I drove to Dullstroom, in Mpumalanga yesterday morning, to take photos at Ian and Kerry’s wedding.  It was held at the gorgeous Dunkeld Country Estate just outside the town of Dullstroom.

What a gorgeous wedding!! Ian and Kerry are such an awesome couple and it was really evident that they are so well loved by their friends and family.  Not only that, but there were over 90 people at the wedding, which is so special considering it was quite far for everyone to travel.

Venue: Dunkeld Country Estate
Bride and Bridemaid’s dresses:  Joss Designs
Groom and groomsmen’s suits: Eurosuit
DJ: James… (who was possibly the best DJ I’ve come across so far, so I’ll update his details here as soon as I get them)

As for the weather, Dullstroom lived up to it’s temperamental reputation and the weather went from hot and sunny in the morning, to rainy and quite chilly while they got dressed and then properly overcast for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  So really, we were quite lucky that we didn’t have to do photos in the pouring rain

Anyhoo, on with the photos…

Aren’t her shoes magnificent?!! And I loved the miniature perfume bottles!

Kerry was trying so very hard not to start crying…

We didn’t have very long for the couple photos because the light faded very very fast, but we managed to make it to 2 of my planned photo spots.

The best man, Pieter, gave them the most amazing gift after his speech.  It was a box of 5 bottles of wine, and every bottle was chosen so that it aged perfectly on their anniversary… for the next 5 years!
Kerry was trying to work out the disposable cameras that were on every table.

Oh how I love father-daughter dances… and this time they’re being watched by her brother and mom

… and after this there was one rocking party…

There are also a few more images in an album on Facebook. If you were at the wedding, you’ll be able to tag yourself in the images on the Facebook album if you like the page.

Yesterday tweeters from all around South Africa met up to donate blankets at various spots around the country for the Twitter Blanket Drive which had been promoted using the #TBD hashtag.  Melanie Minnaar is the tweeter behind the event, and this was the second year that she organised this event in time for the coldest winter nights.  I was determined to make it this year, as last year, a charity that I’d done work with had been the recipient of some of the donations and I wasn’t able to attend.

I went to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosebank last night with my kids to donate our blankets… I’d bought 10 baby blankets instead of the adult blankets that everyone had been talking about during the day.  We didn’t stay very long because the kids hadn’t eaten yet (in fact I wish I’d known that there were going to be talks by the charities)… and they were running riot in the hotel after only about 20 minutes. But I did manage to meet quite a few people that I’ve been chatting to for years, but never actually met in real life ) the sign of a good tweet up!

I’m dying to find out how many blankets were actually collected, but from the looks of the pile in the hotel it was an enormous amount well done to the whole team that put this year’s event together

I was stoked to finally meet Norwin and Ledlet and their son JB (the little blonde boy in the blankets).  If you don’t read his blog, you should, JB is most amazing.

Haha and Walter Pike did some planking on the blankets

Even DJ Fresh was in the mix…

I don’t often take on photo clients during the week, but tonight I did a corporate event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sandton (not the Gautrain one – it’s all so confusing with the 2 hotels being so close to each other… some of the guests went to the wrong hotel).  Anyhoo, I can’t show you photos from the event, but I did have fun with some “me” photos for my 365!

The conference rooms at the Radisson are on the 12th floor, and have the most incredible view over the city, and you’ll have to just believe me when I tell you that the group photos taken on the balcony against the red-orange skyline are just amazing!

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

We planned this weekend months ago with our friends Madi and Pierre.  You see Lance turned 40 last weekend, and Pierre’s 40th birthday is next weekend. It was the perfect excuse to go away for a night to Forum Homini in the Cradle of Humankind.  Yes, we’ve been there before, and we enjoyed it so much that we had to go back again

One night only, because it’s expensive… and your stomach would never cope with eating that amount of excellent food for 2 days in a row!

And on the subject of food… it was good, very good! Dinner was a 6 course affair with wine teasers chosen for each dish, and included a honeydew soup with truffle foam, deep fried risotto, rooibos smoked beef fillet and ended with blue cheese ice-cream with honeycomb.   Oh and then breakfast of course was just as filling with 4 courses including a frozen yoghurt and poached fruit with chocolate shavings… and then salmon frittata… before a full English breakfast.

Because it was their birthdays, when we got back to the suite after supper, there was an enormous bunch of roses on the table, and the bed had rose petals on it… very romantic

Pierre and Madi while we were sitting on the deck having drinks in the afternoon.

We took a walk in the late afternoon…

We were so very lucky to see the resident hippos! You get warned not to go walking after sunset because the hippos come out the water, and last time we went we didn’t even see them. We saw 3 this time… and they were watching us pretty closely so we didn’t want to get too close to them… I could have done with a longer lens actually.

This is the hotel, as taken from the bridge… the dam with the hippos was behind me at the time. Just beyond the small dam, you can see little pieces of wall… those are the suites that we stayed in… the hotel is built to blend into the environment and veld/grasses have been planted on the roof of every building.

Oh and then my favourites… the sunsets… the sky was absolutely magnificent last night!!

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

Adina had her Batmitzvah last night at the Capri Hotel in Savoy, Johannesburg; and it was quite a bash!  Her mom booked me for this evening months ago, and in the build-up to it, I also did a portrait session with her and her family and produced a photobook which was used as a guest book last night.

The tables were so prettily decorated with pinks and purples and loads of butterflies; and the food was awesome… they even had milkshakes on tap for the kids!

I was so pleased with the way the photobook turned out!


Last night it was Purim, and so the Megillah was recited from these scrolls. Some of the guests were even dressed in mock prison gear for the occasion.

And of course there was LOTS of dancing, and giggling and fun to be had by all

It was a fabulous evening, and Mazeltov to the Davidovitz family again.

Catering:  Riva Flax from Capri Hotel

Band:  Zenith

Flowers: Kari Berkowitz from Flowers by Kari