carli & deon
“I am crying. This is beyond incredible. How on earth?! Sho! How does one say thank you? Just incredible”
2014. A camp in Muizenberg. A room full of girls from different schools who didn't know each other. Carli and I were both from Paarl, "koshuis" girls from opposing schools, technically. But then we started singing Blank Space at the top of our lungs and I knew. This was someone I wanted to do life with.
She is courageous, honest, stubborn in the best way. The kind of person whose faith doesn't waver, not through loss, not through the hard seasons, not through any of it. I've watched her for over a decade now. Jumping into pools fully clothed. Sitting on bathroom floors talking about everything and nothing. Me sneaking to her room at 21 because I needed a sleepover buddy and she was always, always there.
To photograph her wedding felt like too small a word for what it actually was.
Seeing the girl I met at 17, still that bright, still chasing, still so entirely herself, is a privilege I don't take lightly. And then there's Deon. Steadfast. A brilliant businessman. Apparently a great cook (want sy kan nie kos maak nie). Someone who meets her exactly where she is and pushes her further.
Her equal. In every way.
This is part one of many. The girls and Roy getting ready at Jonkmanshof. For the perfect day. For my friend, Carli.
Carli and Deon chose McGregor. Of course they did.
The kind of town that feels like it was made for exactly this. Quiet, unhurried, beautiful without trying. And Jonkmanshof sitting right in the middle of it, waiting. Saturday morning started slowly. Champagne before 10. A breakfast of champions. The girls gathered, Roy somewhere in the mix, and the whole morning had this quality of not wanting to rush anything. Like everyone quietly agreed to just be present for it.
Carli got ready the way Carli does everything. With intention. No fuss. Just her, her people, and the kind of calm that comes from knowing exactly what the day is really about.Because for her and Deon, it was always about the covenant. The vows. The weight of what they were actually doing. Everything else, the venue, the dress, the flowers, came second. And you could feel it. In the ceremony. In the speeches. In the way people leaned in and actually listened.
What started as a slow champagne morning became a dinner party. And then the dinner party became something else entirely. Someone pressed play on Dancing Queen and that was that.ABBA at a wedding will never not be the right choice.
The food deserves its own paragraph. Actually, it deserves more than that. The kind of meal where you find yourself eating slowly on purpose, because you don't want it to end. Long table. Good wine. The kind of spread that makes conversation easier and laughter louder.
McGregor has a way of doing that. Slowing everything down just enough that you actually taste it. The food, yes. But also the evening.
Carli and Deon moved through it all with such ease. Stopping to talk, to laugh, to sit for a moment and take it in. You could see them looking at each other across the room every now and then. Just a glance. The kind that says, can you believe this is ours.And then someone refilled the wine, the music got a little louder, and the night kept going.
& then the outfits changed.
Because Carli and Deon didn't just throw a wedding. They threw a decades party. One outfit change per era, each one better than the last. The kind of surprise that makes you realise you never actually knew how the night was going to end.
But you'll have to scroll for that.
