barrier reef and a heart-shaped reef along with a water landing and champagne breakfast on Airlie beach which was a highlight of the trip.
We also did a “familymoon” at Walkersons Resort in Dullstroom with our parents and siblings after the wedding and before our honeymoon, as a way of thanking our families for everything they put into the wedding and spending quality time together to soak up all the post-wedding, newlywed bliss once all the craziness of the big day and lead up events had settled.
Wedding Service Providers:
Photographers: Andstory
Venue & catering: Turbine Hall
Flowers, Décor and Stationery: The Love Knot
Hair: PMC Hair
Makeup: Clarissa Gess
DJ: DJ Ultra Mel
Band: The Rocketeers
Bridal robes: Homebodii
Wedding Dress: Vonve Bridal
Groomsmen suits: Eurosuit
Groomsmen venue for getting ready: The Landmark Hotel – Johannesburg CBS
Hotel overnight stay after the wedding: The Westcliff
