Jane was sick as a dog and at home feeling sorry for herself whilst her brother was outside having a braai and lots of fun. Nick had had a terrible day at work and was invited along to this very braai. He knocked on the door and sick Jane was there to open it. The rest is history!

These two are so full of life! The are both Entrepreneurial with a capital E and seriously live their brands. Nick and his partners have the master shares of Vida Cafe in Durban (and that is where they had their first date!) He is also the sole distributer for Playboy Energy drink throughout Africa. Jane is a personal trainer AKA GI Jane and has a great pink studio in Durban North.

I just know their wedding is going to be an explosion of purple awesomeness and lots of bling and quirk. You guys have been so much fun to work with. Thanks for picking me!!

Make up: BIJOUX by Collette 0832644099

Pink Wall: Gi Jane Studio

Thanks for picking me guys!! Looking forward to your wedding at Netherwood later on this year!

A huge thanks to Kerry and Eve from Aristonattire for allowing us access. I so appreciate it.

Thanks to Tash for assisting

Credits to Drew Christie from Evolve Salon for doing Abby’s hair  031 5645035

Huge thanks to Theuns from Haibo for allowing us to use their wonderful space 0726744609 info@haibogroup.co..za

Thanks to Tash for assisting during her Xmas break!!!

There were so many things I loved about this wedding, the chickens and dogs running around, Cara’s gorgeous dress, the colourful bunting (which Cara sewed herself), the extra blue Karoo skies, the huge landscapes, the cute little Karoo houses, the fact that the wedding was in the backyard of their family farm house, the brown sheep …. I could go on and on. Most of all I loved all the people …… Everyone was just so hospitable and lovely and seemed involved in some way.

Cara and Matt thanks for picking me. I flipping loved our time with you!!!!! Huge thanks to everyone for being so wonderful to us (especially your folks).

CREDITS IN THE BRIDES OWN WORDS!

Venue: Mount Melsetter, my parents home.

Hair: Auntie Pat at Salon Vogue, Middelburg.

Make up: A gift from several friends: Our neighbour, Rene van der Walt, a bridesmaid, Kara Bunde-Dunn and my sister-in-law, Angela Ferrar.

Church flowers, bouquets and button holes: Church flowers were done by friends, Anne Pitout (the priest’s wife), Patty Lees, Lois Crighton and my mum, Candy Ferrar. Bouquets and Buttonholes from Leana’s Florist in Middelburg.

Flowers at the Venue: Our neighbour, Wendy van Lingen was head flower lady. Her husband Andrew did the toast to the Matt and I, the bride and groom. Wendy, Anne Pitout, Patty Lees and Lois Crighton got up early and arrived at Melsetter at 6 in the morning on Saturday to arrange the flowers. They kept them in the cool room until just before the ceremony at the church. Most of the flowers were ordered from Johannesburg through Leana’s Florist in Middelburg and the greenery and some others came from Wendy’s garden.

Andrew and Wendy lent us their dance-floor. Just before their daughter’s wedding in April 2009, their entire avenue of pine trees were blown down in a windy storm after heavy rains. In true Temple Farm style, Andrew made a dancefloor and various other wedmin bits and pieces from the pine trees. We only had to pay to have the dancefloor sanded and varnished.

The chair-tie ribbons came from Wrap-Co, Australia. Again, a friend (Nishanthi Gurusinghe) got them while she was there, then she posted them to me in New Zealand, then I shipped them to the farm.

The tea-towels (which turned out to be small bath towels!) were bought on sale from Briscoes in New Zealand. We bought them for our engagement party then we had them embroidered. I can’t even remember where we had them embroidered, somewhere in Palmerston North, New Zealand. It was a loooong time ago!!

I made the bunting! The colours were inspired by the movie, Monsoon Wedding. I wanted the bridesmaids to wear colours that suited them and that they felt good in so I tried to choose colours that would suit them (personality and colouring) within the ‘jewel-tone’ range. My friend Steph asked me to take care of her sewing machine as she was moving to Melbourne. With it’s service at the Bernina Shop in Hamilton, I got a free lesson. I needed it! From February to July I was sewing triangles. It was good to have such a big project as Matt sat his final surgical exams in May so I was kept out of his hair upstairs sewing while he sat downstairs submerged in notes and textbooks! I shipped them to the farm in about September/October and then in the last few weeks in the run up to the wedding, my mum, my aunt Lisa, Shirley and I were pinning and sewing the triangles onto the ribbons. We called our sewing time, our ’sweat shop hours’ – you know how hot the karoo is in January!!

The colourful straws and the party props at each place setting were from Etsy. I chose them and Kara bought and brought them for us as a wedding gift!

The luggage tags were bought online. Holly, my brother Guy’s girlfriend got them for us. I bought the letter stamps from Kikki K in New Zealand and together, my cousins Olivia, Lilian and her partner, Lolo, my sister-in-law, Ange, Holly and I stamped the M & C on the back. We also all made and stamped the confetti cones.

Katryn and I pruned the roses in the garden and collected the petals for the confetti. Everybody on the farm was charged with the task of turning the petals every time we went for a swim (which was often!).

The jars were collected by neighbours far and wide in the preceding months. Then brothers, bridesmaids, sisters-in-law were roped into cleaning and tying ribbons etc. They also collected the sand from the river for the clear 2L cooldrink bottle candle-holders that lit the parking and garden.

Brides Dress: Matt chose it for me! It’s a Reem Acra ‘Narcissus’. I bought it online from a bridal shop that was selling up in California and had it shipped to my host parents, Jane Carter and Duane Anderson’s house in Minnesota. They then bought it over to New Zealand when they visited in October. They’ve been to South Africa before and thought they’d rather visit us in NZ so we could spend some time together. Then it came to South Africa stuffed in our suitcase and was dry-cleaned, mostly to get the wrinkles out in Johannesburg. (Exclusive Drycleaners in Rosebank – they have a reputation for being the best when it comes to beaded gowns.) My friend, Fran Laidler picked it up and my uncle Dave’s partner, Shirley Finnemore then personally chauffered it to the farm. This involved sneaking it into the cockpit with the pilots, carrying it, arms out-stretched between airport to car etc and her son, Rupert sitting with it in the car while she ducked into Exclusive Books to pick up a present for Dave. When Dave saw it, he thought it was her dress so he said, “Isn’t that a bit over the top for the karoo?” What a story!

Bridesmaids Dresses: Oonagh, Olivia and Jo had theirs made in East London, Durban and London respectively. Kara wore a dress from a department store in Lincoln, Nebraska. She trawled shops and online stores for months beforehand and a few weeks before she left for SA, she found it on the sale rack and bought it for US$50! Karla wore my dear friend Sam’s dress. It’s a beauty – made by Ricochet, a New Zealand designer. Ironically, Matt asked Aaron, Sam’s husband, to be his best man but Aaron is in the midsts of his plastic surgery training programme and Sam is now 7 months pregnant. They live in Auckland, NZ so they were not able to be at the wedding. It was nice to be able to have their ‘presence’ acknowledged in the form of Sam’s dress. That was my something borrowed and something blue too by the way!! The flowergirls’ dresses were from Farmers, a New Zealand department store. I bought them on sale in January last year and mailed them out to the girls. Poor things had to wait a whole year before they got to wear them!

Groom’s Suit: An online order! Tailor-made by ‘Suitopia’ based in Sweden but made in Vietnam. The world is a global village indeed!

Venue: St Barnabas Church, Middelburg Cape and my parents home, Mount Melsetter, Middelburg Cape.

Cake: Adrienne Southey, my super talented neighbour and second-cousin. She came back from her job in Abudhabi especially!

DJ: Ian Visagie from Bloemfontein.

Dave Henderson, Matt’s dad married us. He was supported by our great family friend, Reverend Canon Fred Pitout.

As a wedding present, our wedding invitation was designed by Dave Craig in Palmerston North, New Zealand. We just had to pay printing costs. He helped us realise our ideas of a passport invitation. The stamp, signed by us both, is a scanned copy of the visa stamp I got the first time I visited New Zealand when Matt and I decided to get back together for good!

Anne Pitout and Patty Lees sang ‘Love One Another’ while we signed the registry and my cousin, Justin Southey played the music in the church and at home on the ’stoep’ (porch) while we were out getting photographed amongst the prickly pears! Sandiswe, Dennis and Julia who live and work at Melsetter organised some friends from a neighbouring farm to sing in the church before we arrived and as all of us girls walked down the aisle. This was such a moving part of the ceremony. When I got out of the car and heard their voices, my heart caught in my throat and my arms tingled with goosebumps in spite of the 40* heat. We wanted to pay each of them but Sandiswe came to me and explained that it was their gift to us so please could we not pay her and their choir….

My school friend Angie Lake (Angela Jane) made the bridesmaids earings and sent them over from London and my earings were bought online from Stephanie Browne, Australia.

Second Shooter: The wonderful Natasha Schoeman

This really irked me.

A few days later my sister sent me a link to an image on a photographer’s Facebook page. The image which they were displaying as their own was a total and utter rip off of one of my pictures that I blogged some time ago.

That’s when I decided it was time to speak out and say this: Duplicating and copying someone else’s work is just not cool! It’s seriously not cool for the person whose work you are ripping off. It could be seen as flattering at first but beside the fact it’s annoying and morally wrong, it kills your creativity and stunts your own personal growth.

Now before you start to tell me the theory that there are no more original ideas or thoughts. The theory that says that everything we think or see is somehow borrowed from someone or something else whether it be conscious or unconsciously. I will say to you, I am not talking about that today, I am talking about photographers seeing an image and then going out and duplicating it and presenting it as their work in their own portfolio.

You may say that the wedding industry is full of generic shots that clients want in their albums. You may say that the wedding industry is trend based. You may say that blogging has spurred this on with brides going onto blogs to find ideas for themselves. Once again I will say to you, I am not talking about that today, I am talking about photographers seeing an image and then going out and duplicating it and presenting it as their own work in their own portfolio.

Before I really get into this I just want to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with being inspired by something and using this inspiration to create a new image in your own way. (This is my humble opinion of course!) There is a huge difference between using something as inspiration and a photographer seeing an image and then going out and duplicating it and presenting it as their own work in their own portfolio.

I know I have repeated myself here but I just want to make it clear what my definition of copying is.

Here’s why it’s annoying when someone copies my work.

I am speaking from my own experience but I know that there are many others who feel the same. I put an insane amount of work into my craft. I spend hours looking at different imagery to inspire myself, I have spent years studying art, composition, light and technique. I have mood boards and visual diaries that I am always adding to and working on. I work hard at creating my ideas. So it really bugs me when someone comes along and just copies my work. It is the height of laziness. I also feel like the person is stealing from me when they sign the idea off as their own.

Here’s why copying someone else’s work is morally wrong.

If you are at school and you copy someone’s work during an exam it is called cheating.

If you tell someone that you came up with an idea when you didn’t it is called lying.

If you copy someone else’s words and present them as your own it’s called plagiarism.

If you take something that doesn’t belong to you without asking first it’s called stealing.

Now we all know cheating, lying, stealing and plagiarism are all BAD BAD BAD so just don’t do it!

Here’s why copying someone else’s work limits your own growth.

Let’s face it coming up with new ideas is hard sometimes. It takes a lot of work and dedication but when you crack it, and you see your own ideas come to fruition it’s just the most satisfying feeling in the world.

In order to grow creatively you need to keep pushing your personal boundaries therefore by merely being lazy and copying you are in fact just going backwards and stunting yourself. By replicating work rather than creating your own, you aren’t trusting or testing yourself enough to reach your true potential. I believe that everyone has something interesting to give and create. Trust yourself!

From a marketing and business level being unique is the one thing that sets you apart from other photographers which therefore makes you desirable. If you are constantly being innovative you become a leader rather than a follower and clients tend to flock to the leaders in an industry.

As you grow in your work, as your name becomes established, as you get excited about new ideas and happy clients so your self-esteem grows. As your self-esteem grows so you will become more confident. And funnily enough this is when you become more motivated and unique ideas flow freely.

So in a nutshell …. Instead of seeing an image and then going out and duplicating it:

Be Inspired, Be Daring, Be Creative, Be You!

Here are a few reasons  why. Mary and Garry left a Christmas decoration on the pillow of all their guests on the night of their nuptials. Mary made all of the cupcakes for their big day (and they were pretty much the best I have ever tasted …. sorry Mom). A couple of months before the wedding I got an email from Mary saying “I am in the jungles of Java and just doing a spot of wedding planning ……” Mary bought a card for her future husband years before she even met Garry and she gave it to him on the marriage morning along with a Tag Huer watch. Garry bought Mary some diamond earrings and had them delivered while the girls were getting ready. They surprised each other with the gifts. Mary and Garry adore their family and friends. Mary and Garry adore each other. Mary and Garry just so damn sweet I want to squish them!

Thanks for picking me guys. It’s all in the pictures!!!

Venue: Woodridge Country Hotel & Spa  www.woodridge-estate.com

Hair: Knotts Square Hair Salon, Nottingham Road 033 2666 545

Church flowers, bouquets and button holes: Dawn Pellew Flowers- holmelodge@axxess.co.za

Flowers at the Venue: Dawn Pellew Flowers- holmelodge@axxess.co.za

Wedding Decor:  Kerry’s Flowers and Decor kerrydinks@mweb.co.za / 0824119106 and Muirheads Hiring 033 394 3933

Brides Dress Designer: Lusan Mandongus, London www.lusanmandongus.com

Brides Veil:  Kathy Gantvoort www.dreamdaycouture.co.za

Bridesmaids Dresses: Boutique Dresses, London

Groom’s Suit: William Hunt, Savile Row, London www.williamhunt.co.uk

Groomsmen suits: Suit Yourself Hiring www.suityourself.co.za

Cupcakes:  Homemade with Love

DJ: Vivian Westergreen www.topjocks.co.za

Wedding Coordinator: Cindy Olivier – Woodridge 033 234 4423

Zulu Dancers:  Mooi River Dance Group, Manager-Sibusiso 0780542561

Guitarist & Singer: Leandros 0829297080

Second Shooter and Assistant: Tash

1. It’s really important to take photos for fun if you are a full time photographer.

2. Always look down when walking in Madagascar as people pooh in places one would’t expect in this country!

3. It’s not good to wake up and go straight to the computer, even though that is something I so often do.

4. Always practice new techniques before trying them out on clients.

5. The Ocean + Jax = Happy

6. Rock Roses are really easy to cultivate. Just let the leaves fall and watch the baby rock roses grow. Make sure they have plenty of sun and they seem to prefer living in pots.

7. I hate snails just as much as I hate mosquitoes.

8. As you get older gardening becomes a new thing (See comments above!)

9. Sometimes you have to get knocked down in order to understand who you are and how to fight for yourself.

10. One needs less sleep once you stop with the ciggies! Giving up smoking is bloody hard but so worth it!

11. When it’s too much, just say no!!

12. There’s always more than one side to a story

13. Chinese food is much nicer in China.

14. I can always count on my family and I am lucky to have special friends.

15. You can do pretty much anything you put your mind to.