The moment: No ocean wide enough

She's a New Yorker of Caribbean stock, and he's an Eastern Cape chap. Nothing could stop these two lawyers in love. By Sibongile Mafu

The bride is Caribbean, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lives between the Big Apple and Switzerland. He is South African, born and raised in the Eastern Cape. Meet the characters of this adventurous love story, which came to its natural conclusion in a Stellenbosch wedding.

The bride, Malika Hinson, is a corporate lawyer and the groom, Wamkele Mene, also a lawyer, works for the South African government.

The two met at St Lucia in the Caribbean. Wamkele was on holiday and Malika was attending the St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival. They started dating - and that eventually led to the sweet and simple story of their engagement.

Wamkele popped the question in New York, while his then-girlfriend was working on her computer. Next thing she knew, he was down on one knee with a ring.

The couple shared the news with their families at two large family gatherings, one in South Africa (before the formal proposal) and one in New York (after the formal proposal). Despite living in New York, the two knew they wanted a wedding in South Africa, so they called on the services of Wedding Concepts in Cape Town, who have helped tie over 400 knots.

The biggest challenge was co-ordinating travel for their guests, most of whom were travelling from the US to South Africa for the first time and wanted to take in all the country has to offer.

Malika says: "We used Travel Concepts (Wedding Concept's travel division) and SmarTours, a NYC-based tour company."

The couple chose Webersburg as their wedding venue because they wanted a private, modern winelands estate with a body of water.

Malika made her way down the aisle of their garden ceremony draped in a Monique Lhuillier dress, a designer whose work she describes as "sophisticated, fashion-forward and full of glamour and femininity".

Their luxurious four-tier cake alternated red velvet sponge with cream-cheese icing and granadilla sponge cake enrobed in smooth white chocolate collars and served with coulis.

When you have a party full of South Africans and guests of Caribbean descent, it is only natural that spontaneous song and dance will erupt.

From the ceremony to the cocktail hour to the reception, guests were dancing and singing. So a musical soundtrack accompanied most speeches - whether supplied by the DJ or the voices of the guests.

"It was wonderful and helped make our special day even more festive - just filled with jubilation," said the happy couple.