Dave & Mariet’s Wedding Story Book
June 23, 2013. Pretoria-
Not every wedding starts with a poem as every wedding has a sequence of events – those precious moments in time which starts from the moment you start to plan your wedding.
Naomi. E Photography and Ngonyama Photography had the task to capture special moments during the wedding day of Dave and Mariet on camera – real timeless moments.
Every wedding is unique with its own thrills and stress and if you know the couple before the wedding your chances of capturing tender moments just increases.
After careful planning and a pre-shoot at the wedding venue, De Haven Oost Wedding Venue, just on the Cullinan/Bronkhorstspruit crossing just off the N4, it was time for Dave & Mariet to get married.
My partner, Naomi Myburgh, and I work together as a team but trade under the names Naomi. E Photography and Ngonyama Photography, respectively .
We had a shooting list of the essential photos, but had to create a Funky fun booth as the couple thought it would be fun to have their guests taking photos with all sort of funny attire and props. The wedding venue fortunately had a built in “photo booth” on the side of the dance area which we could use.
Just before 13:00 we left our home as the venue was not far away from us and arrived there just after 13:00, although the wedding ceremony was scheduled for 15:00. Mariet, the bride, was already dressed with her make-up nearly finished. She was radiant and looked stunning in her wedding dress. Naomi immediately started with the dress and make-up photos while I tackled the Reception area, Chapel and surroundings.
We got a message that Dave was on his way and would arrive around 14:00 which placed us under pressure to finalize some of our photos. Obviously the bride was nervous to get this part of the photo shoot over as she did not want Dave or the guests to see her in her wedding gown before the ceremony. Johan, the wedding dress designer, was fiddling around to have everything in perfect position for our photos.
The Bride and her bride’s maids wore boots, yes real western-style boots and with the laced dress it made a very good picture, actually it gave us the opportunity for stunning photos.
I popped in at the “Bridal Suite” for a couple of photos of the bride and her entourage.
Dave arrived after 14:30 which left me with little time to photograph him and his groomsmen. We did a fun setup at the Chapel where the groomsmen were “pushing the Chapel doors” to keep the groom inside.
Nikita van Heerden, one of the owners of De Haven Oost Wedding Venue, acted as wedding coordinator and marshalled her troops and the guests so that the proceedings could start on the scheduled time.
The Chapel is unique as its exterior is covered with corrugated iron sheets giving it the feeling of yesteryear. Most of the buildings and contemporary art works were done by Neville van Heerden, one of the members of this family owned and run business. The bell outside is huge – it is larger than most church bells and has a pleasant sound to it.
During a pre-shoot meeting we met Nikita and her team and arranged to check out an old dairy farm ruins nearby – this was an ideal setting for a shoot but it left us with little time to catch the available light on the day of the wedding. We only had a window of 45 minutes for our photos at the ruins.
Just after 15:00 the big bell rang 3 times –the entourage were lined up and a last minute make=up and shuffling of the dress and veil were made. The Bride’s mother lead her into the Chapel. The aisle was strewn with dead leaves and white flowers and at the end the Reverent and the Groom was waiting.
Instead of confetti they had the leaves of red roses in old type of buckets just outside the exit.
The marriage ceremony in the Chapel was on time and just before 16:00 the newlyweds appeared [fortunately I arranged with the guests to throw the rose leaves in the air and not at the couple and this gave us some stunning photos].
Now it was the time for the “cutting of the cake” and a photo shoot of it, but the sun was setting and we still needed time to get to the dairy ruins. Lucky for us it was only a 5 minutes drive away.
The one thing I loved about the shoot at the ruins was that it was only the professional photographers on the scene where we could setup our shots as we deemed fit.
The access road had a new layer of tar since our pre-shoot visit and we stopped quickly for a couple of shots before proceeding to the ruins. Here we took out our two-seater bench and set it up. We only had 45 minutes and the sun was setting. We had a couple of poses we wanted to photograph and managed to get all our photos, including the silhouettes.
Just after 17:00 we were back at the venue in time for the reception. With the approaching “super-moon” we concluded the formal group photos.
Between the potato and leek soup starters and the dinner [a real “boere-kos” dinner] all the traditional speeches were made.
The dance hall is a separate area next to the area where the reception was held and as I was taking my light metering I noticed the DJ, Martin de Jager [the in-house DJ], had a smoke machine so I organized with him to create a smoke column for the “first couple’s dance” . The smoke had the desired effect.
We thought our “photo booth” with all the props we brought along was not going to get enough attention – we were pleasantly surprised as the newlyweds used it to get photos with their guests. It was so popular that the guests used the different props and different “poses” for an array of fun photos. This fun and funky shoot extended beyond our contracted hours.
After we packed up and in the car we at last had time to lift our feet and have beer. What a wonderful wedding we were fortunate to record and we hope the memories we’ve recorded will last a lifetime.
Associates/vendors/suppliers for this project:
Photographers:
· Naomi.e Photography [Naomi Myburgh] cell 0837573713 web: http://www.naomimyburgh.wix.com/naomiephotography Facebook www.facebook.com/naomiephotography email: naomi.myburgh@gmail.com
· Ngonyama Photography [Loftus Viljoen] cell 0844410333 web: http://i33923.wix.com/ngonyamaphotography1 Facebook www.facebook.com/NgonyamaPhotography Blogspot: http://qqafricaphotography.blogspot.com/ email loftus@ngonyamarentals.co.za
Venue: [Wedding coordinator, Chapel, Reception, flowers, catering, DJ]:
· Nikita van Heerden, De Haven Oost Wedding Venue, Nikita van Heerden 071 671 51 76 Cell 082 384 7949, 39 Kaalfontein, 1001 Rayton, Gauteng, South Africa Web: http://dehavenoost.co.za/ Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/De-Haven-Oost-Wedding-Venue/171251052934844 email: events@dehavenoost.co.za
©2013 Loftus
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