Elisabeth & Riaan

We left this Paternoster wedding feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.  For so many reasons.

Elisabeth and Riaan live in Sweden.  When they first emailed us regarding wedding photography, I felt a little pang of excitement.  Someone from Sweden – going back to my roots – that was pretty cool.  As time went on, the story just got better and better.  Riaan’s mom and dad did a lot of the planning and venue scouting (Although Riaan has been living in Sweden for a number of years now, he is South African, and his folks live here.) They met with all of the service providers beforehand.  When meeting with them, I just knew from the way they spoke about their children that they had to be two awesome people!  It was also during this meeting that we actually realized we would be photographing the captain of Sweden’s National Woman’s Rugby team on her wedding day!  Pang of excitement number 2!

Thirdly, a Paternoster wedding meant we would get to hang out in one of our favourite little West Coast Villages.  Riaan and Elisabeth got married at the lovely Abalone House with catering done on site in Reuben’s restaurant.  Who does not excited about Reuben Riffels food?!

Another really bizarre occurrence was bumping into Arno and Karolina.  They are also from Sweden.  We had met them at one of our previous weddings. Totally unrelated to our previous couple – the world is really small sometimes!  So there we were sharing a table and stories with them again.  It really felt like we belonged at this wedding.The ceremony was out in front of Abalone House with a gorgeous view over the ocean.  We loved how Riaan did his vows in Swedish (btw, he is fluent in the language) and Elisabeth did hers in Afrikaans.  Afterwards guests enjoyed drinks and canapes.  There was a crossword puzzle to complete and lots of polaroid fun to keep guests busy while we went off on the couple shoot.

I don’t think we have heard such emotional speeches in a while.  How special to be part of this intimate wedding where the family bonds on both sides are so tight.

As you can see I stopped numbering the “pangs of excitement.”  There comes that moment when we realized everything about Riaan and Elisabeth’s wedding was perfect.  There were just too many beautiful moments to mention.

Thank you, Elisabeth and Riaan for picking us to capture your beautiful, intimate Paternoster wedding.  There is nowhere else in the world we would have rather been than with you two!

Skål!

WHO MADE THE WEDDING POSSIBLE?

• The insane wind!  It actually blew over the ceremony arch.  Luckily the bride and groom were not under it anymore!
• Such strong family bonds and words spoken straight from the heart.
• Loved Riaan’s cufflinks and his brother’s quirky bowtie.
• The quirky Swedish “kissing tradition” that happens when either the bride or groom go to the loo.  Very entertaining!
• Those darn Swedish chocolates.  They were addictive.  I will admit we had quite a few of them!
• Loved the cute cake topper.
• One of the most beautiful ‘than you’s’ we’ve ever received during the speeches.