Sanja and Gabri's engagement shoot
Sanja and Gabri's engagement shoot
We met in 2006 at Varsity whilst we were both serving on Trap de Jeug (a youth cycling outreach team). For Gabri it was apparently love at first sight! I'm not sure if it was my charming looks, or the fact that I was performing my 'womanly chores' and diligently washing the dishes...
12 months and 2 weeks to be exact.
Gabri: A romantic at heart. A deep, precious soul with a keen awareness of God's love. He is also a practical 'bakkie boer' and a no-frills-or-fuss kind of guy. An impulsive spontaneous chap, who is always game for fun and adventure. He is also a Microsoft Excel boffin!
Sanja: A thinker and ponderer, mostly about life, love and God. A cake baker, food maker and fitness fanatic. An emotional person at times, but a joyful nature at heart.
After arriving back from a trip to Ethiopia, Gabri surprised me with a lovely picnic in a hidden-away cove at Yzerfontein. After a delicious picnic, he read me a tearful and very heartfelt letter and before I knew it he was on one knee!
We wanted to go for a warm, wintery type of shoot - not just a 'pose and peer around the tree' shoot, but a good and proper styled shoot to commemorate our engagement. We found Natasha online, and immediately loved her editing style and the grading on the photos. We decided on Deer Park and told Natasha we were doing the shoot there, come rain or shine. She packed in a few umbrellas, and a lovely vintage bike, and we loaded our car up with props and other bits and bobs from Sanja's sister's house. Voila - it worked perfectly, and we got the wintery shoot we had envisioned. There were no leaves at the venue, so Natasha asked me to bring some along. It was quite an adventure prancing around in our shoot outfits, and picking up shopping bags full of leaves amongst peak traffic just before the shoot!
The shoot was taken at Deer Park in Table Mountain Reserve. Natasha arrived at the shoot location earlier to scout out the perfect spot and did a fabulous job! We both loved all the textures of the rocks, the bark on the trees and the nettles on the ground.
The theme was "warm and wintery reminiscence". It was greatly inspired by the season and the idea that one day we want to look back and reminisce about our younger days, and love for each other.
Oh, I definitely added my two cents, but in the end Mr. Steyn had the final say and gave me the most amazing ring! It has a slight vintage feel to it, without being too ornate or 'oude doos", as we say in Afrikaans.
Nope, there will be no professional wedding planner. It's just me (Sanja), and my most helpful 'almost' mother-in-law! She has done a sterling job and in my opinion should advertise to be a professional wedding planner. My own mom has also really helped a lot, but because she is based in Zimbabwe hasn't been able to help as much as she would have wanted to.
You will have to wait for 19 September 2015! The theme of our wedding, however, is 'Understated elegance, and old world charm'. The colour palette is taupe, sage, rust peachy pink, and a mix between rose gold and silver. For the rest, you will simply have to wait and see...
