Holy Matrimony in Matjiesfontein

I’ve been thinking about the desert a lot lately. Maybe it’s the solitude, the clumsy, uneven dirt roads that go on forever or the lack of cell phone reception you get upon entry, but I feel like the Karoo is calling me, yet again.

This I suspect, could be owing to the fact that I (not so recently) visited one of the Western Cape’s tiniest and most obviously charming towns – Matjiesfontein. Described as an “outpost of Empire from a bygone era”, this town is straight-collared colonial and, according to local fables – haunted too.

The perfect place for a wedding of two of my most favourite people, you can basically have the town all to yourself, with the right amount (around 110). Matjiesfontein consists of: a hotel (pictured below), a motel, a coffee shop, a pub, a gift shop and a museum. That’s about it. And to be honest, they wouldn’t have it any other way. 

We arrived on a 37 degree day, had some champagne with the bride-to-be (for the nerves), got ready and sat, sweaty palmed, in the little pink church, flapping our fans and waiting for the lovebirds to get hitched.

After the ceremony, we enjoyed gin and tonics and a bus tour of the town. This consisted of 1X tour guide (comedian),1x BIG and very old red bus and ten minutes of driving 5km per hour – up the one street in the town and back.

After another G&T stop at the bar, we were taken down to a grass lawn where a marimba band entertained us while we drank home brewed pale ales. 

 As the sun sank, so we made our way to the courtyard for the reception. Delicious local food like Karoo lamb and Cape Salmon accompanied our plates and then our bellies as we laughed (and maybe shed a tear or two) during the speeches. 

 After the first dance, the night quickly escalated to something out of a movie! Wedding cake piñatas that exploded with little bottles of vodka, an amazing fireworks display as the clock struck 12 (with cake) and a secret glowstick dancefloor under the trees from 2am, where we drank red wine from the bottle and chatted until early morning. 

 Matjiesfontein is under 3 hours away from Cape Town, which means that it qualifies as a weekend away destination (well, to me, anyways.) It is just so PERFECT for a wedding venue, a big birthday, a weekend away with friends, or family, or just for two. It ignited a love for the desert that I never knew I had and I cannot wait to visit Matjiesfontein on my way to many more tiny towns, which I know are ready for me.