Storybook Photography :: Cape Town Creative Wedding and Portrait Photographer

{Engagement} A Stroll by the Sea

May 8th, 2012

What an amazing couple – Warwick and Anastasia are so sweet together, I loved just watching them interact with each other. Tasia is so adorably tiny and had to stand on her absolute tippy toes to kiss him, and Warwick had that look in his eyes every time he looked at her – you know the look… the “I-absolutely-adore-you-and-can’t-keep-my-eyes-off-of-you” look :) The one every girl dreams of.

We took a stroll along the Sea Point Promenade for their Engagement Session and I’ll admit, I panicked for a few seconds when we got there and I saw how freakishly bright the sun still was only an hour before sunset (not so great for flattering portraits and nice sea-view shots!). But we found some lovely shady areas and made the sun work in our favour and got some really cool shadows with it. Then we went down to the rocks by the sea and had about 2 minutes just before the sun set where the light was just gorgeous and made for some of my favourite portraits – ever! So dreamy and mysterious – LOVE IT! Hope you do too…

{Engagement} A Stroll by the Sea

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Posted in Engagement Photography, Portrait Photography

{Wedding} Destination Wedding in the Cape Winelands

May 4th, 2012

Cape Town is one of the most sought after places for destination weddings. Almost half of all my weddings in Cape Town are couples who live overseas- HALF! Pair our beautiful beaches with the stunning wine farms and you’ve got a perfect backdrop for your dream wedding. Best of all, South Africa has some of the most creative wedding vendors to choose from (and more affordable than most other destination cities I might add!) and a rich cultural heritage and enough sight seeing ops to keep your guests busy for WEEKS building up to the big day. I quite love this place and even had one of those overwhelming moments yesterday on my daily drive over the mountain completely in awe that I get to live here!

So… with all that said, it is no wonder that Greg and Lucinda decided to have THEIR wedding at one of Cape Towns wine farms, Vredenheim. Both from England, now working in Dubai (where they met!), why not add a third country into the mix and fly everyone over to this beautiful country to celebrate their love for one another?! Makes perfect sense to me :) Love that they had an African choir thrown into the wedding day mix as well. They were such an incredible couple and a perfect way for us to wrap up ‘high-season’ in the wedding industry. I have never met a more relaxed bride. We only met the day before to work out all the details, and Lucinda comes in and orders a milkshake. YES, A MILKSHAKE!! How awesome is that – most brides are too self conscious to eat anything the day before the wedding, much less order a milkshake! Love it:) The wedding day itself was just as relaxed – from getting ready to ceremony to dress falling apart and forgetting the guest book, Greg and Lucinda were amazing and I had so much fun photographing their wedding – not to mention the amazing cloud cover we had that made for some incredible light for their creative session!!! Seriously- I didn’t touch the contrast or saturation sliders in my editing one bit: the sky really looked like that and the grass really was that green! Half of them didn’t need any editing at all- they came straight ‘out-of-camera’ like that – Love shooting days like these :)

Also have to mention Barrique Restaurant at Vredenheim- the staff there is absolutely incredible and helped Greg and Lucinda plan the entire day. And their sparkling grape juice is INCREDIBLE!

{Wedding} Destination Wedding in the Cape Winelands

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Posted in Wedding Photography

{Family} Table Mountain and Muizenberg – Nature Bliss

May 3rd, 2012

Meet the Cerca family! Nicolette is from Cape Town, Christiano is from Angola and they are now living with their beautiful daughter, Tiany, in France! They were in Cape Town for a couple of weeks visiting family and celebrating Tiany’s 5th birthday and wanted to get some family portraits while they were here. Where better to celebrate being in Cape Town than in a Table Mountain national park! We were rained out the first day we tried, and the second day, we had a 2 hour window to work with before the rains came again.. but that meant that we had AMAZINGLY dramatic clouds helping us out, which is always a good thing when you are trying to do a portrait session outdoors during midday! And I promise you, as we took the final picture at Muizenberg beach, I called it a wrap and the rain started to poor! Perfect timing :) So we ran to our cars and off they went on their next adventure and I came home to start editing.
Enjoy :)

Portrait Photographer Family Portrait Cape Town Photographer {Family} Table Mountain and Muizenberg Nature Bliss

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Tags: Cape Town Photographer, Family Portrait, Portrait Photographer
Posted in Family Portraits, Portrait Photography

{Wedding} Lavender Love

April 23rd, 2012

What a lovely couple! Dave and Liz were not only absolutely adorable together, but they also had spectacular taste in venue choices. They got ready at Lavender Farms Guest House in Franschhoek- impeccably decorated with lavender accents EVERYWHERE! One whole side of the room was all glass windows and a door looking out over the Lavender Farm – which also made for spectacular light for the photographs :)

The ceremony and reception were held at La Petite Dauphine just down the road – a beautiful venue with so much personality. Their friends and family from all over the world gathered together under a massive tree to watch them exchange vows with the most beautiful mountain views in the background. Succulents in quirky pots and gourds of all sizes covered the place from top to bottom giving it a warm Autumn vibe that was, of course, perfect for a wedding at this time of year.

With each venue having its own quirky personalities, Dave and Liz were left to worry about little else but just enjoying the day and enjoying being with each other. I don’t think they would’ve had it any other way because apparently they hadn’t seen each other for almost an entire week before Liz walked down the aisle so Dave was just as giddy as ever during their creative session simply out of sheer joy to be able to hold the love of his life again. You can definitely see that in their photographs! I had so much fun just watching the two of them interact and enjoy their special day – these images really are some of the most beautifully natural photographs I have ever taken simply because they had their focus on each other instead of on me and my camera :) So thanks so very much Dave and Liz for allowing me to be a part of such an incredible day and I wish you both the very best.

Enjoy!

Second Shooter: Tanya Adams

Getting Ready Venue: Lavender Farms Guest House, Franschhoek
Ceremony & Reception Venue: La Petite Dauphine, Franschhoek
Flowers: Susette Prins at The Flower Cottage, Stellenbosch
Venue/planning: Marie-Louise at La Petite Dauphine, Franschhoek
Make-up and Hair: Candice Harker at Mobile Make-up, Strand
Cakes: Kanya Hunt at The Hunt House Kitchen, Melkbosstrand

wedding photography Cape Town Photographer {Wedding} Lavender Love

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Tags: Cape Town Photographer, wedding photography
Posted in Wedding Photography

{Wedding} Love in the Clouds :: Part II

April 18th, 2012

If you missed Part I of Tim & Liezl’s wedding in the Clouds- be sure to visit it first to get the full story.
Part II below features their creative session, reception, and some photobooth pictures.

As mentioned in the first post, Liezl really did an amazing job putting together all the creative elements of the day- I loved all the vintage tea pots and stacked books wrapped in lace and topped with those vintage looking little wooden mannequins.
And the gift idea of white pashmina’s for all the girls was PERFECT, because it turned out to be quite a cold evening!

Tim and Liezl had so much fun on the dance floor that Liezl’s dress actually broke right in the middle of the dance floor! No one noticed and she calmly went outside where their fabulous wedding planner Brendon made a plan to fix it and get her back out to party. You know you had fun at your wedding when your wedding dress gets trashed :) so if it happens to you, take Liezl’s cue and just go with it and don’t let it stop you from having fun. The dress is only worn once, but your memories will last forever.

{Wedding} Love in the Clouds :: Part II

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Posted in Wedding Photography

{Wedding} Love in the Clouds :: Part I

April 17th, 2012

What a gorgeous wedding at Clouds Estate in Stellenbosch! The light was absolutely gorgeous and Tim and Liezl were so giddy happy the entire day that it made my job such a joy! So much so, in fact, that I have had to split their post into 2 because I just couldn’t narrow the images down enough to fit them all into 1 post! So part I will feature their getting ready pictures and ceremony. I threw in a couple of their creative session images to spice it up and give you a preview of what is to come.

Liezl did such a great job pulling together all the bits and pieces that made this wedding so creative and unique (you will see more of that in Part II), she even MADE her own veil. Incredible- and it is just gorgeous!

They were really such a sweet couple and I loved every minute of just watching the two of them interact together. Liezl kept saying “sorry” to everyone the whole day, and we all kept replying, “stop saying sorry!” – it was a very endearing trait that she cared so much about everyone else’s feelings and comfort on a day that she could’ve very easily taken advantage of the fact that we would’ve all done whatever it took to make HER happy regardless of the effects on us. Tim & Liezl, as well as their families, were some of the kindest people I have ever met and it was such a joy to photograph their special day.

Wine Farm wedding photography Cape Town Photographer {Wedding} Love in the Clouds :: Part I

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Tags: Cape Town Photographer, wedding photography, Wine Farm
Posted in Wedding Photography

{Newborn} Valeria

April 12th, 2012

“The Little Clown” as her parents like to call her, Valeria was certainly the most beautiful clown I have ever seen and that colourful tutu dress was ADORABLE! And she wasn’t about to miss the show, she wanted to be awake for the full experience :) Her movements and animations made this session more fun than most, and apparently made for an amazing nap time just after I left!

Introducing… Baby Valeria.

Portrait Photographer Newborn Photography Cape Town Photographer {Newborn} Valeria

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Tags: Cape Town Photographer, Newborn Photography, Portrait Photographer
Posted in Newborn Photography, Portrait Photography

{Jewish Wedding} Leor + Cindy

April 11th, 2012

I have always dreamed of going to a Jewish wedding so you can imagine my excitement when Cindy first contacted me to photograph her and Leor’s wedding at Suikerbossie in Hout Bay. All the traditions have so much meaning behind them and it was all so beautiful and inspiring. It was honestly such an honour to be asked to photograph such an incredible day for Leor and Cindy and even though it rained and the whole thing had to be moved inside, I loved every minute of it, and by the smiles on their faces, so did the beautiful couple!

A big thanks to Jan Dorfling for second shooting and doing the lighting set up that saved the day when the party got moved indoors :)

wedding photography Jewish Wedding Cape Town Photographer {Jewish Wedding} Leor + Cindy

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Tags: Cape Town Photographer, Jewish Wedding, wedding photography
Posted in Wedding Photography

{Destination Wedding} Bohemian Love in Mozambique

March 26th, 2012

What an incredible adventure!!! Ponta Do Ouro is such a beautiful little beach town in the south of Mozambique- beautiful picturesque and perfect for a gorgeous wedding! My birthday was the day before the wedding, so poor me had to spend my day sitting on the beach with my gorgeous husband and body surfing in the warm water – I know, my life is so hard!!!

The groom, Dan, is from Sweden, and the bride, Jeandre is a South African, and they decided to take their whole family on an adventure for a destination beach wedding! They had over 90 people fly in from all over the world and they all spent the whole week at the wonderful Coco Rico lodge. To say it was a week long party would be an understatement! So much fun and loved everything about this couple, their family, and this town! I fell in love with both of their families- and the best part of the evening HAD to be when the Swedish family broke out into a surprise Waka Waka Flash mob!!! No joke- they really did, and it was awesome!!!!!! Can’t think of a better way for their family to show their love for Africa and the joining of the two families than by dancing to “It’s time for Africa!!” – AWESOME!

AND because Jeandre planned most of the wedding from Sweden and South Africa, they had to bring up all the decor and details for the wedding- and because you can’t bring flowers (not even seeds!) across the border, they MADE fabric flowers- hundreds of them! Even the bouquets were these gorgeous fabric flowers handmade by the groom’s extremely multitalented sister – seriously, she sang at the ceremony, danced the Waka Waka, and is incredibly crafty! Jeandre did an incredible job of organising EVERYTHING- honestly have never met a more organised bride. She had spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations that would knock your socks off and all her ideas for incorporating the bohemian theme into the decor was just incredible!

Enjoy!

wedding photography Mozambique Wedding Destination Wedding Beach {Destination Wedding} Bohemian Love in Mozambique

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Tags: Beach, Destination Wedding, Mozambique Wedding, wedding photography
Posted in Wedding Photography

{Newborn} Adison Rose

March 26th, 2012

Karl and Julie are fellow-Americans and just had baby number 3 (all girls!)!! They just got back from a trip to the States as well and Julie brought back with her loads of gorgeous hats for the shoot – love when parents get excited and bring their own props! These hats were so adorable I just couldn’t stop shooting. I was having so much fun dressing up little Adi Rose that her 1 hour session quickly turned into 2 hours before I knew it :)