Niki & I met Karla Oettler at an industry party 3 years ago and since then she’s become a very close friend of ours.

Karla is one of the top wedding coordinators in South Africa, so when it came to hosting her own birthday party this year, all the stops was pulled out!

The quaint fisherman’s town of Paternoster on the West Coast, was the setting for a gettaway weekend with an awesome crowd, good food and celebrations.  Even though this small town is now quite well known, it has not lost any of its appeal.  All the houses are painted white with hints of blue on the frames, doors and fences.

Being a photographer, how can you not want to capture something that took so much thought to plan and lay out!

Karla, we admire your creative flair, your strong drive as a business woman and your caring, open heart that goes out to those around you.  We loooove you!

Decor, Styling and coordination done by Absolute Weddings (Karla’s company).

Photography by Stefan Steenkamp

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I am nearing the end of my visit to Europe and now it is time to catch up with blog posts. Plenty to follow over the next 2 weeks.  (see list at bottom of post)

A good number of ZaraZoo clients live in the UK full time.  Most of these expats however return home to South Africa to tie the knot.

Sue and Rowland, originally from SA, now lives in London.  We will cover their wedding in October at Vrede en Lust near Stellenbosch – it will be an all out lavish affair coordinated by The Aleit Group!

We met up at the South Bank of the Thames for a walk-around and got some awesome shots with icons like Big Ben and the London Eye in the background.

Photography by Stefan Steenkamp

Posts to follow in the next 2 weeks:

1. Paris E-session with Nic & Derryn.
2. Arvinder & Raj’s Hindu wedding in Blackpool.
3. Arvinder & Raj’s Civil wedding at Knowsley Hall near Liverpool.
4. Dominic & Karen’s E-session at Hampton Court Palace.
5. Gillian & Chris’s E-session at Borough Market.

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Who said bowling is boring???  Not when the ZaraZoo team heads out to take the town by storm!!!!

]]> http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/zarazoo-fun-photos/feed/ 3 http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/post-day-4-days/ http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/post-day-4-days/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:09:51 +0000 Stefan http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog/?p=1582 Even though we work away like headless chickens, the work load just keeps on mounting.  We are in the middle of peak season yes, but we are also doing double the number of weddings comparatively to last year!

But there is no excuse to fall behind, so I promise to do a post for the next 4 consecutive days – Your treat!

Posts to follow:

3 March – Tannille & Sheldon wedding at Neethlingshof

4 March – Neesha & Keith wedding at Mount Nelson & Aubergine Restaurant

5 March -Melani & Justin E-session at Waterfront

6 March – Sameegah & Brian E-session at Blowfish (Blouberg)

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Well, the good news is that I am dedicated to do a post every day for the next 6 days, to catch up.

Here are some posts to follow:  (Subscribe to our RSS to receive them in your email Inbox)

• Heidi & Phil’s wedding at Webersburg
• Mei & Riaan’s Wedding at Oudekraal Nature reserve
• Fashion shoot at Yzerfontein
• Jorrie & Alret’s Wedding at Yzerfontein
• Neesha’s Wedding at Mount Nelson
• Bertus & Melanie’s Wedding at Cascade Manor

So, enjoy the images and think of me slaving away in front of the computer!!! hehehehe

We are just taking a well deserved break – chilling out on the beach with the kids and doing absolutely nothing.  We will be back in the office on the 5th of Jan, but we are still picking up emails and calls, so give us a buzz to set up a meeting and E-session.

Sorry to our regular blog stalkers for being so slow with posting – especially to Lilian, Mia, Karen and Thereza whose weddings we recently did.  Here is a list of posts that will follow in the next 2 weeks.

• Lilian & Hayden Wedding – Neethlingshof
• Mia & Steve Wedding – Kanu Wine Estate
• Karen & Wedding – Little Stream Constantia
• Ashley & Olivia E-session – Backsberg
• Anna & Dirk Trash the Dress – Muizenberg
• Thereza & Leon Wedding – Nachtwacht near Arniston

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A while ago WAP (We are Photographers) group was created on Facebook.  In our first get together, a bunch of us went to see Annie Liebovitz’s movie “Life through a lens”. Jean Pierre Uys organised this outing that really set the tone for us photographers to collaborate more.

Our second outing was a “Mock Reception shoot”  at Webersburg Estate.  See Christine Meintjes’s and Mitch Wong Ho’s posts about this outing.

And last night we had a great social braai.  Seems like the group and comaradery is growing!  Some of the guys had already left when this photo was taken.  See more photos of the braai on the WAP facebook page.

Photo:  Mitch Wong Ho, Jean Pierre, Jean Fre & Jean Pierre jnr Uys, Stefan, Niki & Zara Steenkamp, Andre van Niekerk, Du-Wayne Denton & wife, Riekert Cloete & girlfirend,  Greg Lumley, Ian Mitchinson and Christine Meintjes.

Others that had already left by the time the photo was taken:  Jules Morgan, Monica Dart,

We have also totally revamped the website – It is now a blogsite!   It is designed to be a community hub for advertisers to promote their services and a resource center for brides to get tips and advice about planning their wedding.

In the Western Cape we have collaborated with top wedding coordinators Aleit Swanepoel and Karla Oettler, to provide expert advice, tips and information. 

The biggest asset of the Little Pink Book is that it is small enough (A6 size) to fit into a handbag – so no more lugging a huge file around to take notes and look up telephone numbers.

If you are interested in advertising the Little Pink Book, fill out the contact form and we will get back to you.  Little Pink book contact details:

Tel:      021 910 1196    

Blogsite:  www.littlepinkbook.co.za

If you have a blog, you most definitely have heard of Technorati.  It is a search engine for blogs and updates as new posts are done on its listed blogs.  The good news is that joining is free.  Anyone can submit their blog here.

Technorati ranks your blog and the higher your rank, the bigger the better the chance that it will appear in searches done on their site.  Furthermore, they encourage blogs to link to each other.  The more blogs that link to yours, the higher your rank and the higher your blog will come up in searches.

This system is called “Authority”.  For each link on another blog to yours, you get one “Authority point”  The more Authority points you have, the higher your rank, the more visible your site will be.  And the rest is exponential, as we all know.

I have been tracking my Technorati ranking

for the last 2 weeks.  With each post I did, the ranking increased by a meager 1000 places.  It started at 4 800 000th blog in the world.

But… that was without any “Authority points”

Today I got my first “Authority point” and that boosted my Ranking by more than 2 million places!!!!Our blog is now 2 600 000th in the world.  Still a long way to go, but a great challenge.

So this is what I suggest to the readers of our blog.

1. Open yourself a Technorati account (if you have a blog).
2. Write a post where you link to our blog (http://www.zara-zoo.com/blog).
3. We will return the favour and link to your blog in one of our next posts.

By following this formula, we will increase the rankings of all the blogs in our photographers network. We will become more visible to the world (and South Africa).

If this post does not make sense please leave us a comment.

Elizabeth Margaretha Joubert (Ouma Babsie)  was born on 2 November 1928…. She is such a fun loving person with a zest for life – and ooooh she loves the camera!

Photographer:  Stefan Steenkamp

The party was held at the well known La Masseria in Durbanville.  This Italian restaurant is famous for the great atmosphere and ambiance and off course the incredible singing performance of the owner and his friends.  They have actually brought out a CD recently!

The sequence below says it all – A famous Italian song is dedicated to Ouma Babsie…. and her reaction…

After the meal, I took her outside for a few shots – I never knew she loved the camera that much – with every snap, she even changed her pose – like a professional model!

Then after the meal, a few family pictures were taken at my moms house.

Photo:  Ouma Babsie with me and my two sisters

Photo:  The crazy Jacobs family doing a Charlies Angels pose – Ouma Babsie with my mom Magdalena and Aunts Annatjie and Maria.

Ouma Babsie we love you and wish you many more years!