Remembering our Wedding

Today three years ago this was us... Newly weds walking under the massive weeping willow that lay witness to our vows.  Three years and so much has happened from then till now.  How lucky we are xx

A Wedding in Wonderland

Deborah got married. From the little yellow brick road, the mad hatter blowing bubbles, the flower beds filled with spotted mushrooms to the tea garden filled with thigh widening hip spreading delights daring us to 'eat me,' flower filled tea cups, secret books awaiting stolen thoughts and lots and lots of keys... it was wonderful. Her dress was breathtaking. Her goofy manner in the dress made me laugh and cry. Her mother gently guiding her down from the side of the mountain with her vale catching the bits of greenery took my breath away...

Congratulations Deborah and Thurston. I am delighted I could be there to share the little that I did with you of this very special day. x

welovepictures: Our favourite wedding pictures of 2010 - Part Two

Just in case anyone forgot our wedding... he he... here we are featured again. I think we should all go back to the Eastern Freestate this May... Hang up some bunting and drink Champagne. Mmm.
welovepictures: Our favourite wedding pictures of 2010 - Part Two: "love, welovepictures"

Ahh.

Wonderland Awaits

Deborah's fantastically fabulous wedding invitations - it is really going to be a wonderland wedding! And I won't be there. I am so gutted. I will still be in Italy - which is exciting - but perhaps less exciting than getting married. Sigh. But I can only imagine the wonderful detail, love and flare she is going bring to this very special day xx Thurston is a lucky guy!

postcards and pretties: {real wedding} jenine + nick

Ah - Postcards and Pretties loved our wedding! Yay! Go and check it out - such a fab blog x
postcards and pretties: {real wedding} jenine + nick: "today's real wedding captured by {we love pictures} is full of charm and personality that i'll let the bride jenine tell you herself abou..."

welovepictures: // Autumn Wedding

welovepictures: // Autumn Wedding: "Nick & Jenine Oranje Farm Free State We had the pleasure of shooting our second wedding at beautiful Oranje Farm, just outside the quaint l..."

autumn love in the Eastern Freestate

We got married beneath the most enormous willow... it had fallen over and had just kept on growing... we stood in front of a forrest of cotton wood trees... the light dappled in through the tree trunks and falling down leaves... the landrover that brought us to the forest was the very same first series I grew up riding around on as a little girl in botwana... I walked to the most haunting and moving version of 'some where over the rainbow...' amazingly it stopped raining just as we arrived... It was beautiful. I cried. A lot. And I wore red shoes.

Dance me to the end of love...

If ever you get the chance to go to the Eastern Freestate. Go.

wedding pictures... the bridal party takes to the stage

A sneak peak at a few of our fabulous pics taken in our photo booth - or the love booth - or on the stage - where cross dressing abounded, theatrics unfolded, young love blossomed, and a whole load of good fun was had by all... give them a stage and they will give you a show!

Our fabulous artist friends Alastair and Jeanette were literally finishing off painting the back drop on the grass outside the reception barn... using the Freestate Mountains that surround the farm house for authenticity... colour... shadow...

'was that my cue?'

'and they lived happily ever after...'

'ahhhhhhhhhhh.... ahhhhhhhhhh..... ahhh!

'this conversation is over... for now'

'yes hurry along... we're ready'

'we could stay like this for ever...'

'we just got hitched... yes I know'

'cheeeese'

'oh honey... they want to take our picture'

'thank you and goodnight, you've been a fine audience'

Wedding plans are a marching

I'm getting married next week and my to do list - as the cliche goes - is getting longer. I have met and connected with such lovely people along the way....

Firstly, and in no order, We Love Pictures - two fabulous Pretoria based - soon to be Cape Town based - photographers, Travis & Maike. Really their stuff is so good - check it out they are also on blogger - welovepictures. Maike also has a blog with the coolest title... love made me do it! So for the 'ding dong bells are going to chime' we are making a theatre photo booth. How cute... cos like Nick and I both make theatre.... Alastair Findley - Groomsman extraordinaire artist and general enthusiast for the big day - is painting the backdrop. x

Okay.

Donna the lantern lady in Hartebeespoort - check out her stuff on www.skylanterns.co.za - so pretty. And she's so lovely & helpful & well priced...all things we do love.

Then Fiona's for fabric. Really everyone bangs on about the Oriental Plaza but I say bring on Fiona's Randburg - its simpler and easier - not vast and rambling. Although I did break out and eat a whole load of cheese and onion samosas and I got some fabric from the OP - but really for material... Fiona's rocks... 100% cotton, granny printed... I will post pictures - that I will - after the BIG day. Shh.

My dress of course - which I collect ON SATURDAY- tomorrow - very excited - by Abigail Betz - we share a birthday - weird hey... 18 September. I have a new found love for beautiful clothing... www.abigailbetz.co.za ... you will too!

'Everything's going so well' - Zidler, Moulin Rouge

Then of course Oranje Farm - the venue itself - where we're getting married like - Elsa the organiser is helpful and efficient and creative and also very very nice. She managed to get the little purple flowers I wanted after thinking that she couldn't. Mmmm.

Another fab Freestate find - another lady named Elsa - the wife of the owner of Cafe Moulin in Clarens - go there - is doing my cake - oh my cake! Wedding cake. Icing. Strawberry's. Truffles. She makes the best cake i've ever eaten. Pictures pictures pictures - oh the secrecy of a wedding. Shhh.

Today i'm going to collect our engraved wedding rings - how kitch?

I love it.

Oh wowser I nearly forgot - the golden egg - my invitations, name places, table numbers, seating plan - designer printer person... Marisa! What a find. I can put my invitation here - cos - yes the cats out the bag - we're getting MARRIED! So is so so so amazing and talented and sophisticated and elegant and yes - well priced! www.bespokeonline.co.za

After literally weeks of - how are we going to light the venue - crisis - the fab photographers gave me such a fab idea... and idea the lighting shop in Parkhurst is going to realise - how helpful. They have these specific light bulbs i've been looking for, which, apparently, you can't get anymore. Well, the good news is, you can - in Parkhurst. Pictures.

And finaly - I think - Grant from Croft & Co in Parkview - ex-owner of Scuzi - is helping us get delicious wine. If you ask they will help.

That's all for now. I think that's quite enough.

Clowns & clouds

So much is happening. Firstly - we have settled on a date. At around 4pm on the 8 May 2010 - I will be Mrs Warren. My name as I've always know it - Jenine Collocott - will become my stage name. How bizarre. And of course we broke our diet spectacularly! After deciding where we were going to get married it was impossible to just go home sit on the couch, sip water, and nibble on a dry pro-vita...

So instead we found a charming cafe - Cafe Moulin - on the High Street in Clarens, with buckets of roses lining the the doorway and drank two bottles of Uitkyk Sauvignon Blanc and devoured a massive and mouth-wateringly delicious cheese platter.




We then drove home to the backdrop of the most wonderful sun set - with music blaring - and chose the song for our first dance. How are those clouds?






Today - in fact not 10 minutes ago - I brought my ticket to Florence Italy where i'm going to live and attend a clown school for 6-months. Helikos under the guidance of the wonderful teacher Giovanni Fusetti. This is us at the workshop that CHANGED MY LIFE!




Of course Nick is not coming with me. So... married women alone in the world. Then while I was typing this my phone rang with an unrecognisable number - Peter from the National Arts Council South Africa - they funded the scripting of our new play 'Making Mandela' and he would like to put it forward to the board for an official reading at the Grahamstown Festival which could lead to production funding.... eeee! We start re-rehearsals for High Diving for the Festival of Fame in Joburg and for Out the Box in Cape Town. Rock on. Out of interest my natural clown (and we all have one - we are born with it - like our height - and our personalities) is a flirt. A stupid flirt. Love that.

She Dresses

I have a dress! It totally rocks! I'm delighted! I can't wait to wear it. Again I'd post it - but that would be telling. I have a dress from a sensational shop! I have a She Dress! The shop assistant calls all the dresses 'She!' - like they're living and breathing and sighing on the hangers - scouting out the buyers who dare to enter - gossiping amongst themselves about being far to small for that waist line!

'She's a beauty...' 'Oh she's made of raw silk...' 'She goes for quite a lot...' 'Oh she's well she's different...' Could I try Her on please? 'She won't fit - she's from Fasion Week.' Mmmm. I know. That's why I'm on diet! But luckily for us the designer was in the shop yesterday - after I'd tired on all the same She dresses from the day before - the designer burst through the door bringing sunshine with her. Don't get me wrong the assistant is really sweet and not condescending - I just... Well... I was very happy to meet the designer. I continued trying on dresses to various ohh's and ahh's from Renee, Joy - the bridesmaids - and the Designer. If the the dresses were in fact girls - many of them were in stretched agony - begging to be taken off! Raw silk, lace, intricate hand beading, satin... I can't describe how beautiful they are.

Everyone said that when I put it - or Her - on I'll just know. I kept thinking - maybe I do know, maybe this is it, maybe I'm being difficult... But... Too Catherine Zita-Jones... Too Florence Nightingale... Too princess poof... Too bizarre... Too expensive... Too ordinary... Maybe I'm in the wrong shop.

So as we're leaving - there hanging by Herself on the cupboard with no-one to talk to - the one that the day before was... 'oh she's very small...' But today the designer luckily caught my longing glare and must have heard Her (the dresses) silent cry 'Pick Me...' So I tried it on - or didn't try it on - held it against me is a better description for what I did... and placed my order. Even with the fascist diet... She's far to bloody small - he was right. I have a She Dress...

Can you please stop calling it SHE! Okay - I have a dress. A wedding dress.

I have work, I need to do it. But who can focus when you have a brand new friend.

The Freestate, getting married, going on diet

2010 - wowser - it feels like the millennium in South Africa - everyone is giving the recession the middle finger and getting on with it. The mood rocks. Living on the edge rocks. Joburg rocks. Getting married rocks. Getting married - I have been whisked off the shelf - dusted off - and ring placed firmly on my finger. Singing pop music after one too many... 'Well if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it...' has paid off. So now it's venue venue venue - dress - flowers - wedding bands - guest list - mmm.

I went to the Freestate - for anyone who thinks they know the Freestate but hasn't actually been - it is spectacular! You should go. It's the best kept secret. Working farms - nothing like being surrounded by cows, sheep, tractors and mountains...




Farm 1 - under a massive Oak Tree - the fabulous woman, who has never hosted a wedding on her farm and that really appeals to me, is so enthusiastic that she's willing to plough fields, grade ground and build steps anywhere on her farm!




I love the simplicity.







Farm 2 - A wedding venue yes - but also a working farm. Nice. Very Nice.






This is the barn - where people drink dance and make many an inspiring speech






Farm 3 - Also a working farm







The barn has massive doors to pull open and let in the light







The shadows stretch as our day draws to a near end.







Thanks Freestate Farmers - choice rocks.







As for dresses - we went to a shop yesterday and saw the most amazing dresses - the most stunning of all for ONLY R18,000 - i'll have two! Who spends that much on a dress??? The sweet shop assistant then offered to make the dress without the raw silk - without the intricate beading - without the chiffon from India... all lovely offers to make you feel cheap and like the only one who can't see that this is The Big Day. So we left. Sad. But how lame really?

We started fat loss lab - but more on that another time - vomit - or not vomit - because there's not enough to actually vomit!

So to end off - I arrange events all day, every day... gala dinners, corporate theatre, conferences, video's... It's what we do when we're not making theatre theatre... I never really thought this would be me. But here I am arranging the one event that I really want to attend.