Johannesburg Wedding Photographer – Ben Viljoen – Pretoria Weddings, Potchefstroom Weddings, Freestate Weddings, Limpopo Weddings, Johannesburg Weddings » Wedding Photography in Johannesburg, South Africa

This was our first wedding after the winter, and what better place to start off than at our favourite venue, Anderland. Like with all things in life, it’s the people at Anderland that makes it such a special place to get married at, and to work at for that matter. Neil as always was sweating away (literally) to make sure that we are having as good a time as the couple is, and the ever cool and collected Hanri has a way to always make you feel like you are their only favourite photographer. That amazing chicken dish also helped.

Phillip and Liezl were a pleasure to photograph, and as mentioned in the speeches, they really do complement each other delightfully. Being the first wedding of this season, I will start off with a diluted list of about 20 of my favourite moments of the day. No apologies for the number of b&w images anymore.

It’s the way that Phillip caresses her neck that makes this photograph for me

Cindy and I agree that this is probably our favourite image of the day

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It would seem like I found a little niche in that area of the world, seeing that this is our fourth wedding in that small town. This time I am posting late as I decided from now on to post on the blog only after all the editing has been completed. I have several reasons, but one is that I do not waste a day looking for images I want to post, and also I get to post the images that I really like after having spent some time on them, and not just the ones that initially caught my eye.

Jenny got her images this morning and sent me a heart warming message,

“Ben, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH, I am so impressed and grateful!!!!!!

Much appreciated!!!! Sjoe I don’t even have the words!!!!”

I’m not sure who made the dress, but  Dress is by Jean Nalida Designers, it’s pretty ornate and seems like it could have taken ages to create.

I’ve never seen a groom suffer as much during his speech as Raymond did. The poor guy was completely drenched long before half time, and not with sweat

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This weekend we returned again to Cindy’s hometown in the North West province.

Jane and Andre had their wedding set up in the garden outside, and while getting ready, nervous glances were thrown out through the window as blackness coupled with frequent bolts of lightning and thunder loomed towards the east of Stilfontein (just west of Klerksdorp for those who don’t know).

The storm never came, a bride was kissed, some other bridal party stole our photo spot, we found a better spot (nah nah nanah nah), the light was awesome, fun was had… it also seems unlikely that I’m going to lose my belly fat before Mauritius in December, and Cindy is strongly considering a fake tan.

No need to introduce Mariska the make-up artist. BTW, she is the only woman I know who can wear her daughter’s clothes and still look that good

Really nice to see Juan-Marie and Manny again, you seem to be doing very well.

Potchefstroom seems to have no end to stunning wedding venues and stormy rainy wedding days…both of which are seriously kick-ass attributes to a wedding day in my book (super cute, fun loving couples like Francis and Leandra also count). This weekend’s wedding which took place at Featherhill Spa was certainly no exception, and I was about as excited about the dark clouds and thunder approaching over the hill as the bride and girls were about Leandra’s dress, which totally did warrant some excitement BTW. See some sneak previews below.

I’m also home/grand-ma sitting for my parents who went over to Australia for 2.5 weeks. With it I have the privilege of running their business along side my own while they are away.

Also, my sister and her hubby recently found out that she is pregnant with their first child. I’m now that close to being uncle Ben.

Also, Cindy’s sister had her matric farewell on Friday evening in Klerksdorp. I was honoured to be asked to shoot a few portraits of her and the very lucky Ferdie. You know, they could have chosen any photographer in the world, but in the end they decided that there was really no choice, it was either going to be me or no photographer at all ;-P . In my limited experience of matric farewells though, Joburg people don’t seem to get too excited about the whole deal. In Klerksdorp it certainly is one of the highlights of the year, right there next to Christmas and New Year. The whole town seems to pitch up to see the couples into the banquet hall, it’s quite an experience.

During the next week or two when I come up to breathe I might add some more pics from this weekend, including some more from the matric farewell.

I also have not forgotten about Luzanne and Stephans photo journ images, they WILL arrive here at some point, just keep looking.

Following are 2 quick ones from Leandra and Francis’ wedding

Ok, one more

Deep breath….cheers

UPDATE: My gallery has just been down for the whole weekend as well…sorry , I threw in a few new photographs to make up for it…enjoy.

This morning it came to my knowledge that my blog cannot be accessed…(obviously it is up and running again if you are reading this). Apologies to those who were eager to see how stunning Manny and Juan-Marie looked on their wedding day.

Up until recently I’ve been relying solely on other people to manage my online presence, but lately I’ve been making a bit of an effort to learn a bit about HTML and coding and to try and do things myself. Unfortunately though, I’m now at that stage where I know just enough to make a big mess of things, and therefore I’m grateful for friends who are always willing to help me OUT of the ditch again (not gonna mention names here, but you know who you are, thank you a million times).

Hopefully all will be well for a while.

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When Cindy and I just started dating I once bought some flowers at Lost Treasure on my way to pick her up, but I didn’t realise that I will one day shoot a wedding there as well, in fact, I didn’t even know it was a venue. So needless to say it came as quite a pleasant surprise when Manny contacted me to shoot their wedding just there.
They are both from Gauteng but they both grew up in the Stilfontein area, so they wanted to have their wedding in the area, and according to Cindy, Lost Treasure would be the larniest place in Stilfontein to get married at…so thumbs up guys!

Thumbs up also to Mariska (082 421 7120), JMs make-up artist with whom I have had the pleasure to work with two weeks in a row now. She did an amazing job both with JM and Franciska and I would heartily recommend her.

Last but certainly not least, a big thumbs up to Manny and Juan-Marie for being one of the nicest couples we have met, and for the amazing wedding they hosted. JM boasted one absolutely stunning dress, loved the vintage touch to it, and Manny was quite the handsome gentleman to match.

enough from me though, here are some stand-outs…

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I was totally ignorant, but the locals insisted we are now officially at the cheesiest location in the area, not only for taking wedding pictures, but even to be seen at (I don’t want to name the place for fear of getting in trouble, but it rhymes with “illusions”). Anyhow, I just had to take one…and Manny and Juan-Marie hesitantly but very kindly agreed to a quick smooch .

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So on Wednesday a guy bashes into my rear-end, I crash into the guy in front of me and my car is completely out of the league. On Thursday someone takes me to Pretoria to fetch my brother-in-laws car so I have some wheels, but the car has been standing for over a year and the battery is a gonner and the carburettor is a mess, so I’m push starting my way back to Jozi and eventually make it in one piece. Friday morning we got the battery sorted and a temporary replacement carb and we are on our way to Stilfontein for Carlo and Franciska’s wedding.

I was out numbered about 1/12 (men to women) at the house where Franciska was getting ready, and felt a bit like I was on the endangered species list. I did survive though, Franciska turned out to look stunning and in the end I felt rather privileged to have been there.

From there on the way to the church I took note of the vast open land, of the light that was turning into something dreamy, and of the fact that I started to get that buttery feeling in my stomach as the excitement built up. All with good reason I must say, as the images turned out to be absolutely spectacular.

a little splash of colour

yeah, rocking the floor on your wedding day is now officially an acceptable way to entertain your guests

this photo’s gotto remind you of 50′s Hollywood, beauty spot n’ all

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Alright Ben, it’s almost dark, rain just bucketed down, you are driving at 100km/h with a camera stuck to your face, AND YOU ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD GOING OVER A BRIDGE! Are you kidding me?

This one was on my first trip of 4 this month to the Potch/Stilfontein area, 3 of them are wedding related, and it always seems to be raining on the way there…and the sky is always breathtaking, and I later discovered that I scanned the negatives in backwards…so I WAS okay afterall. 

Check out Franciska and Carlo’s wedding photographs soon, happened yesterday, in Stilfontein (North West Province).

I partnered up with Dror again this weekend to photograph De Clercq and Madels wedding at Anderland, one seriously awesome wedding venue (the best I’ve been to yet) and would highly recommend it if you were planning on getting married in the Potch area. Besides the whole old forest feel of the venue (especially when it’s raining weather), the very beautiful and very spacious chapel area (that pulpit kept reminding me of the pulpits used by old Scottish preachers like John Knox and other protestant reformers) they also have some stunning old wedding photographs they got from the Potch museum hanging in one of the banquet halls. I think they were from something ridiculous like the 18oo’s or so…really cool stuff.

The guys were uber cool to hang out with, and Madel looked pretty amazing in her fantastically detailed vintage dress. The year has truly started off well, I’m really looking forward to the rest of it.

The rest of our evening after the wedding turned out to be pretty bizarre, but I will let Dror tell you the story on his blog, he seems to like doing that kinda thing, and of course he has some stunning images on there as well.

Ben Viljoen Photography, Anderland Wedding Photographer

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