Holy moley! We got featured on Rock ‘n Roll Bride! You can see the article here: A South African elopement planned 24 hours before lockdown.
Nadinka and Renier called me the day after lockdown was announced and asked me if I was available to shoot their elopement the next day. Dinka had spent almost a year arranging the papers for their marriage license (Dinka is German so this was quite a mission for her to do) and when lockdown was announced they realised that by the time lockdown was over the papers could be expired. So an elopement it was. Dinka arranged everything in less than 24 hours.
Dinka rallied up the marriage officiant, witness, hairstylist, makeup artist and me (the photographer) the day before. And was literally Googling a coffee shop to sign the papers (read: get married) in the car on the way, all while dismantling a bouquet of flowers that she got from a supermarket and turned into her bouquet. The original idea was to have a lunch at Babylonstoren. But because of the lockdown announcement the restaurants were all closed. Luckily we could get into the gardens for some elopement pictures.
In Dinka’s words “The whole day was crazy! In the morning we were still taking passport photos for the marriage registration papers and before we went to the ceremony, one by one, we went into the Post Office to certify all ID copies. It was already very quiet on the streets – it felt like we were on a mission to save the world! We were constantly just laughing, because we couldn’t believe what was happening!”
It is one of the craziest, unreal, nerve wracking and happy days of my life this far that I will never forget. Sitting here now it feels like it was all a dream. I live for moments like these and can’t believe I get to call doing this my job. I’m going to have some crazy stories to tell people in the old age home one day.
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Bride & Groom: Dinka & Renier
Photography: Kat Grudko Photography
Officiant: Virginia Spies
Ceremony venue: Mountain and Moon, Paarl, South Africa
Couple pictures venue: Babylonstoren
Bride’s dress: FRED RICH by Dinka
Hair: Sasha Van Geuns
Makeup: PVS Creative Beauty
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