With a sigh, an EISH and one uge smile!

I've met Cynthia many years ago when I started making use of the At Photo lab for my printing and developing work.  She asked if I'd do some family photographs for her this year. Her boys are 5 and 6 years old and you can see they adore their mother!
 
The kids were all to pleased to sit on their mom for a photograph or two, but when I asked Njabulo to sit on his brother Siphesihle for a photo I got a grin, an "EISH" followed withe the biggest sigh I've ever heard.

... The other thing That I did not take into consideration was the fact that if you stick out your tongue for a five and six year old they will do exactly the same! Cynthia was sitting there, laughing her heart out while the kids couldn't decide if they want to laugh, hug their mom or stick their tongues out to me.

Well, here's the result of these photos!

letters, weekends and good coffee!

Today is letter day!

Long overdue and in the mood for writing two of my friends will receive a hand written letter in the near... or perhaps not so near future... depending on the Post Office :-)

Now, both of them live in Pretoria, so I'll be curious to see if they receive the letters at the same time or not!

Why not surprise one of your friends by sending them a handwritten letter too?

Well, here's to lots of coffee and letter writing! ... and a VERY VERY good weekend!

Always cherries your friends and always always make time for them. Even if it's just a brief hello over a sms.

Imcke's helpfull hints for brides in planning their wedding

I have not blogged on weddings in a month of Sundays. Well, this blog is for the bride to be. Hope this will help you with planning your wedding!

Depending on your personality you don't need months and months on end to plan your wedding.
If you are a person that changes your mind quite often, once you've decided on a thing, stick to your guns! This will save you mountains of stress and unnecessary worries!

The Top 10 things to remember, not necessarily in order from the most important, but important it is.

1. The DATE & TIME of the wedding 
2. The BUDGET 
3. The GUEST LIST 
4. The VENUE x 3 
5. WHO WILL MARRY YOU?!!! 
6. The DRESS 
7. The MAID(S) OF HONOR 
8. The PHOTOGRAPHER 
9. The COLOR SCHEME and THEME of the wedding 
10. The INVITATIONS & SAVE THE DATE

The DATE & TIME of the wedding

The first thing you need to is to decide if you want to get married. Do you want a Winter wedding or Summer wedding? Or perhaps a Spring or Autumn wedding?  This will in turn have an influence on your wedding dress design, color scheme of the wedding, and the time of the day which will be most suitable to have the ceremony.

When planning which time of the day your going to get married, consider the following:
In summer early morning between 06:00 - 09:30 AT THE LATEST and from 15:30, 16:00 till approximately 18:30 the light is most beautiful for taking photographs.

In Winter the best suitable time for photographs is between 07:00 - 09:30 and from approximately 15:30 to 17:30. (I will spend more time on a later blog with regards to time of day for photos, exiting the church etc).

Remember to consider the time of day when exiting from the church / chapel. Depending on the location (if there is lots of shade, cover it will be less) one tends to get very harsh light between 10:00 - 15:00. Fill-in flash can help to soften the light, but these lighting conditions is not optimal for taking photographs.

This photographs was taken quite late in the afternoon. These were some of the last photographs taken and I've made use of fill-in flash to get more light on the bride since the sun was down already.

We've made use of a reflector with these photos, just for a bit of fill in light. These were some of the most ideal lighting conditions I could have asked for.

Should you get married in the middle of the day, the location WHERE you take your wedding photographs can be the key to great photos! If there is enough shade or buildings / dense tree cover it will work wonders for a mid-day wedding.

The BUDGET





This is one of the most important parts of your wedding. You don't need a lot of money to have the perfect wedding. STAY in your budget and DO NOT make dept to pay for your wedding. This will add to unnecessary stress and worries one can do without. 

Consider all your options and remember, some times it's cheaper for the venue to do the catering FOR you than to do it yourself.

If you are a bit strapped on cash the following ideas might help to relieve the budget.

• Get a venue close to home (in the same town or just outside). This will save on travel and sleepover cost. IF you get married at a remote location, find out if your bridesmaids / groomsmen will be willing to pay for their own accomodation.
  
• If your mom or a friend have a nice house close to the church where you are getting married, get dressed there OR get dressed a the venue where you will be spending your wedding night. This will save on additional cost renting a room just for this purpose.
  
• Consider renting your wedding dress. It cost a fraction of the price and with the amount of dress shops available you will find the perfect dress for you!
  
• Limit the amount of guest, or consider having cake and tea for your reception and go for a nice supper with close family and friends afterwards.
  
• Photographers DO CHARGE extra for time spend at the reception. Ask your photographer about package options that excludes the reception and even if they have options that only includes photographs on DVD. Should you like to have a photograph where you cut the cake, do it directly after the wedding ceremony. This will keep your guest busy and keep their mouths occupied ;-) while you do your couple photographs.
  
• Get married out of season. Venues are much cheaper then.
  
• ASK about specials or discounts should you pay fees in advance... even try your luck when buying your shoes! Even if you just save R 50 - 00, it adds up!
  
• Have a look at Imcke's helpful make-up hints for great money saving tips with regards to your make-up and hair.

The GUEST LIST


Well, this is up to you as to how big or small your wedding will be. Remember, it is your wedding, so you may specify whether or not you would like to have kids at your wedding or not.


I only invited close friends and family (a total of 35 people) and did not bother including a "+" on the invite since we only had tea and cake.

If you are inviting kids to the wedding, have a separate table for them and have food like hamburgers or pizza for them along with coloring books and games to keep them occupied.

The VENUE x 3


You have 3 venues to consider:
1. Where will you get married?
2. Where will you get dressed?
3. Where will the reception be?


The closer they are to one another the less time you will spend on traveling between them.

WHO WILL MARRY YOU?!!!

Get someone that KNOWS you and that you are comfortable with! Discuss with them if you want to do something special in your wedding ceremony and what theme you'd like to have as the service.

With most of the weddings I've done up to date

the Pastor / Reverent / Priest new the couple. This makes for a much more personal and intimate wedding ceremony.

The DRESS
Select a dress that suits your personality and style. This is your wedding day and it's important that you feel beautiful and comfortable in your dress. 

A few dress tips:

• Choose a material that will not stain easily. Some materials tend to leave marks if you use bubble as your confetti.
• Add a funky color netting or shoes  / stockings to your dress for a bit of extra fun with your photo shoot.
• Consider the weight of the material if you have a huge ball-gown type of dress. Remember, you have to wear it a whole day! Comfort is key!!!
• Remember less is more. If you have a lot of detail on the dress, downplay the jewelry.The golden rule is no more than 5 jewelry pieces. Each earring counting as one item!
• If you have a train on the dress, have a small hook / button included on the back to lift up the train when you dance OR have a loop on the inside that you can hook over your wrist, NOT YOUR FINGER! (it can get heavy to carry a train on your finger the whole evening!)
• Remember, renting your dress is a option if you are strapped for cash!
• Have your shoes ready for the fitting and walk with the shoes and dress on to see if it's comfortable or if the dress gets in your way!
• Select a style for your brides maids that will compliment your own dress as well as their bodies and personalities! Their comfort is just as important as yours!

You don't need an expensive dress to feel and look good. This particular dress was bought at the China Mall in JHB and it cost under R 2500! The bride looked like a $ 1 000 000 in it!

Give your bridesmaids dresses that would flatter their figures and will compliment your dress and color scheme.

 
The MAID(S) OF HONOR 

When selecting your maid of honor, brief the person on what you would like of her. Discuss her duties and your expectations. If you have more than one maid of honor, make sure that they get along. You don't want to end up with girls fighting and backstabbing one another prior or on the day of your wedding.

A few hints with regards to their dresses:

• Ask them about their dress style, don't punish them by putting them into short or strapless dresses if they are not comfortable with it. 
• Keep the style of their dresses in accord with their personalities.
• Have their dresses compliment your own!
• Remember, not everyone looks good in every color!  
• IF they are paying for it ASK them what their budgets are!

The PHOTOGRAPHER

Pick me! ;-) OK, enough joking around... PICK ME! I just love to do weddings :-) 

It is important that you are comfortable with the photographer as person as well as with their particular style of work.


A  good photographer will discuss a time schedule with you prior to the wedding as well as do loaction scouting of ALL the venues so that they know the lighting conditions and where all the nice spots for taking photographs will be. 


This will cut photography time in half resulting in your guest waiting a shorter time period for you to arrive at the reception.

The COLOR SCHEME and THEME of the wedding

If you have a general idea of the theme and color scheme of your wedding the rest will fall into place. One can even go as far as to see what which color means and plan your wedding colors accordingly.

The INVITATIONS & SAVE THE DATE

These you can either do yourself or pay someone to do it. If you are a creative person it can be fun to do your invites as a project. If you are limited on time, rather pay someone that knows what they are doing and save yourself the trouble of making the invites yourself. 


I do hope that this will help you a little bit with the planning and preparations for your big day! Just remember to enjoy every moment of it!

Live life and laugh!!

For those of you who need to laugh today.... What a year, between me and friends and doing stupid things together! Well, here's to good friends, good times and GOOD laughs!

Enjoy the friends you have and make time to visit over a coffee or tea and create new and good memories with them! May your friendships be filled with love and laughter!

I have a friend... let's call her "America" who visited with me yesterday. A nice visit, though not long due to me recovering from ear infection and her having a cold.


America went to the bathroom to blow her nose and the next thing I heard: 

America: SNEEEEEEZE --- BANGH ---- OUCH ----- SILENCE ----
Me: Are you OK, what happened?!
America: I've hit my head on the bathroom door while sneezing!

Well, we ended up hugging one another just to be able to stand up straight while we laughed until the tears came streaming out of our eyes! ... HOW I WISHED that I had a video camera to capture this one!






This same dearest friend and I went on a game-drive at the Rietvlei Nature Reserve last year. We ended up having picnic next to the lake... WARNING SIGNS!! ELECTRIC FENCE!!. She got so caught up trying to take a photo of a bird that she ignored my warning and the next thing.... ZAP! EEEEEEEEEEEEEINA!!!!!!!!!! (ouch) followed by a word I've NEVER heard her utter before!

Needless to say, I was an "EXTREMELY" (sarcastic)  good friend that day, not even asking if she was OK. I just didn't have the breath left after laughing me into tummy ace!

Enough ripping her... I can be just as blond some times. However, I'll keep these embarrassing moments to myself for now... But keep an eye out! One of these good days you'll need a good laugh again and maybe, just maybe, you'll find another blog on this site that will give you a smile when most needed!

Hope you will all have a wonderful weekend!

A dear friend and her owner ;-) ... or should it be a dear friend and her dog?!

I've met Kiara the first time a few years ago and it was love at first sight. Having two dogs of my own, she became one of my three "lovies"(my friends dogs, Amy, Kiara and Duke). I just love to see her when I visit with Zelda, begging for a doggy treat to give her if we don't have a scone to share.

... and true to form, I FORGOT THE TREAT AT HOME when she came to the studio for a shoot!

I've always wanted to photograph her and finally got the chance a few days ago. With that soft, shammy like skin, big fat tummy and the most beautiful face she crawls in under your skin and wraps you around her tail... (or should it be paw since we wrap our dads/husbands/brothers around our fingers?)


Well, I've never known that you can tire out a dog with a photo shoot, but apparently I did and she slept like a baby that evening! :-) 

My favorite photo of Kiara :-)

The best ever Shortbread!

WHAT?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO photos this time? Sorry people, the shortbread just didn't survive the onslaught in the Pieters household!

I'll bake some more in the new future, do a couple of pics and re-post, almost step by step, this well worn recipe that I got from my mom.

I don't know where she got it, but i do know over the years lots and lots of batches of shortbread left her kitchen to find home in the happy tummies of friends and family.

Ingriedients:

• 500 g of salted butter - and NO! you will NOT use baking margarine for this recipe or you will never eat it again! (OK, that's a bit dramatic, but you get the point! Please, this is the one recipe where you do no compromise on the butter!)
• 1 cup of caster sugar
• 1 cup of maizena  
• 3- 4 cups of flour

Method:

• Beat butter & caster sugar till nice and smooth. (15 - 20 minutes)
• Add maizena
• Add flour 
• Make little balls and flatten OR fill baking tray with the dough and cut after baking.
• Bake for 10  - 15 minutes @ 180 degrees Celsius. 

Enjoy the baking and enjoy the eating even more!

xx

Toothless (almost) by washing basket

OK, stupid do as stupid does... Forest Gump had NO idea that these words will be applicable on A LOT OF PEOPLE around the world, INCLUDING ME!!!!!!!

So, what did I do this morning? 

Busy washing blankets and tipped over the washing basket to get rid of all the leaves that gathered in it (while I was busy hanging up some other washing). I've done this hundreds of times, so what went wrong this morning? I can't tell you! But the next thing I know is me being attacked by the washing basked.

It slipped right out of my hand and smacked me full on the mouth! My nose and eyes started tearing up involuntary and my husband and I stood there laughing uncontrollably for the absolute stupidity of the whole situation! (I think his was more in utmost disbelieve that someone can be SO SOOOOOO stupid!)

Now I have a slightly swollen lip, a sore tooth and gums. I'm just thankful that I didn't hit out all my teeth... going to the dentist with a "toothless by washing basket" ... I think that would have been a first!