Meet the Maloney’s. Quite an important family this. Because in the heart of the wedding season, when madness rings all around and I’m never home, this is who my family hang with. And when the wedding season is over and there’s a deafening silence all around, this is who we all hang with. A marvelous bunch of down-to-earth, honest, open, warm, great friends. We’ve known each other since before the kids were even the slightest twinkle in our eyes. We’ve been through the ups, the downs, the in’s, the out’s, the pretty much everything of life together. We’ve argued, cried, cheered, fought, made up, ag, ja, we’ve done everything that friends do. We’ve watched each others children grow from runny-nosed, poo in nappie, smelly little things into blossoming, wonderful personalities. Maloney’s, here are some of your photos – see you sometime this weekend after tomorrow’s wedding then!

PS: Just my opinion, but I think the last photo is without a doubt the nicest by a long shot.

Faith. Small word, big meaning. Let me explain. Helen and myself are driving out to Val de Vie for Garth and Lee’s wedding. There are seriously unlucky looking clouds all around us. It looks a bit like Scotland on a bad day. We get to Val de Vie and I go and say hi to Lee who has just started her make-up. ‘A bit cloudy out there hey girl’ I say to her, ‘looks a bit um, dodge.’ Lee turns to me and says: ‘don’t worry Warren, I’m not scared, I have faith in you.’ Jeepers, no pressure! And so the day of faith begins. Lee gets ready, I shoot her, the decor, x, y, z. I decide where I’m going to shoot inside Val de Vie in case the heavens open, but all the while I just somehow have faith that it won’t. Lee arrives, the service starts and inside I’m urging the minister to speak faster as I watch the sky all around is belting down with the wet stuff. But somehow, it just keeps swirling around us and doesn’t touch the Val de Vie grounds. It’s totally and utterly remarkable. After the service everyone is in buoyant mood – congratulations all round. I’m looking at the sky and the faith is still there. We start the formals, the light is fading faster than one of those polo donkeys going for goal. Still the rain holds back. We get the shots, I’m thrilled, but the light has now really gone. We head back to the cars and literally, quite literally as we close the doors, boom baby – down comes the rain! We head back to the polo house, Lee does a quick dress change, and I take some shots of them inside. Then it’s off to the reception. We arrive, First Dance, starters and then the speeches. They’re all good, honest and from the heart. It’s stirring stuff. Then Lee dad’s takes it into extraordinary by singing a spiritual song. Wow, wow, wow, wow. The place erupts – both as an acknowledgement to his unwavering faith as well as to his voice. The man can sing. Helen and I drove home in the rain. The next day I started on the photos. After about an hour I called Hel and said: ‘whew, but these photos are all just working for me big time – I’m not sure that I took them, I think I had some help from above.’ Faith. Small word, big meaning. Here are some of their photos, I hope you enjoy them.

Herbert Syre is a State Licensed Marriage Officer/Commissioner of Oaths. Well, that’s his formal title anyway. He’s also one of the nicest, funniest, most enigmatic and entertaining people I think I’ve ever met. and he’s all of these good things while he stands up-front and marries people. I often catch myself chuckling away as he delivers his message to the couple and their guests. And yes, he likes to not only talk to the couple but to their family and friends as well. In one word I’d describe his style as ‘refreshing.’ But one word really isn’t enough to sum him up. So you can start with refreshing and move on to inspirational, and any other positive word you’d care to find in a dictionary. What do I rate him out of 10? Easy – 10. Everyone loves the man and so they should, he’s pure magic. You can contact Rev. Herbert at: herbert.syre@yahoo.com Oh, and one other thing – he’s extremely photographer friendly which is just plain marvelous.

‘Warren hello,’ I said as I answered my cellphone.’ It was a good friend of mine Matt on the other end. ‘Listen mate, he said. One of the girls who works for me has unfortunately gone and lost her wedding photographer. Are you free on the 5th of April?’ As it so happened I was, and so began my relationship with Mark and Roxanne. I really felt for these guys because it was only a few months before their wedding and now, for whatever reason, they didn’t have a wedding photographer. So I decided to give them an engagement shoot as well to cheer them up a bit. Which I probably should never have done, because we ended up calling off their engagement shoot more times than I care to remember thanks to dodgy weather, and, and, and. Anyway, we eventually got it done (it’s over here) and had a pretty good time driving around in the process. The next thing we knew and it was wedding day. Now my brides and grooms know that I quite like to explore the area I’m shooting in, and if I find something that I think will work, I’ll go for it. In this instance, I found a little farmstall-cum-nursery just on the outskirts of Wellington called Ou Kaya. I asked the couple who owned it if I could bring a bride, a groom some best men and bridesmaids along for a few photos at their fine establishment. They didn’t even hesitate – ‘ja, julle kan maar kom, geen problem!’ And so that’s what we did. And they even laid out a table for us with refreshments. That’s why South Africa is the finest country in the world – because no other place on this planet of ours has a word called ‘gasvryheid.’ I highly recommend you visit Ou Kaya if you have a chance. Excellent fresh produce at killer prices – and if you like the odd cactus or two in your garden, this is your go to place. So there you are, a wedding day filled with pampoene, melktert and flipping awesome rusks (I still have some at the studio if anyone would like a taste).

Every year for the past 5 years or so, I’ve had the immense privilege of shooting the live stage performances produced by the Kit Davies School of Ballet. Kit Davies is an immensely talented ballet teacher (as is her assistant Melissa) and they never fail to produce a show that has the audience showering their young charges with standing ovations. It’s been an amazing experience to watch these funny little monkeys start off clambering somewhat awkwardly around the stage as 5 years olds, only to grow up into supremely talented ballerinas. And I really mean supremely talented. It’s quite unbelievable how strong our ballet is in this country. These girls (and boys here and there) can hold their own on any stage in the world. This year Kit produced a show entitled Popcorn – all about a family who settle down to watch videos for the evening (I think that’s what it was about anyway – I don’t follow story lines all that well!) We were treated to The Lion King, Toy Story, Moulin Rouge (and I’ve probably left a movie or two out – sorry Kit!). Anyway, it was a cracker of a show and no girls, by the time you all grow up and get married I’ll be way to old to shoot your weddings, so forget it. I’ll be fishing somewhere. Here are a few of the photos from Popcorn – I hope you like them. Oh and one last thing all you Angelina Ballerinas – I wish I could dance like you all, but I’m more of a hip-hop kind of mover. YO.

Meet Margaux and Ryan. Ryan is Margaux’s fine husband and the cause of Margs’ current condition – which is 8 months and uncomfortable! Margaux and her other partner in crime (Sunelle), are responsible for getting me the 7de Laan (Hildegaardt and Kuba’s) wedding which you can see here. Yup, Marg’s and Sunelle are one heck of a wedding planning team. And Ryan, is one heck of a legend – although he’s a rather humble chap and would probably never admit it. So anyway, this time in 6 weeks, Margaux will probably be looking at these photos and wondering where all her sleep has disappeared to. Chaps, it’s probably time to let you in on the facts here. When you start a family you begin to suffer from a thing called sleep deprivation. But chin up, because it doesn’t last forever – just the rest of your life here on earth. Ha, ha, ha – welcome to the club! And who knows, maybe baby van den Berg will be making his debut right here in a few weeks from now! Stay tuned…

It was one of those days where I was in quite an excitable sort of mood. I was eager to get things going and after shooting Candice and Jeremy’s engagement shoot I just knew that these guys were going to come to the party in style. When I arrived, the mood was good. Caren Blom was going about doing what she does best. She’s a fine make-up artist and has a wonderful way of doing things. Candice was cool, calm and collected and it wasn’t long before we had a lot of chitter-chatter going on. Time really flew by and the next thing it was ceremony time with one of the most enigmatic and funny ministers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Herbert Syre is an absolute gem so if you’re looking for a minister that will not only deliver a really good service but also do it in a way that will have everyone in stitches, then here are his contact details – herbet.syre@yahoo.com (or call him on072 336 3027). Give him a shout, he’s legendary. Anyway, ceremony over, we did the the big group shot of all the guests (I think I may have done a brief Elvis impersonation to get people’s attention) followed by the family shots (quite a large family this), and then had to move with a bit of speed as the light started to fade at a somewhat alarming rate. Whew, job done it was into the reception where I must say, Knorhoek did a darned fine job with the food. I think everyone was pretty well fed and the wine and song wasn’t holding back either! Stunning couple, awesome wedding, what a good day!

It was 15 minutes before Pascale was to come down the aisle. Kirsten was primed and ready, looking like the main man in his suit. The guests had started to make their way down to the ceremony area after a pre-ceremony drinkie-poo or two. I walked past a big silver ice-bucket that had a few Windhoek Lagers sticking out of it. So I considered my options – 36 degrees, no wind, no cloud, very little shade and the chance to shoot the biggest day of Kirsten and Pascale’s life. Or… grab the ice bucket and make a run for it, coin the money they’d paid me and end up on Carte Blanche as a dodgy wedding photographer. The ice bucket option won. But as I grabbed it, Pascale appeared (she didn’t want hair and make-up shots so the first time I saw her was when she came out of the manor house) and I was bust so I had to stay. But I’m glad I stayed because I think we all had a really good time and the heat of the day was turned up a few notches when family and friends hit that dance floor with a lot of vigour (especially Kirsten’s dad who can seriously squeak a takkie). Driving home is always a time of reflection for me after every wedding and once again, I caught myself wondering if I’d ever be happy doing anything else in life other than this. And finally, hats off to Karla and Marle from Absolute Weddings for ensuring the day went off without a hitch.

Sometimes a plan doesn’t come together. In the case of Roxanne and Marks engagement shoot, the plan fell apart completely. What we initially wanted to do was to shoot their engagement photos on my cousins boat in the waters just off Paternoster. But when D-Day arrived, the wind had decided to chop the waters up a bit so as to make things somewhat unpleasant. So ja, there went that plan. After a quick rethink we decided to jump into the 4 x 4 and head over to Paternoster through the reserve. It’s a little-known route and what it could offer us in the way of really fresh photos was extremely appealing to me. So off we went, Rox and Mark  hanging on determinedly a few times as the 4 x 4 rocked this way and that (in fact, I think Mark might have spilled his beer a few times). We were in absolutely no rush whatsoever and ended up making a whole morning of it with my cousin Nico in a ‘I wonder what’s down this sand road’ kind of mood. And I’m helluva happy he was in that sort of mood because he knows what I want photography-wise and went all out to help us get the best shots possible. Dankie Nico. As for Rox and Mark, well I’ll be shooting their wedding shortly and if their approach to their wedding photos is met with the same enthusiasm as their engagement shoot, whew, we’re in for quite a day!

So let’s see now, how will I remember Karl and Tamlyn’s wedding? Well, I could tell you that Karl is quite a cute chap. I could also tell you that when it comes to pure, raw cutie-pie-ness, Tamlyn actually leaves Karl in the shade. I could tell you about Sophia the gorgeous little flowergirl who quite likes the idea of being in front of a camera. I could tell you about the heat, about how Tam started to run a bit late, x, y and z. But I won’t. Instead I’ll tell you about just one photo I took. So there we were with family in tow on the Manor House steps. And as per normal, I was just shooting the breeze with the family to loosen them up for their photos. So I take a step back, chatting away and I say: ‘okay ladies pull your stomach’s in please! And chaps, make sure you’re zips are up!’ To which the father of the groom laughs and says: ‘hell mate, best check your own zip because it’s down!’ Of course I just laugh it off going: ‘jaaaa right’ and he says: ‘no seriously it is!’ So I have a quick feel and uh-oh, he’s right. Then he goes a step further and says: ‘in fact, it was down the whole way through the service! I was trying to catch your eye but I couldn’t.’ Now I’m not a person who is short on a chirp and ad-libbing – it’s an essential part of what I do. But for a few moments after that I stammered over a few words and tried to recover from the embarrassment. It didn’t work. I think I might have blushed. Here are some of your photos guys, I hope you enjoy them. And I’ve thrown the pair of jeans I wore at your wedding away.