If you’re a wedding photographer you often get the ‘what is the wildest/weirdest/oddest/coolest thing you’ve seen at a wedding’ question. I go blank, nothing, nada, my mind is a Siberian landscape, empty. Yesterday at Shepstone Gardens the groom hypnotized a chicken. There, I’ve said it, the coolest/oddest thing that’s happened to me at a wedding is the groom hypnotizing a chicken. Right, so back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

You’ve got to admit that a groom who can hypnotize a chicken is pretty cool, and after the obligatory banter from the groomsmen having to do with how he managed to get the bride to go out with him our photoshoot got underway. I still think it was cool, and I guess most guys at heart are still that 15-year-old who think hypnotizing chickens is cool. Ok, ok, back to the wedding.

Bryan and Dom were supercool to hang out with, Dom even brought a chocolate bar because there is a rumor floating about that I’m hypoglycemic, just fun and always keen for a bit of a laugh and a royal wave. They, or is it just Bryan, have a serious book fetish which they incorporated into their decor and for a while I wanted to just post that bit from ‘The Notebook’ that Bryan quoted in his speech, but then I wouldn’t have been able to tell you about the chicken.

Before we post some of the wedding photos, I just wanted to give a shout out to Eve from Splendid Affairs who did the co-ordination, decor and flowers. Every email we sent out over the last month was swiftly responded to, she and V worked on the timelines so that we had time to do everything and nothing was rushed and Dom and Bryan even had a few minutes to watch the sunset, and here comes the quote, simply one of the best coordinators we’ve worked with in a long time.

I even have a list of the other suppliers so I can mention them. The food was by Taste Explosion (fantastic as always, although I couldn’t bring myself to eat the chicken kebabs with the now unhypnotized chicken watching me), and Ultramel was the DJ who kept the dancefloor going without resorting to the usual wedding tunes.

more images from their rocking wedding on our facebook page, and a reminder about respecting our copyright.

more images from their rocking wedding on our facebook page.

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We were at Shepstone Gardens this weekend for Sarika and Nico’s seriously classic wedding, filled with symbolism and family history. I love weddings with a really strong sense of the coming together of two families and a sense of having come from somewhere, framed photos of past weddings and mom’s dress incorporated into Sarika’s style. In case you didn’t notice Sarika rocked a serious Marilyn vibe, she also couldn’t stop smiling and laughing, actually neither did Nico. Too easy photographing such happy people.

Do you remember Madel and De Clercq? She’s the bride in that image where the tree bark looks like a wing at Anderland – one of my favorite photos. Anyway, they’re good friends with Sarika and Nico and we got to see them this weekend. Really cool to see old clients and have a quick catch up.

We were out in the sun, a warm winter’s day, beautiful views across Johannesburg, the sound of the upright bass mixing with the hooting of taxis and a classical guitar, a very chilled happy afternoon. Killer bee wedding. I also got to shoot with our super stylish friend Andrea, who is always a pleasure to spend an afternoon with.

more images from Nico and Sarika’s wedding can be found on our facebook page.

Another quick note to please not steal our images – you can find our usage fees and conditions on our vendor page.

more images from Nico and Sarika’s wedding can be found on our facebook page.

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Did I ever tell you that my mother’s side of the family is Italian? When I was young, like in single figures, they used to speak to me in a mixture of Italian, Hebrew and Arabic – I was a very confused toddler. So Saturday I was at Shepstone Gardens and Maria’s mom turns to her and says something in Italian, and I’m instantly transported to my grandmother’s balcony, sun shining on my face and everything just being ok. The kind of ok that you grow out once you hit teenagedom. Earlier I’d spotted them setting up a cappuccino machine in the lobby, and I could hear the throaty sounds of the Maserati that had arrived to take Maria to the church. It was promising to be an awesome wedding.

Ok, so pretty much everyone was a rockstar at this wedding. Craig and Maria, just super fun to be around, kind of shy at being photographed, but in a cool 1930s Hollywood kind of way. Everyone was just cool, and it was just a huge big family affair, kind like I imagine a backyard wedding in Italy would go down, right down to Maria’s dad handing out grappa at the end of the evening.

Not really much to add to that, my hand still won’t bend to the right, I feel like I’ve gone 12 rounds with that guy in the Twista Chopper infomercial. That beautiful winter light we’ve been having is coming to an end and the richer yellower tones of spring are starting to kick in. I will blog about RE.INVENT at some point, if you came, thank you we really appreciated it.

Ok, some pics, more pics of Maria and Craig’s killer bee winter wedding can be found on our Facebook page. Also a reminder to please not steal our images.

Phew, that was a lot of pics, errrm there are more on our facebook page.

BTW if you’re thinking of going unplugged for your wedding, apparently all the cool kids are doing it (who knew!), we spotted some templates for wording at Offbeat Bride – I do really like Ariel and her badass brides.

I generally don’t mind other people photographing as long as it isn’t during the ceremony or the portrait shoot, but if you’re worried, have a chat to us, we’ve been to a lot of weddings.

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the low key portrait and how to create that kind of lighting when you’ve only got a couple of minutes and no control over the environment you’re shooting in. It is a very underused technique in wedding photography. I think it is a kind of cool effect. This one is a window lit portrait at Shepstone Gardens.

Its been an odd two weeks, I’ve finally made the big switch to a Mac based studio and it hasn’t stopped raining (not related I hope, or I may be starting on a family sized ark really soon). So this is my first all mac wedding, I love the speed but miss all the shortcuts, actions, scripts and other bits and bobs that had to be left behind on the PC.

I’m going to let the pics from Dave and Emma’s Shepstone Gardens wedding speak for themselves this week, with maybe a bit of a blurb under each one.

I’ve seen a couple of searches on this site for ifiles – there are more details here. Please note however that there no plans at the moment to print more.

joe buissink photography, 

What I love about Shepstone Gardens is that its kind of like having a wedding in your garden, very intimate, very Great Gatsby, very relaxed, you always kind of expect a jazz quartet to be playing in the corner or maybe a busker walking in off the street. Except that we’re in Joburg and you don’t really want anyone walking in off the street, but close enough for rock ‘n roll.

I didn’t get suppliers details, cause I’m terrible about that, and I was having too much fun watching Ryan do ‘the Elvis’, kids messing about with the balloons and the guests eating candy floss in between cocktails. Wait, the bar was by liquid chefs. One supplier is better than nothing. Loads of pics today.

Apologies for posting so many pics …

kirsty ryan co za,