Guess what arrived this morning. Both Alvina & Andrew and Rozanne & Souli are featured in the real weddings sections and we get to congratulate both couples – I told you guys you are rockstars.

we only submit photos to magazines, blogs etc at our clients request and with their permission.

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It’s just past midnight, we finally made it to the hotel in Cape Town, there’s a dent in the rental car and I’m feeling a little crispy around the edges. I think we’ve had about six hours sleep in total over the last three days, not counting the hour or so on the plane, the only thing keeping me awake at the moment is nasty hotel coffee and what I think is Mao’s Last Dancer on the television. I listen to it in Chinese, I’m too tired to read the subtitles. I wanted to write down some thoughts about this weekend’s wedding before I pass out for the night.

I often hear people saying that after the wedding all you have are the photos. I think more important than the photos are the memories. I’m not sure that any photo can evoke waking up on your first day of being married, watching the sunrise over perfect white dunes near the southern most tip of Africa, freezing cold wind coming from the south, whales breaching the water less than 200 meters away. Hugging each other, wrapped in his jacket, smiling, happy. I like to capture those moments, but I’m not sure that any photos can be a patch on those memories.

I did write down some stuff in my journal, but they are early morning ramblings. Awake because it’s too silent, I can almost hear my neurons snap. For someone used to the snap snap of an electric fence, sleep is difficult. I spent a lot of time staring across the vlei, De Hoop is one of those microspots that make you believe that the world is a beautiful place.

I was going to write a separate post about Souli and Rozanne’s day after shoot, up and awake at 6am after being asleep for only two hours because their photographer promised them the best sunrise on the dunes. The night before a smudged memory of family and friends partying and hollering de hoop hoop. Greek dancing and emotions. Plates and a whole lot of shooters – most common heard phrase of the night, “let’s have some shooters!” We saw whales, many whales, leaping out of the water like National Geographic was auditioning. Amazing people, out of this world decor and location … I could carry on.

So I didn’t get any vendor details, cause I’m terrible at that. I can tell you that De Hoop was incredible in terms of service, food and pretty much everything. The decor, as you can see was insane, I did ask where the cutout pop-up bird place mats came from (Kaalkop) ’cause I thought they rocked.

[ quick update : 12 Oct ] – the wedding was put together by the rockstars at Antoinette Events. V and I were super impressed with the organisation and efficiency, and I know that Rozanne and Souli were as well.

The videographer was Jacques from Guava Graphics who was very unobtrusive and generally a nice guy – highly recommended if you need a videographer in the Cape area.

Ok, once last thing, we take on very few destination weddings every year, I am petrified of flying, and V and I are both very grateful to have been able to shoot this one for you guys.

More pics from Rozanne and Souli’s off the map wedding on our facebook page.

More pics from Rozanne and Souli’s off the map wedding on our facebook page.

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I’m busy editing Alex and Reyna’s deserted island wedding, and I just can’t help smiling (and wanting to say Nature … with Zan). All I can say is that it’s freezing and I wish I was back in Zanzibar where it is warm and the food is out of this world.

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We almost always plan a day-after shoot when we do destination weddings, they almost never happen. You have to get up early, put the dress back on, get up early, oh, you also have to get up early the day after your wedding when all you want to do is sleep in late and have breakfast in bed. Alvina was determined, Andrew was game and I was kind of grumpy until I pulled back the curtains and saw the amazing light we had to work with. So, four hours after we went to sleep, I pulled on my swimming gear, put fresh batteries in the big black camera, sucked down all the caffeine in sight and we headed to Alvina and Andrew’s room. I was hoping that they had woken up, V was hoping that the caffeine would hit me some time soon. At one point she turned around and said to me, ‘Andrew must hate us right now’, I may have said out loud, ‘I hate us right now’.

The caffeine kicked in, the light was soft and subdued, Alvina was ready, in makeup, in her dress – what a rockstar!! – Andrew was sipping coffee in the corner when we arrived, also ready. Minutes later, the images on the back of the camera were looking out of this world. All was good, and then it was time for the underwater shoot. One day I’ll post some of the outtakes, let’s just say that buoyancy is a big issue when you’re dealing with such a shallow depth. We were also racing against the rain which in Mauritius doesn’t so much fall down softly as bounce off the ground. Anyway, I’m going to let you look at these pics on facebook, and just post a couple of behind the scene images

One underwater image – the rest of Alvina and Andrew’s day after shoot can be found on our facebook page

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After the Hindu ceremony in the morning, Alvina and Andrew had a civil ceremony that afternoon on the beach in front of Gin’ja. A couple of things stand out for me about the day. If you want frangipani petals for your impromptu flowergirl to throw while she’s walking, you ask someone to pick them for you off the plants that are growing everywhere. If you happen to have someone playing the guitar while you’re getting married, they may just play ‘Me and Mrs Jones‘ …. and if you’re photographing a beach wedding, you may have to crop out people walking across the bay on the water … to say we had an amazing time, both as witnesses to a wedding and as photographers, would be a major understatement. Oh, and mosquitoes in Mauritius buzz with a french accent – I kid you not.

Ceremony: Gin’ja at The Heritage Le Telfair
Reception: Seven Colours, Heritage Awali
Makeup: Talisa Lachman

Some more images from Alvina and Andrew’s out of this world wedding can be seen on our facebook page.

Some more images from Alvina and Andrew’s out of this world wedding can be seen on our facebook page.

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Kind of strange to be writing a blog post about Alvina and Andrew’s wedding. After about a million emails (rough estimate), a couple of meetings, plenty coffee and much anticipation on both sides, it feels like we’ve known them forever and they’ve become friends. Alvina and V trade medical advice (pretty sure), diet tips (probably) and knitting patterns (not really, but it amuses me to imagine that).
So yes, after what seems like a short eternity we were finally at the Heritage Le Telfair, ready to rock and roll. I think I’m pretty much going to let the pics speak for themselves. I just wanted to thank Pravina, Dusty, Joy, Prem, and Alvina and Andrew’s friends and family, wow, what a pleasure. We only take a few destination weddings a year and we are so glad to have been present at this one.
A quick quote before I show you some pics, cause I’m not really a quotes kind of person, from Black Uhuru, I think, “Your love and friendship for each other echoes in eternity”. Sounds about right.
These are from the hindu ceremony part of the day.

Ceremony: The Heritage Le Telfair
Reception: Seven Colours, Heritage Awali
Makeup: Talisa Lachman (0842484801 based in Johannesburg)
Videographer: Gonzalo Fanny – very relaxed and unobtrusive, and a really nice guy on top of that.

Some more images from Alvina and Andrew’s out of this world wedding can be seen on our facebook page.

Some more images from Alvina and Andrew’s out of this world wedding can be seen on our facebook page.

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from my journal:

Not really sure how many hours have passed, or even what day it is. The flight board says Monday, so I’ve been traveling for three days, but three days where and in what time zone? The large number of tranqs I’ve been downing as we keep hitting turbulence are making the memories a little soft at the edges. I’m about 10 time zones away from where I started, about an hour away, by fast boat, from the international dateline where you actually go a day into the past.

I’m beyond tired, a greasy Spanish looking guy that sat next to me on the plane from Joburg, had taken off his shoes and let the smell of his soaks permeate into the economy seating, the woman behind me kept kicking my chair (apparently its ok to do that in economy), and not even the tranqs I had taken had done anything for my sleep patterns.

I’ve been on steady diet of airline food, tranqs, so that I get on the plane and stay on it, and caffeine, so that I don’t get grumpy and annoy the immigration officials who are still beelining for me despite the fact that I’ve shaved off the goatee and covered up the tattoos. Today, biosecurity has made me unpack my bag and I’ve been selected for the random bag swab for explosives.

Its about 4am, local time, at the Christchurch airport and I’m gulping a large cappuccino that in my chronic jet lag I tried to pay for with a 10 pula note. There are people sleeping huddled on the airport floor. Some are in sleeping bags, some are wrapped in blankets and towels. Its freezing in here. They all seem to be huddled around the electrical outlets, laptops and ipods recharging. I contemplate finding a hotel for the night, but my flight leaves in four hours, I decide to join them. Only six more hours until I land in Queenstown. I’ll sleep then. The caffeine is slowly drip drip dripping into my veins. In a couple of hours I will be in a plane with propellers hitting serious turbulence, the guy next to me pulling out a book of Psalms and mumbling the words … this does nothing to alleviate my fear of flying.