Weddings, all weddings, carry a certain amount of associated stress for me. Will the weather play ball, will the plan inside my head play out as I would like. Will the guests be friendly, will they listen to me (because, in general, I’m going to ask them to do things that they perhaps are not quite accustomed to doing at a wedding). Will the bride and groom buy into my ideas, will the bridesmaids and bestmen (who are very important in my scheme of things) go the distance – and so it goes. These are the little things I ponder every week as the days countdown to D-Day. Generally, I meet my couples first, but there are those brides and grooms who either I can’t meet because they’re in some distance place on Planet Earth, or there are those who just take one, big, fat blind leap and say: ‘We’re going with you no matter what.’ In Johanette and Thabo’s case (from hereon out known as Thab’s) it was a little of both. Johanette booked me yonks ago and we met for the first time over a beer 2 weeks before their wedding day. Actually it was 2 or 3 beers I think, such was the way we just seemed to click. Anyway, wedding day finally arrived with clear skies (the week before I’d popped through to scout out the venue and it was bucketing down). Right from the start, everything just went off without even the slightest hitch. I arrived at Johanette’s room to find her daughter Mia and friend Dani chatting about ballet (and doing all these sort of ballet-type moves). I immediately offered to show them a pirouette or Pas de Chat (which I’ve had a lot of practice in having 2 daughters in the family) but Mia gracefully declined the offer to see her mother’s wedding photographer prancing around the bedroom. I still think she lost out on an immense opportunity there. So I headed into Johanette’s room to find the fine Joleta Keane doing the make-up thing. We were off to a good start. We chatted and laughed, I met Johanette’s dad and we had a short chat about rugby (oh, thanks for having your wedding day on Currie Cup final day guys – really thoughtful of you). Johanette cymbalta generic name classification then did a few deep breathing exercises while pretending to be calm – what a complete and utter giveaway! Then we did the ceremony thing which went off brilliantly. Then it was crunch time – the formals and for me, the biggest and most exciting challenge at any wedding. We were running a bit behind time and I started to glance at my watch as the sun started to drop alarmingly quickly towards the horizon. Everyone was having a marvellous time chatting with little or no real regard for the formals. My life flashed before me. ‘Let’s do this thing girl,’ I said to Johanette, and the next thing, there they all were – the entire family gathered and listening intently as I told them what was about to happen. Okay ja, there was a bit of a groan when I told them we were going back to the beach and that we’d be climbing up some sand dunes. But it ended there and I reckon we all had a ton of fun and some hilarious moments. After the family photos we headed off to some rocks with an old wreck in the distance. Things just got better and better with everyone coming to the party big time. At one point I asked Mia and Danny to go through some ballet moves on a fairly high rock (in the wind) and the replies of protest had a lot to do with ‘panty flashes’ and so on. I said: ‘girls, just shut up and do it and I promise you, next week you’ll be changing your profile pictures on Facebook). They did what I asked the legends, and the following week guess what, their profile pictures on Facebook were changed! Nice one girls and good on you for trusting me. Which is the point of this whole write-up really. When you book me, you do so because you’ve seen my style and you like it. On your wedding day, I’m not going to come out with a different approach or style. I am who I am, and you are who you are – and together, we can move mountains. I thought that at Johanette and Thabo’s wedding we did just that. Let’s have a 1st Anniversary reunion and do it all again guys!