Schalk & Michele’s wedding was held at Schalk’s family farm in Wellington, Welbedacht. The reception was a very stylish event under a bedouin tent, over-looking their magnificent dam. With Michele’s experience as an interior designer, the details were nothing short of absolutely gorgeous! With loads of white (my favourite colour!) and touches of green.

When I saw Michele’s wedding dress, I totally fell in love with it! And those shoes were to die for!!

You’re going to have to be patient for this page to load, because I just couldn’t choose less photos. There were too many moments I loved! Here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

ps These photos are not allowed to be copied/published or used on any other site/blog/publication etc. with out prior permission of Christine.

Second Shooters: Vanessa De Villiers & Iaan Van Niekerk
Co-Ordinator: Janneke Bosman
Venue: Welbedacht, Wellington
Dress: Kobus Dippenaar
Hair: Jeanette
Make-up: Algria
Flowers & Decor: Petals – Flower Walker
Cake: Maggi from Edible Art Cakes
Videographer: Cape Town Weddings
Catering: Escoffier Catering
Music: Prime Circle and DJ socks

Mario and Demi are both Greek and when they booked me for their wedding, in Bloemfontein, I was very excited! I’ve never photographed a greek wedding before, so this was a highlight on my calendar.

Iaan and I arrived at the airport, where the AMAZING Liezl met us. (yes AMAZING!!, because she is the most friendly, energetic, consistent, professional and passionate co-ordinator I’ve ever worked with!)

The wedding day started with the tradition of ‘dressing the groom’ at Mario’s parent’s home. All the men of the family danced around Mario, to the beat of authentic greek music. They carried his wedding outfit with them, as they danced around him, as a sign of blessing. To be honest, this was a very emotional part for me. So special and honoring.

The ceremony was held in a small orthodox greek church, lead by their family priest, all the way from Greece.

The most interesting and extremely exciting part for me was the dancing. Something I’ve never experienced, but only heard of. The traditional dances was something like out of a movie! Everyone joined in and partied till the early hours of the morning.

*I’d like to apologize to Mario, Demi and their families for waiting so long to see their photos. Thanks for your patience and grace under these circumstances. It was an honor to be a part of your big day! I hope you enjoy the photos. * Christine

Assistants & second shooters: Iaan Van Niekerk & Christine Harding & Maryke Venter
Co-Ordinator: Liesl

There will be a few blog post following new week, with some of last years weddings, some new portrait sessions, new for the new year, as well as the update with the whole story about the robbers and how they were caught! But first, tonight we have the wedding of Tharine and Schalk on the blog.

Tharine and Schalk enjoyed their wedding day on the same venue, Iaan and I got married on, in 2010. Therefore, Kleinevalleij has a very special place in my heart! Here are some of my favourite moments of their wedding day…

Thank you to Yolande Marx and Iaan for assisting and second shooting on the day!

ps. This couple, along with all the other couples from 2011 have been eagerly waiting for their photos on my blog. I apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience dearly! 

Renette and Benn also requested that I come through to Cape Town to take a few ‘typical’ Cape Town pictures for them. They wanted some photos with the city and mountain in the back, as a memory of the location, as they live in Singapore. So we sneaked in a few photos, before they joined their guests for dinner.

If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you would have seen one of the spot I like to use for these kind of photos. The spot is perfect. It is elevated above the city, so you get some mountain and city in the background. But apparently you actually need a permit to shoot there, as it’s an unfinished highway and this I didn’t know… So as usual, I just took them there and started shooting, but without knowing they were shooting a Hollywood movie on the same spot, far in the distance.

While we were shooting, 5 cars rushed by us with a huge camera on a truck and there we were perfectly in their background… At that stage the sun was setting and they only had two shots left and we ruined the one…oops! Well, at least Benn and Renette will never forget that moment :) (I’ve added one shot where you can see the cars coming towards us :D)

enjoy!

My mom was the miracle worker in the past four months. She has been our project manager and she has been keeping the whole project together. Iaan and I had some ideas, but she and my dad made it happen.

I never knew anything about building, but I found out much more as the project continued. Thank goodness my mom knows so much! :) And one thing I learned is that the paint colours are NEVER what they look like on the sample sheets :)

Amongst the house building, I realized we had to be out our current house by 30th November. Candice (my other miracle worker and PA) was the chief in charge of packing, organizing and keeping me sane. Candice took up the task of packing up our offices and parts of our house. While I was editing with one hand and answering emails with the other, I helped her to ‘orginize’ the packing in such a way that we still know where everything was, because in the back of my mind, I knew we probably have to stay with my parents for a few weeks before we can move into our new house.

So why am I writing all of this. Well, basically just to let you know moving, packing and building a house is super exciting, but loads of work and stress. Yesterday, we finally moved out of our old home and the boxes are standing in storage till we can move into the new place. Because of all of this, I still have a few emails waiting to be answered. But I’m working with all 10 fingers at the speed of white light. So I promise they will be answered soon. And some blog post coming your way too :)

Amongst all the chaos and boxes and duck tape and a random informal office setup in my parent’s dining room, I’m happy. I feel this is a beginning of a new season. And to top it all, my dear friend Lizelle Lotter posted the photos of our styled shoot in the raw, unfinished house today. Iaan and myself had the idea of doing a shoot in our new house and I’m so glad we did it!! What an awesome shoot to remember this new beginning (click HERE to see the full shoot). Thank you to Foci for their lovely couch!

Blessed, blessed and blessed is all I can say.

Thank you to Lizelle for the AMAZING AWESOME photos! And thank you to everyone that’s making this dream come true, especially my dad that’s helping us!! We are forever and ever grateful. Thank you to mom and dad putting up with all our stuff in your dining room. We promise this is not a permanent arrangement! 

I woke up the morning of the 8th of October and when I looked out of the window, I realized it was going to be a ‘I’m definitely wearing my boots’ day. The rain was pouring down and it was totally over cast. And yes, I was booked to shoot Jürgen and Julia’s wedding that day.

The two of them flew in from Austria and wanted to get married on the beach that day, but needless to say, the wedding was moved inside their guest house in Camps Bay. So with very few options outside, I found a gorgeous little corner with white walls and a little roof, that worked very well for the photos. The white and rounded window on the left gave me the feeling like I was in Greece :) (yes I have a wild imagination :)

Lucky for us, it dried up for a few minutes after the ceremony, where we could do some photos on the beach. But my favourite of all, is that black and white portrait. How goegous is her eyes!! Love it!

Enjoy! x

Wedding Co-ordinator: Nadja & Jeannette Conradie from Prime Moments

Zane and Cherralle’s wedding was a few weeks ago at Simon’s in Groot Constantia Wine Estate. Zane says when he saw Cherralle for the first time, it was truly ’love at first sight’! And that’s something I could see between the two of them :) Despite the little bit of nervousness I sensed before the ceremony, they were both totally in love and such a lovely couple to photograph!

As a photographer, light is one of the most important aspect of photography and lucky for them, the light on their wedding day was gorgeous! Thank you Catherine Mac for holding the reflector like a true pro and for second shooting with me! :)

Last week I posted some of Zane and Cherralle’s photos in black and white. But this week I’m sharing some in colour. Enjoy! 

While I was editing Cherralle and Zane’s wedding photos, I played around with some of my favourite images and decided to make a set of black and white, film looking images for the couple. Who said digital can’t look like film? :)

These are just a few of the images I really love. But the colour version will be posted on Monday. Enjoy!

ps Photographers: These film looking presets for Lightroom will be sold on www.kiki.co.za in December. So if you’re into a film look, keep an eye out on the tools section on KIKI.

Nina and Michael both work on a yacht in the Mediterranean, where they met a few years ago. Nina is a girl from Veldrif, South Africa and Michael is an English boy.

Michael & Nina had their big wedding celebration on Nina’s family farm, Doornfontein. If I remember correctly, the farm has been in their family for seven generations. The wedding had a very vintage, country side and personal touch. Nina walked down the aisle in her grandmother’s wedding dress, which was very special! Then later during the afternoon she slipped into another vintage dress, her mom bought at a second hand shop. The dress was made out of beautiful antique silk.

At the back of the farm, they had a field with a very iconic tree, which I totally loved! So we used it in some of their couple photos. And how cute was the dog with the bow around the neck?

Enjoy! x

Second shooter: Vanessa De Villiers
Venue: Doornfontein, Veldrif
Flowers: Nicola Pretorius from www.theprettyblog.com
Dress: Vintage dress from her grandmother
Make-up: Bianca Groenvelt
Food: Dish Food & Social
Video: Ian from VOF 

Some of you might remember this couple from one of my first workshops. Daniël and Andrea are friends of my sisters and they went to varsity together. When I needed models for my workshop a few years ago, Lydia (my sister) suggested that I ask them. So, the two of them modeled for the workshop and I totally fell in love with them! They are SO CUTE! Totally adorable and super in love! A photographers dream!

Their wedding took place on Rockhaven in the Elgin Valley. The wedding was the first big one for my summer season and the weather played along beautifully!

During the service (just after the first kiss), the minister dared Daniël to create a Mexican wave amongst the guests, by running up the aisle. After the Mexican wave he had to kiss Andrea again. Daniël was totally up for it and those moments made some pretty funny photos :)

Andrea’s beautiful dress made by www.magdagrove.com

Enjoy! x