Riaan and Lindi - Feb 2008

Riaan and Lindi got married at Lombardy Estate.

It is a beautiful venue with great potential.

What made it difficult for me was the fact that the wedding ceremony was held outside the main hall on a long, narrow veranda. It was difficult to move around from the back to the front without disturbing the guests. The good thing however was there was enough natural light!

Lindi's dad walked her from her room all the way to the pulpit. At this stage I was fighting for a vantage point as there was a relative with a biggish camera trying to upstage me. I could hear her snorting in disgust behind me as I took this shot - stepping right in front of her. This happened time and again and I felt like an intruder. Boy oh boy - the enthusiasm!

Although Lombardy is a beautiful venue, there is not a great deal of spots to choose from for photo scenes. There is a couple of nooks and crannies, but no area with nice vistas. There were other people hanging around as well, as there is a restaurant / tea garden open to the public. This was too much for Lindi and we thus could not get shots of them in the micro-villa type of setup.

The receptions hall was ok, but reminded me of an eighties era conference room. It had cloth covered panels against the walls and this huge projector screen behind the main table. It did have a white ceiling which helps us photographers to get more distributed light from our flashes and hence more natural looking photos of the reception. I just hate those direct flash hare-in-the-headlight shots!

All in all it was a lovely day out with a fun couple. I would not mind photographing there again, but would advise a couple of changes: make sure you have the whole venue for yourself and marry in the main courtyard so that your photographer can move around with ease.