The December break is over, summer in Jo’burg is here with a vengeance, heat like you wouldn’t believe, rolling thunderstorms every evening and that smell of freshness that you only get after a thunderstorm – not that we get much fresh air in Jo’burg.

So we did what any true jo’burger (Joe Burger?) would do, we left the city and headed for the country. Dullstroom to be exact – a weekend away photographing Alison and Jonathan’s very very pastoral wedding at the Dunkeld Country Estate. Rolling green hills, fish jumping in ponds, horses grazing in the fields, light filtering through a very flammable forest, it was like stepping into a Thomas Cole painting.

Along the way we managed to discover the world’s worst cup of coffee at the Mugg & Bean in Alzu, and were grateful when we arrived at Dunkeld to be greeted by Jonathan with a care package that contained amongst other things …. fresh milk for coffee. Someone give that man a Bells. Thank you guys for taking such good care of us.

I didn’t get any vendor details but I did notice that the guys were drinking Johnny Walker Gold Label before the ceremony.

There are more pics of Alison and Jon’s very very pastoral Dullstroom wedding on our Facebook page. If you were a guest or know them, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

There are more pics of Alison and Jon’s very very pastoral Dullstroom wedding on our Facebook page. If you were a guest or know them, you’re welcome to tag yourself in or leave them a message.

critchley hackle dullstroom wedding photos, dunkeld country estate, weddings at dunkeld estate, dror dual, dullstroom wedding photography, dunkeld wedding photography, red ivory lodge glass over pond picture, 

Way too many fantastic spreads from this one. A typical Dullstroom winter’s day, all grey, misty, roaring fires inside, chandeliers. Just altogether amazing.

critchley hackle dullstroom wedding, photographer chrichley, 

So I got some funny looks about my Mediterranean blood comments, but this winter has just been so damn cold. Anyway, I noticed that I haven’t been posting many ceremony shots lately, so here are a couple from Julie and Glenn’s wedding at Critchley Hackle. I’ve been processing quite a bit in lightroom recently which has been speeding things up a bit.

Yep, Julie and Glenn, got married at very very cool Critchley Hackle in Dullstroom, or Dullstream as a certain person would say. The most unstressed, calm wedding I’ve ever been to? definitely! The coldest? Quite likely, although when we shot the outside pics Julie was in her sleeveless dress and didn’t complain once – so maybe it was just me and my Mediterranean blood. The shortest ceremony? Yep. A rocking party, definitely in our top 5 wickedest parties, and if you know what a cockroach is, and have gotten down on the floor, then you were probably there.

Glenn and Julie wanted very unposed natural moment for their photos, rather than a lot of posed out-with-the-photographer-for-three-hours kind of stuff and we shot a ton of those, but I just wanted to show a couple of more classical wedding images. I’ve been getting a lot of comments about whether I take the posed couple shots as well as the photojourn stuff, and I thought a couple of images would be a nice answer. I went for a very classic look to their pics, because, well, sheesh, the venue was incredibly classic and on the edge of a fly fishing dam, rolling mists, it had this old school hipster style, with a smoking room where you could actually smoke! The even had this massive photo of Steve McQueen, my kind of spot. The whole thing worked really well with Julie’s dress and yeah, well here are the pics. I’m going to post a couple more over the next few days so check in and there should be some more.

. 

. 

. 

. 

… ok, just one more for today, cause this is a classic … click on it for a larger version …

Currently listening to Sawdust

dullstroom wedding venues, critchley hackle wedding photos, wedding venue dullstroom, wedding venues dullstroom, wedding venues in dullstroom, 

The season is about to start with a vengeance this weekend with a two day wedding out in Dullstroom. The batteries are charged (despite a 26 hour power failure – that’s right it was Monday), lenses have been cleaned, cameras have been serviced. At the moment, we’re just wrapping up the post production on Victoire and Nico at Rhuslancea.