Victoria Grech Masterclass Workshop

Hello lovelies! I have an absolutely gorgeous styled shoot coming up for you today, but before I post it, I wanted to tell you a bit more about where it came from. At the end of last year, I was invited to a very special workshop by Nicola of Propose PR – the kind of invitation that makes me so glad to be a blogger! UK photographer Victoria Grech was offering a one-day photography masterclass, just for us blog and planner types. Now, I’m not the world’s worst photographer, but it’s definitely no talent of mine. My dad is an awesome photographer, and luckily he’s taught me a lot, but as a result, I tend to just latch on to the same composition and overuse it. And I can honestly say I’ve never used a single camera on any setting other than ‘Auto’. At the same time, there are often bits and pieces I’d love to be able to take a quick pic of for the blog, but they always stand out as completely rubbish next to all the professional beauties. So I thought this workshop was basically the best idea ever.Read More

Durban Fun Engagement Shoot

Boy do I ever have a story to tell you about this shoot! A few weeks back, I had an email from Christy-Lee Hosking of Pickle Photography, submitting a super cute styled engagement session on the Durban beachfront. And instead of passing on the how they met story herself, she asked the bride (Megan) to mail me directly. Which is serendipitous, because if she hadn’t, I never would have noticed Megan’s surname on her email. And if I hadn’t known Megan’s surname, I wouldn’t have realised that she’s my cousin. What! Yep, my cousin, and not even such a distant one either. Megan’s grandmother was my grandpa’s little sister, and while we’ve met once (a loooong time ago), I would never have recognised her. But here we are, connected. Isn’t that cool? I know for sure that the grands are sitting up wherever they are, smiling about it. Anyway, this isn’t just a cool shoot because of my small world story – in fact, as I said before, it is adorable, thanks to the styling of Sarah of Urban Lace and Christy-Lee’s photography skills, not to mention the Durban Fun World backdrop. But Megan and Warren also have a really amazing story to tell about their journey to this point, and I couldn’t be happier for them. They got married last weekend – congrats, cous! And a big thank you to Christy-Lee for sharing this shoot and bringing us together.Read More

Making it Personal {Behind the Scenes of the SBB Branding}

New pics of me taken by the awesometastic Anneli Marinovich – thanks so much, Anneli!

Happy Friday SouthBound Brides! A bit of a personal post today… You know how I am always banging on about ‘making it personal’ and using your wedding to express something of who you and your husband-to-be are? Well, today I wanted to tell you a little bit about how I am applying this philosophy in my own business life, and to share a couple of aspects of my new branding that you don’t know about yet. Yep, that’s right, I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk. (Except that right now I’m limping, since I stood on a nail retrieving one of the cats from our back fence. Darn cats. ANYWAY.)Read More

Inspiration Board: Once Upon a Time

Good morning, lovelies! Before we get to today’s inspiration board (which I have been saving rather impatiently for you), I have good news and bad news. Let’s start with the good. Last week, I was absolutely thrilled and honoured to be included in a list on the Fair Lady blog of FL’s favourite tweeters! Not only is it always super satisfying to know that people like what I do here, but you guys, I grew UP reading Fair Lady. When I was a little girl, I would read my mother’s old stack cover to cover and my secret teenage fantasy was to work there one day. So this was extra special supery dupery exciting. It rocked. Merci, FL. (And if YOU don’t follow me on Twitter yet, do!)

Now the bad news. Sigh. I regret (and I really do mean regret – remember I’m an editor by trade, so missing a deadline totally cuts me up, especially when it’s one I set myself) to tell you that the new Cap Classique website will not be launching at the beginning of December. Unfortunately, some technical issues that I have no control over have got right in the way, and while the delay is only about 10 days, with Christmas coming, it only makes sense to put it off until January. Which kind of blows, but when I thought about it, I decided it was kind of cool. New year, new site, new everything. I really am disappointed, and sorry to keep you all waiting. I hope you won’t mind waiting just a liiiiiittle bit longer. Although, now that I’ve had to rejig my whole schedule for December, I do have something quite cool up my sleeve, which you’ll hopefully like. So there you go. Please don’t hate me!

And now, before I get all depro about this again, I am going to cheer us all up with some sparkle. YAY! As you know, gorgeous colours mixed in with metallics have been huge news this year, and I think we’ll see lots more of that this season. Here’s my little take on a sort of royal wedding/princessy theme, which includes my current colour obsession (navy) combined with the prettiest powder blue, champagne and then some sparkly metallics. I can’t get enough of it! It’s almost enough to make a grown woman believe in fairytales… ;)

Colours: Navy, powder blue, champagne & gold

Top row (l-r): Princess bride; navy and gold manicure; table setting (Jill La Fleur/Jose Villa); navy bridesmaid’s dress (Kristin Vining); wedding cake with crown (Jose Villa)
Row 2: ‘Believe’ gold letters; blue and gold sequin garments; metal crown; mini Moets
Row 3:‘Once upon a time’ invitations; place setting with pumpkins (Martha Stewart); bride & groom (The Brand Studio); ‘Happily ever after starts here’ sign (Studio Eleven)

Owning Your Brand

Hello, blog friends! Ok, cards on the table, I am a little nervous about this post. Not just because I am veering away from the pretty to share something more personal, and to discuss social media (don’t worry, I actually get back to weddings by the end of it!) but because I’m also posting images from my recent shoot with the fantastic Monica Dart. Monica was in London this summer, and Louise from Bijoux Bride and I asked her to let us play model. (You can see some of Louise’s shoot here.)Read More