If you aren’t in the loop or aren’t in South Africa, it’s been one wet summer out here. The Northern Cape is in flood, the Orange River has burst its banks and wedding season in Johannesburg has pretty much been all about wedding photographers complaining about the rain. I like the rain. I love the spontaneity that it brings to the day, the atmosphere it adds to the ceremony, and just the fact that it forces us as photographers to create something different. Working with softer light, moody skies and that smell of highveld air after it has just rained. Nice.

So we weren’t phased at all when it started pouring down during Isadore and Riaan’s ceremony at Red Ivory, come to think of it neither were they. I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve – James had just finished building a killer bee office and I had some ideas for a couple of shots I wanted there, there was that bit of green veld I had spotted on the drive in which had an amazing view of the mountain and would look really cool with an umbrella, and have you ever seen backlit rain. Beautiful.

So very relaxed and happy bride and groom – I do really like accountants, they have the best sense of humor – the two cutest flowergirls, and a seriously moody day. Check.

More photography from Isadore and Riaan’s rockstar wedding at Red Ivory Lodge on our facebook page.

The most difficult part of putting together a wedding post is deciding what images to put up on the blog. You want to show your best images, something different from the last blog post, but also something that shows off your skills as a photographer – the blog is a marketing vehicle for the studio. I also don’t want to be one of those studios that shows 100+ images from a wedding where you don’t know anyone, and takes hours to load a full page.

Our compromise this year has been to put a couple on the blog and a bunch more on facebook which loads much faster, has thumbnails and has become the web for a lot of people. Where was I going with this, oh yes, we show images on the blog and on facebook which we feel make us different, we do still shoot some of the standard images that have become associated with wedding photography, like portraits of the bride looking directly at the camera, and your more standard bride and bridesmaids, bride and family kind of images. I’m just not sure that you would be interested in seeing those images on the blog, maybe I’m wrong.

Anyway, more photos from Isadore and Riaan’s rockstar wedding at Red Ivory Lodge on our facebook page.

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New Year’s Eve and we were at Red Ivory Lodge for our last wedding of the year – it being New Year’s Eve and all. My lasting memory of the day is definitely Candice trying to keep a straight face during the portrait session, or maybe Candice and Justin trying to keep a straight face during the ceremony as Justin tried to fit the wrong ring on Candice’s finger, had a momentary look of concern on his face and burst out laughing a split second after Candice did. The priest scrolling on his kindle? Candice with oversized fake ears and a blow-up guitar? Justin with a tiara dancing with a woman wearing a fake mustache? All candidates, and in between, plenty of laughter.

What a killer bee wedding, and probably the nicest new year we’ve spent in a long time.

Midnight and James’ crew were passing around springbokkies (a green creme de menthe and Amarula cream shooter that always reminds of touring with the Springbok Nude Girls, and Hestrie Cloete – spring bokkie!). V and I hardly ever drink, maybe one or two beers a year – but we decided to toast the end of 2010 anyway, the springbokkie smoothly unknotting the kinks in my neck and marking the beginning of what we hope to be a new chapter in our lives. We wish you and yours the best for the coming year, thank you for your support throughout 2010.

Makeup: super talented Cathy Heaton
DJ: Jerome and Chantel from Fast Forward Entertainment

if you’re a facebook person, there are even more pics from Candice and Justin’s killer bee Red Ivory wedding on our facebook page

if you’re a facebook person, there are even more pics from Candice and Justin’s killer bee Red Ivory wedding on our facebook page

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Friday, Red Ivory Lodge. Somehow this is how I’d imagined two people who had been dating for 17 years would be getting married. Relaxed, at ease with everything, a lot of emotion amongst the family, and a killer bee view across the Magaliesburg. A first dance to Depeche Mode’s ‘Somebody’ gets top marks from everyone including the very strict Russian judge.

Some vendor details:

DJ: Sean Torres
Video: Nick and Santi from DVI
Decor/flowers: Don’t quote me on this, but I think I saw Cindy from The Bloom Room leaving as we arrived.
Venue: Red Ivory Lodge, one of our favorite venues – James is always there to make sure things are running smoothly, the food rocks (The onion soup with Camembert!) and the view/location is out of this world.

You can see more from Mark and Melissa’s Red Ivory Wedding here.

So the season has started and we’ve been seeing a lot of new clients, chatting to them, the general consensus seems to be that they’d like to see more blog images from each wedding. We’re going to try something new this season and post an extended version of the wedding on our facebook page – yes we’ve finally joined the rest of the world and have a facebook page! – so a short, tight edit for the blog and an extended version for facebook. Click here to see more images from this wedding.

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