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
I have something quite different for you today. As you know, I absolutely love and admire the South African wedding photography community and am so lucky to showcase their work on a daily basis, but of course, as I spend so much time on international blogs, there are some international photographers whose work I have come to be in awe of. Some are what I’d consider the really big hitters – many of you will be able to guess the kind of names I’m thinking of, and one of these is Jonas Peterson. A photographer whose work I respect for its uniqueness of perspective as well as richness of narrative and emotion, Jonas is based in Australia (although he shoots many destination weddings) and has been named one of the Top 10 wedding photographers in the world. He’s a big inspiration not just to me, but to many photographers, and in fact taught a workshop in Cape Town a while back. But I didn’t think I’d ever actually be able to share one of his weddings on SBB – after all, we only feature South African weddings on these pages, and Jonas’ work is very much in demand in the blogging community. So as you can imagine, when the opportunity arose for me to do so, I leapt at it! Last week, Jonas took the unusual step of offering up his latest wedding (which is actually a special two-parter in both Sydney and Cape Town) to bloggers on a non-exclusive basis, and when I found this out on my weekly blog hop, I got straight on the email to ask if SBB could be a part of it. I was thrilled to get a ‘yes’. So here we go: no info from the bride and groom, and no patter from me on the wedding details, just the chance to revel in some astonishingly beautiful pictures. For me, they really capture the wildness and the grandeur of the Cape scenery, and those gorgeous radiant shadows round the mountains as the sun begins to set. Take a deep breath, and dive in.Read More
Regardless of whether anything is actually purchased off it, setting up a wedding registry really is fantastic fun! Having my very own barcode-gun-in-hand-moment was definitely in the top five of wedding planning experiences that I was excited to have. And when we saw that O.live Chemistry of Living was one of the stores that the Bespoke Wedding Registry worked with we immediately knew that we wanted to register with them. Not only were the items that Laura from Bespoke Wedding Registry showed us stunningly beautiful, but the ‘contribute towards’ feature that they offer on the website that they set up for you allows people to spend any amount they like whilst contributing to bigger ticket items. So we were able to choose freely, even putting things like an ice-cream machine and a Kitchen Aid grain mill on our list. :) And as it turns out, I am a gravy boat person. Since registering I have, on more than one occasion, found myself falling in love with all different kinds of beautiful gravy boats. Gravy boats, Mason Cash mixing bowls, Egyptian cotton sheets and singing kettles now make me excited in the way that stationery excites those people you see smiling at the all the books and pens in CNA (Justin). And Laura is AMAZING. She was able to find everything we asked her about – taking on new suppliers to make sure our gift registry was just perfect for us. Don’t these just make you so happy?
Good morning, lovelies – did you have a fantastic weekend? Get up to any Halloween antics? Today’s board is one of my own inventions – sort of a mix between my recent Moroccan influences and a decadent art deco interpretation of Egyptian style. The colours – black, white and gold – are classic for an evening celebration of course, and paired with pretty luxe details like these beautiful bridesmaid dresses, gold-detailed glasses and those sandals, would make for a really lovely wedding. The bride’s makeup would be dramatic, and she’d wear a stunning mantilla – maybe with a flash of sequins on her dress and a henna tattoo. With so much going on with the table settings (love these print tablecloths, by the way, even if Kim Kardashian did use them), I’d keep the rest of the decor relatively simple – isn’t this tent-like draping a simple and lovely way to do things? The stationery would be a designer’s dream, and I’d combine several rich patterns in the three main colours. I would LOVE to see someone pull this off!
Sjoe. I have been getting more reader requests for inspiration boards than I can keep up with, but I absolutely love hearing from you and will get to as many as I can, so please do be patient! Our second board for the week is for Kelsey, who is planning a summer wedding at the college she and her fiance attended. I’ve seen quite a few college weddings on US blogs, and I think it’s a lovely place for a wedding – something I sort of wish we did in SA. Mind you, I don’t think you could pay me enough money to get married at the ugly shoebox that was the Stellenbosch arts building! Anyway, I digress. Kelsey dreams of a wedding that’s delicate, simple and romantic, and wanted to include both lace (because of the pretty vintage factor) and stones, because her fiance proposed while they were skipping rocks on the Boise River. How adorable is that? I love this sort of personal touch, and luckily I have come up with some really cute ideas. Kelsey’s palette is absolutely dreamy, and incredibly contemporary – light blue and light grey are such an of-the-moment colour combo. LOVE. I’m envisioning a classic wedding with some pretty but not too fussy touches. I adore the idea of a blue or grey wedding dress, but bridesmaids in these shades are just as wonderful, and I’d recommend bringing in quite a bit of sheer fabric if possible (also a big trend for 2013). The lace motif comes in through a lacy wrap for the bride, pretty lacy stationery (I wouldn’t use too much actual lace on the tables, to keep it unfussy), a lace decoration on the cake and even a lace backdrop for the photobooth. Flowers are mostly white, as is the rest of the table decor I’m picturing. (If Kelsey would like to keep it simpler, she could scale down that table decor.) For a vintage touch, I’d include simple details like ‘something blue’ embroidery, piles of ‘love letters’ tied together with ribbon (a new take on the book table decor trend), and how adorable are these crochet covered stones? The stone motif was the most fun to include – I absolutely heart the runner, because it reminds me a little of a riverbed (so appropriate here) but other ways to bring them in are though giving your guests wishing stones to hold during the ceremony, or stones to write on as a guest book alternative, stones inside hurricane jars with candles on the table, or even stones covered in clay with names stamped in as place cards (although not all at once please!). The end result is so pretty and romantic, don’t you think? Hope you agree Kelsey – good luck with the rest of your planning!
It isn’t every day that I get a couple making a return appearance on SouthBound Bride. Sometimes I hear news of babies and travel adventures from your photographers, sometimes you brides become fellow bloggers or industry pros, and I imagine one day I’ll bump into one of you on the street somewhere (although I probably won’t say hello, since you’ll have no idea who I am!). But today I get to welcome back one of my first couples in a styled photo session, which is actually very exciting. As soon as stylist Tamalin Braun sent over this stunning ‘loveshoot’ (like a cros between an inspiration shoot and a couple shoot – so cute!) I recognised Lauren and Riaan from their wedding (back when we were Cap Classique) – after all, it wasn’t easy to forget their breathtaking wedding pictures in the apple orchards. It’s so special to see them – two years on – still as in love as ever. The theme of the day was ‘I wrote a letter to my love…’ and I absolutely love the dreamy, slightly boho images shot in a canola field with Lauren and Riaan playing model. Aren’t they beautiful? Photographer Tiffany B. is the rockstar behind the camera, and I just love how she’s captured all the little bits and interactions, not to mention that delicious light. Thanks so much for sharing Tam and Tiffany!Read More
Good morning, SouthBound Brides! We’re ending our run of real weddings for the week with a super fun vintagey circus-inspired affair in regal shades of purple. How fun is that? The couple – whose motto is to have fun – went all out with an elephant motif, custom stationery combining their family crests and oodles of cute details. I’ll bet their guests had the biggest smiles on their faces all night – as did the bride and groom, as you can clearly see in the beautiful pics by fab Joburg photographer Quentin Mills.Read More
Here’s a random trend: oversized letters. I’ve been noticing these in weddings and events from the US to South Africa, and they really appeal to my sense of fun. And we’re not talking the kind of big letters you might buy in a decor shop that you and your hubby can hold sedately for your photos. No, when I say big, I mean giant. Letters almost as big as you are, bigger sometimes. Aren’t they AWESOME? Frankly, there’s no rhyme or reason to include these in your decor… but there’s no rhyme or reason not to. It will definitely make for amazing pics, and is something your guests will be talking about. And from what I’ve picked up in my search, they’re not even the end of the world difficult to DIY. You could go for your names, your initials, or even a word like ‘love’ or ‘celebrate’. Or why not get super creative and spell out something unusual? Either way, this is a trend that I L-O-V-E-love.Read More
There’s nothing sweeter than a girl-meets-boy-next-door-story, is there? Well today’s couple are literally the boy and girl next door (or across a park anyway), who first fell in love on the swing set and married fifteen years later. So adorable! I just love their pretty wedding, and the bride’s relaxed attitude about it being a rainy day is something anyone could learn from! But I think my favourite thing about their Delsma Farm wedding (or the decor, anyway) is that it’s such a fun twist on the shabby chic decor we’ve seen a lot of this season. It has the main ingredients: mismatched florals, proteas, books tied together with lace, striped tablecloths; but translated into a yellow and grey colour scheme it’s completely fresh. It just shows that you can take a style and really make it your own, be playful with colour, and that adopting a style doesn’t have to just mean one thing. The beautiful pictures full of light were taken by awesome Adene Photography.Read More
I don’t know about you, but I LOVED today’s wedding, and I’m so happy to share Mareli and Grant’s video from Vision on Fire this afternoon. You can see all the colour of their creative decor, all the feeling of their ceremony and speeches, and how much fun they were having with their guests. Thanks so much to Ian for allowing me to share this!
