Rich Bride, Poor Bride.

Another wedding....

2010-01-19T01:07:00.000-08:00

We had another wedding. This time it was Hle and Sabelo getting married, they are 2 of our Project O staff! Hle wore a dress from Debbie and her maid of honor wore one of the dresses that Danae sent over. They had a great day. Deb and Danae thank you for sending the dresses they were a real blessing!

Dear "Anonymous"

2009-11-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I received a comment from "Anonymous", don't ya love it when people have negative comments to make and they are too cowardly to put their name??!!!
Well this some one had a whole lot of sarcasm about how Nothando and Bonga could afford white tux's and her "HUGE" bunch of flowers but she couldn't afford a dress......They put in their comment that that was "strange"
I decided not to post "Anonymous'" comment as it was sarcastic and unedifying. I will however answer this question..........

The Tux's were lent to the groom and his men, the bridesmaid dresses and those worn were handmade by the mothers of the bride and groom with fabric given to them by a lady in the church. The reception venue was held in a community hall in the middle of a township. And the so called "huge" bunch of flowers was bought at the grocery store and put some ribbon round the stems.

I hope this clears up the "strangeness" of it all for you. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know.

For those of you who are genuinely excited about what we do for these women, you will be glad to know that we have another RBPB wedding coming up in Feb 2010!!!
I will post photos when I manage to get the bride to let me take a photo of her!!! She will be wearing Molly's gown...so excited!

New dress from Zoe!

2009-09-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

This is Zoe and her beautiful family. Yesterday Zoe's wedding gown came and I was so excited! Knowing that women like Zoe and the others have donated their very precious dresses to us for our brides-to-be makes me so happy and so blessed. A wedding dress is something that is so special to us...and lets be honest most of us dream of keeping our dress and having/forcing our daughters to wear it for their weddings (which they never will! ;-) ). For you all to have made this sacrifice for the women here in The Valley of a Thousand Hills is AMAZING! My prayer for each of you is that you are blessed above and beyond. That many girls will be blessed by the sacrifice that you were willing to make. Thank you Zoe. The dress is stunning! x

Our 1st RBPB wedding!!!

2009-07-17T01:34:00.000-07:00

I want to start by apologising for the poor quality of these photos!!! I was in the UK when the wedding took place and so I had to send one of my staff to take photos! Wrong setting and slightly over exposed resulted in not good photos but hope is not lost as Nothando and Bonga had a professional photographer there and I will steal a couple and scan them in when they get them back.
Before I went to the UK Nothando came to my house and tried on dresses....SO MUCH FUN!!! She decided to go with Danae's dress and she looked stunning in it. It fit her like a glove. I am just so happy to see Rich Bride, Poor Bride doing what I imagined it to do...making someones special day that much more special (is that bad English??) By using one of the RBPB dresses Bonga and Nothando saved so much money. Not only did she use the dress but also the veil, necklace, earrings and ring cushion!! All items donated by Anne. I know the photos are bad but I just wanted to post this now instead of waiting for the good photos. I am just SO SO SO excited.
Ladies thank you for donating your dresses and other items. God Bless you for making Nothando's day so special.

Dresses from Debbie.

2009-05-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

This is my friend Debbie. Today I received 2 boxes with donated clothes for our orphans. Debbie and some of the folks from her church had made a collection for our kids and in the boxes with the kids clothes were 3 wedding gowns.......YES 3!!!! I am so excited as this week I have a girl coming over to try on dresses to see if there is one that she can use for her upcoming wedding. A couple of weeks ago I had another girl come over and choose a dress for her wedding in July. She chose Danae's dress and now she has a little bit of weight to loose so that the dress in a perfect fit! (she just had a baby!) Debbie thank you and thank you to the girls who donated their dresses for this cause. You really are making a difference! Love you.xxx

Dresses from Danae......

2009-04-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

Today I got a box of dresses from Danae. Arent they beautiful?! After seeing dress number 1 I found myself wishing I was a size 2 again!!!! AAAhhhhh those were the days!
Danae thankyou so much!xxxx

Liz's dress.

2009-04-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

Liz's dress came today. it is beautiful and I am so excited because I have a feeling I know who is going to be borrowing this dress!
Liz I love you and miss you, thank you so much for sending your dress.xx

BIG BOX!

2009-03-07T03:28:00.000-08:00

A big box arrived today from Anne and Sharon! Ladies THANKYOU so much!!! These items are really going to bless the ladies here. I appreciate the love and support that you have shown.

Dress #2 is here.......thanks Danae!

2009-02-17T03:16:00.000-08:00

Dress number 2 is here. Danae sent this beautiful dress along with 2 bridesmaid dresses, shoes and earings and a necklace. Thank you so much Danae! ( You ROCK!!)

DRESS NUMBER 1 is here!

2009-01-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

Hi guys I just wanted to let everyone know that dress number one arrived today! It is Molly's dress and it is stunning!

Molly thank you so much. We really appreciate it and I am so thankful for your loving attitude to these girls.

Exciting news from Anne.....

2009-01-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

Tonight I received an email from Anne. This is the list of things that she is sending......

the box of goodies is finally packed up and ready to go. Here's what's coming:
3 Dresses (1 Black, 1 Brown, 1 Green)
1 Bridal Veil (Ivory, Floor Length)
3 pr shoes (black)
2 Purses (Maroon and Lavender)
1 Ring Bearer Pillow (Ivory with Light Brown trim)
1 Garter (Ivory)
1 pr Lace Gloves (White)
5 Necklaces (2 come with matching earrings)

Isn't that AWESOME??!! I am so excited.
Anne thank you so much for you generosity and support.

Shipping......

2008-12-12T02:06:00.000-08:00

Shipping......I have had many people ask for a shipping address, so here it is

Po Box 2082

Hillcrest

KZN

South Africa

3650

If any of you find out a cheap way to post your dresses please let us know as some are having trouble getting a good deal.

Thanks Girls!

Yet another Stunning Dress.

2008-12-09T04:42:00.000-08:00

I was facebooked by Danae today, I don't know her but she is a friend of Molly (who is sending her dress). Danae told me that she would love to get on board and send her beautiful wedding gown and a very pretty bridesmaid dress, she will also have 2 more bridesmaid dresses this coming year that she would also like to send! So exciting!

Danae thank you so much for your generosity. I cant wait to get the ball rolling on this side and have brides-to-be come in and try on all these beautiful dresses, fun, fun, fun!

Alsorts from Anne.

2008-12-06T04:31:00.000-08:00

I just received an email from a lady called Anne, she had heard about Rich Bride, Poor Bride and she sent me this email.

Hi Vashti !! I'm excited that you are excited!! Its amazing how God can reach across continents through cyber space and hook up people for His good!! I'm happy that the items I have will be put to good use and make future brides happy. I mentioned to my sister that I have a few bridesmaids gowns, a flower girl dress, a couple bridal veils, pretty shoes, a ring bearer pillow, and some bridal jewelry. I'll get them to my sister and we can ship them to you. You are doing a wonderful thing!!! Many blessings to you!Anne Hansen

How exciting! And very generous. Anne thank you so much!

Dress number 7!!

2008-12-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

Yet another gown offered to us for the women of South Africa. My friend Lynn got married nearly 10 years ago and still has her dress. Lynn thankyou for giving up your dress for these women.

Love youx

Number 6!

2008-12-06T03:18:00.001-08:00

Molly facebooked me to let me know that she wants to get on board and send her dress.

I had a look through her photos and they are so much fun. I chose these two so you can get an idea of what her dress looks like.....STUNNING!

Dress number 5!

2008-12-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

This is my friend Courtney. She messaged me today to let me know that she would like to send us her dress! This is her and hubby Justin freshly married. She is so cute, the shoes that she wore were a pair of black and white Van sneakers!!! All the bridesmaids also wore black and white vans they looked amazing. Courtney thank you so much for getting involved. Love you loads and miss you xx

Forgot to show you dress number 1

2008-12-04T20:26:00.001-08:00

Hi, in all the excitement I forgot to post a photo of Nothando...shes our first bride, and the first dress, which is mine. This is how this movement got started!

2, 3, 4 on their way soon!

2008-12-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

This is Liz and Hubby Simon, 2 of our fav people ever!
This is Helen, I love this photo.

I have had such great response since starting this program 2 days ago! Dresses 2, 3 and 4 are on their way soon!

My friends, Liz, Helen and Vanessa have said that they want to get on board and send their dresses! I cant wait! I have photos of Liz and Helen's but not Vanessas. So Here they are. They look stunning!

I love you guys and really appreciate this!

how to get the items to us.

2008-12-03T21:37:00.001-08:00

OK so I have been asked how to get the dresses to us here in South Africa. I have tried to look and see if the US Postal service does any special deliveries for Non-Profit orgs and I cant find anything. I'm thinking that if you are interested in sending your dress then email me and I can give you all our Non-Profit details and when you go to post you could ask them if they will do you a special deal because of the nature of the package. I don't know if this will work but theres no harm in trying. If they do give you a special deal please let me know so that I can inform others.

Thankyou for all the interest that you are showing, and please don't forget to add a link to your blog so that we can get the word out!

Have a great day.

Bridesmaid dresses......check!

2008-12-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

I had a message from my Beautiful sister-in-law last night telling me that she will send me her unused bridesmaid dresses! She got them for her girls to wear for her wedding which was in September. Then she decided that she wasn't so keen on them after all and had other dresses made for them. So these ones were never even worn.

Alice I love you and miss you. Thank you for doing this for these women, Who knows maybe Nothando will use them for her wedding!

(That's Alice and my little brother Dom on their wedding day, aren't they beautiful?!)

How this idea was born.

2008-12-02T07:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend one of my staff member got engaged. In South Africa the Zulu people have to pay Labola (dowry) for their wife to be. This Labola is so expensive and for many of the grooms it takes them a very long time to save up. Then when Labola is paid for they have to save up to pay for the wedding etc. For many this causes alot of stress and for some couples that I know it has taken years for them to be able to get married. Many give up because it looks impossible.

I was wondering how I can help these brides, how I can relieve some of the stress. God spoke very clearly about what I was to do to help Nothano and her wedding plans. I have to let her borrow my wedding dress.
When I told her this today she couldn't believe it ( go here to see story of how God has this in His plan)

So whats the purpose of this blog???

I am going to start a program where women can donate their used wedding dresses to us here in South Africa so that we can lend them out to these beautiful women who have no money to buy or rent a dress for their special day. I want to take some of the wedding stress away and help them to look beautiful on their wedding day!

I am looking for all sizes, all styles, all colors. I am also looking for bridesmaid dresses of all types. In fact any female wedding wear would be awesome. I know you all have that bridesmaid dress that you wish you never had to wear!! Well send it over because I can tell you there are women here who would love your nightmare dress!!

If you feel that you can make this sacrifice please contact me and I will give you an address that you can ship your dress to.