A Plumstead woman threw a right royal bash at her home on Saturday to celebrate the marriage of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle.
Dawn van Alphen’s Rotherfield Road house looked like a scaled-down version of Windsor Castle with a huge Union Jack and red, blue and white balloons hanging in the front yard.
While there wasn’t a personalised trumpet fanfare to welcome guests like there was for the new Duchess of Sussex when she got to St George’s Chapel, women dressed in their Sunday best welcomed the guests, offered them glasses of champagne and escorted them to a table laden with decadent treats.
For the guests, it was a chance to haul their own finery out of their wardrobes – not exactly a R1.7 million Givenchy bridal gown, but good clobber nevertheless – and play at being royals for the day.
Tarryn Schooling dressed up as the bride, Allison Horton was her groom and Emily Horton, 6, was their flower girl.
Dawn decided to host her own little royal party for 26 women because her daughter emigrated to the UK in 2005, and since then Dawn has been fascinated with the British culture and the royals.
On top of that, her daughter will be walking down the aisle herself come February next year, and there will be two wedding ceremonies – one in the UK and one here in Cape Town for family and friends.
Dawn giggled when asked if her daughter’s wedding is going to be on a par with Meghan’s.
“My daughter would be having a beautiful wedding, for sure, but I doubt it would be anything like the royal one, it would be royal in our hearts as she will be marrying her Prince Charming.”
Bev Gregory said Dawn’s party was a blast. “I don’t even want to count how many bottles of champagne we popped,” she confessed.
And the royal wedding? “I enjoyed the wedding and the protocol that went with it,” she said. “Meghan’s dress was plain and simple; I like simplicity.”
Estelle Appleby, from Tokai, said Princess Diana would have been proud of her son, Prince Harry. “This wedding was very different from all other royal weddings as Meghan is from a different culture. This was emotional because the newly-weds are really in love, and Princess Diana is not here to witness their marriage,” she said.
See page 7 for more pictures.
