Colourful Bo-Kaap Engagement Shoot

Today I get to introduce you to three awesome people. First of all, is Cape Town photographer Charlene Schreuder. Charlene sent over this ahhhdorable engagement session, all shot in the Bo-Kaap, a fabulously colourful area of Cape Town (also known as the place I landed up instead of Plumstead when the satnav on my last rental car went crazytown on me… I’m just good with navigation like that). I fell in love with it, and with the couple in the pictures, who show how to absolutely rock an e-session – they’re fun, they’re playful, they’re affectionate, they’re relaxed, they’re incredibly photogenic. I guess it’s no surprise that not only are they Charlene’s dear friends, but are brilliant photographers themselves – meet Kerry and Luis of Piteira Photography in Lisbon, Portugal. (And sometimes also of Cape Town, South Africa, in case you thought our friends in Portugal had all the luck!) Every time I look at Charlene’s pictures I have a new favourite, and I know you will love them too.

First, a word from Kerry on how she and Luis fell in luuurve:
Luis and I met in 2005 while working as photographers for a cruiseline company. He was already on board when I joined the ship and we hit it off almost immediately, we just got on really well like we’d know each other for ages. Then, one fateful night in the Crew Bar… it was “Disco Night” and the dance floor was packed. We were dancing together, I was drinking a beer and Luis pulled one of his famous moves, accidentally smacked the end of my beer bottle into my mouth… and broke one of my front teeth. In half. No… really. In half.
It hadn’t been my first beer of the night, so I was surprisingly un-fazed, and in the end the worst part was that I had to wait a week to get it fixed…Our first date was over coffee in Helsinki, Finland.

We had been talking about marriage for a while, so the proposal itself wasn’t a complete surprise, but he had me choose the engagement ring without knowing it, which I thought was quite sneaky! And clever. A good friend of mine worked in the fine jewellery boutique onboard and when work was slow I would hang out with him in the shop and try on all the fancy-pants jewellery just for fun. One day he was all “Dahling, we just got a stunning shipment of sapphire rings in, you must try them all on!” Luis knew that sapphire is my favourite stone and that I have no love for diamonds and had obviously prepped my friend… So I tried them all on and picked my favourite and then went back to work and didn’t think any more of it. And then there it was when he proposed a few weeks later!

Ah, how cute is that? SO cute!