Photo essay!

Here we are with a photo essay from our amazing wedding day! This is just a small collection of the 1700 photos taken by our friend and photography genius Emil von Maltitz! Enjoy them!

Saturday the 16th... Nick in the epicentre of wedding planning: Three computers, several 'to do lists' and 'check lists', a few note pads, an extra desk and a phone... A few key issues that needed Nick's attention that day:

"What do you mean, they forgot to book the log cabin at the beach? Okay, then organise another store room somewhere! Let's make a plan."

"Where are my chairs? All 70 were supposed to be delivered by 2 PM! I don't give a fuck that your truck broke down! Don't make your problem my problem! I give you till 4 PM to get those chairs here otherwise I'll fetch them at your house and then you better run!" (and at 4 PM Charl and I drove to Mtubatuba...)

"Heidi, we have no power at the beach, please go and buy us a generator in Richard's Bay. Thanks a million!"

5 minutes later: "Oh and Heidi, also pop in by Hire Anything for a 30 m. extension cord."

Another 10 minutes later: "Heidi, sorry for bugging you again, please also get me printer cardridges, mine just ran empty and I still need to print the wedding vows and drink vouchers..."

And so there were another 1 billion things to organise that day. Lesson learned: don't ever plan your own wedding...

Sunday the 17th: Today it is all happening! While picking up the family and in-laws , still organising the last few things...

But heck, it was beautiful! After 5 days of rain, today the weather Gods were with us and gave us a beautiful sunny day with hardly any wind!

The rings tied to roses...

Son and dad: "And they saw it was good..."

And even our minister was a hottie ;-)

Two brothers awaiting the arrival of the bride and bridemaids...

Oh My God, how's that for a sight?

There comes the bride...

Alright, lets do this!

...

En wat een lijntje hè...

Amy brings the roses with the rings...

Yes I do...

Thanks baby, that's a pretty awesome ring. You know what, I've got one for you too!

You may now kiss the bride... (Dat laat ik me natuurlijk geen twee keer zeggen...)

Husband and Wife: Nick and Freya van de Wiel

Houdoe en bedankt hè!

Forget the rice, we throw flower petals!

Congratulations, and everybody was happy. And God saw it was good...

Our church...

Four hotties

Hoezo 'schoonheid'?

In het echt verbonden.

Afternoon cruise on the lake.

And a photo of us in our 'office'...

Me Tarzan, you Jane, I take you to my cave...

Reception at crocodile centre

Opening dance. Sort of...

Party time!

Party time!

Where to stay in Luvely Lucious...

Great, you are coming! But now: "Where to stay?"

No worries, just let us know that you need help and we'll help you finding a nice place. In fact, we were thinking of renting a whole self catering lodge with about 16 rooms, turning it into an official 'Nick & Freya Fan Village' and then filling it up with you okes for cost price (about 120 rand pp approx). Let us know if you would be interested. I has a pool and comes with a maid. The latter one is only available for cleaning though, so don't get too excited yet should you be a single male... Sorry Brian...

Not invited?

You got an invite but does not seem to be invited? Ahhh...

Look, we have indeed sometimes assumed that someone wouldn't want to come to the wedding as getting here is too expensive or too much effort, and to avoid those people from having to admit that they are poor or unwilling, have decided to send them the 'just think about us on the day' invite. But maybe we were mistaken and you might not be so poor or unwilling after all... So for anyone that has not been officially invited but yet would like to come, please come and let us know! You are very welcome! We wouldn't be Dutchies turned into South Africans if we wouldn't say: 'Let's make a plan...'

Messages! / Berichtjes!

It is simple: Just click on 'comments' 7 cm below this sentence and follow the instructions. Happy days. (Okay, three weeks ago we sent out 140 wedding invites/announcements, painfully handcrafted, and today another 70 party invites, and so far we have about 13 messages of which I put up a couple myself... Come on, I am sure you guys have to say something at least! Leave us a note, we love to hear from you!)

(Nadat je op 'comments' 3 cm beneden deze tekst klikt, kun je onderaan de pagina een berichtje typen. Daarna kies je bij 'Comment as:' de optie 'Anonymous'. Schrijf dan wel je naam even als afsluiter van je berichtje, anders weten we niet van wie het komt. Succes ermee. Mocht het nog niet lukken dan kun je ons altijd mailen op info@safarisopmaat.nl)

Wedding venues & plan for the day

Okay, we are somehow getting an idea as to where things will happen and when. No finalized times etc, but a rough idea is in place at least. Watch This Space! A couple of days (hours?) before the actual wedding we'll update the schedule below with the final plan. Well, we will try at least...

For now this is what we have in mind:

Saturday 16th: Freya and I separate. She will have dinner with her family and bridesmaids and will stay overnight there, I will do the same with my family and best men.

Sunday 17th: Massive chaos, nerves etc. We'll probably find out that we forgot to arrange a few things and will make new plans. All guests invited for the ceremony should arrive at the Crocodile Centre at 7:45 sharp. This because at 8:00 all the game viewers are leaving for Cape Vidal, and you have to get in them before they leave... They will arrive at Cape Vidal no later than 9:00. So you have about an hour to quickly use the toilet, re-do your hair, and walk to the wedding site on the beach. Then at 10:00 the ceremony will (should...) start. You guys sit and watch, we stand, there will be a couple of horses and stuff, and we say Yes I do and all that. Then at 11:00 there will be a picknick lunch on the beach: We give you a basket filled with goodies and you eat and drink it on the beach. No cutlery, you will be using your fingers, This Is Africa. Easy job.

Then from 12:00 onwards you go on either a game drive, a boat tour on the estuary, or have a surf lesson. If you have not let us know yet what activity you want to do, please email us NOW on info@tailormadesafaris.co.za as we need to know numbers to book game viewers, boats and hot surf dudes. (Yes we are ensuring they are all highly sexual, single, willing and available...).

Whatever activity you have chosen, you should be back at your accommodation around 16:00 to freshen up. At 17:00 you are expected, together with the people that are only coming for the braai and party, at the Crocodile Centre in St. Lucia. A massive pig has been turning on a spit braai for a couple of hours by then already, there will be salads, other food and of course drinks. Happy days. At the Croc Centre, during or in between chewing there will be an option for people to say a few words and to ridicule us (photos from when we were babies etc...): We have arranged a microphone, beamer/projector, laptop and big screen for that purpose. You're welcome...

From 20:00 onwards we are then all moving to Babooschka Bistro/Pub in St Lucia, to meet up with the folk that was invited for the party. Brian the Lion will provide live entertainment, we have a playlist featuring Scooter, and there is even the option to do a bit of karaoke for Willemijn and Kyra. We drink, dance and have fun.

For the people coming from Khula/Dukuduku, we will arrange a taxi leaving Babooschka at 22:00 to bring you back home.

At one stage people will start to collapse and at that stage people should start going home. Freya and I will somehow try to get to a honeymoon suite to go to bed (to sleep I can assure you...). End of wedding day.

Monday 18th: At 9:00 we need to be at the marriage officer's cubicle at Home Affairs in Mtubatuba, for our Civil Marriage... Takes about 10 minutes, costs 15 rand (1.5 euro), and then we shoot off, together with the families and best men + bridesmaids, to the 4 star Tembe Elephant Park Lodge to crash for 2 days. See some elephants, lions and more of these type of things. Gonna be fun.

Below is a little map: Please note that Cape Vidal is about 35 km from St Lucia, and you'll be waiting for about 10 minutes at the gate as things can be a bit slow there. Speed limit is 60 km/h, so you'll need at least 35 minutes of driving time, + time fiddling at the gate and you can see why it is wise to leave St. Lucia at 8 if you have to be at Cape Vidal at 9...

The position of the Crocodile Centre and the Estuary boat cruise are given on the map. We are using the estuary boat cruise on the lower part of the map! Not the top one next to the Siyabonga Tourism Centre! The surf lesson will be conducted at Cape Vidal, and the game drive will depart from Cape Vidal too and take you through the wetland park searching for Rhino and stuff.

Babooschka is on the main street (Mc Kenzie street). Enter St Lucia over the bridge, turn right at the yellow roundabout, then just go straight on until you see it on your left. You will pass the Spar Supermarket and Ocean Basket and Braza before you arrive at Babooschka. If you pass the Avis office, the fruit market and end up in a forest, you have gone too far... Good luck! For any questions, advice, or some problem solving, phone the best man Charl on 082-2575612. When you do, please say hi from me.

Cheers,

Geert-Nick

Dress code & Theme colours

Stuff it! No more dress code and theme colours. The original idea was that the colours of the wedding invite should set the tone for the wedding, giving everybody an idea what the theme colours would be of the wedding, and then guests could dress accordingly. Then the wedding invites turned out to be such an incredible mission that eventually we gave up on the whole thing and have send out all different colours of wedding invites, and honestly, we don't really care what you wear. As long as Captain Redbeard wears his kilt, we are happy. Thus feel free to come in the clothes and colours you like. We are wearing white, khaki and ocean green. Just so you know.

Wedding Gift List 1

Yes, a small honeymoon would be awesome! Although we can't seem to agree as to where we would like to go, we were thinking of a tropical budget honeymoon, and came up with Inhaca island in Mozambique, Zanzibar in Tanzania, or Mumbo Island in Malawi.

This is a breakdown: (Prices are in ZAR, for Euro's roughly divide by 10 (1700 Zar = 170 euro))

Getting there and back (flight): 8000

1st night stay: 1700

2nd night stay: 1700

3rd night stay: 1700

4th night stay: 1700

5th night stay: 1700

6th night stay: 1700

7th night stay: 1700

1st night dinner: 260

2nd night dinner: 260

3rd night dinner: 260

4th night dinner: 260

5th night dinner: 260

6th night dinner:260

7th night dinner: 260

Scuba Dive: 400

Scuba Dive Course: 3500

Massage: 250

Activities offered: 200

Drinks: 15

Wedding Gift List 2

Items we would like to have, from the cheap to the ridiculous...

(Prices are in ZAR, for Euro's roughly divide by 10 (100 Zar = 10 euro))

For the Dutchies: een does vol boemboe (Pepesan, Soto Ajam, Sajoer Boontjes, Ajam Paniki, Sambal Goreng to lor etc.)

Zak dropstaafjes

Rookworst

Doos frikandellen en/of mexicanos (Kopen, uit de verpakking halen, vacuum verpakken, terug in diepvries, net voor vertrek naar vliegveld in koeltas douwen, in de koffer, meenemen, in St. Lucia gauw weer in de diepvries, klaar is Kees. Eitje...

Tofu rosso

Frietpan (elektrisch)

Een stuk of 6 Cuddle bugs (http://www.bever.nl/slapen/accessoires/3308.cuddlebug-cuddlebug)

2x Opinel zakmes No 9

Gietijzeren pannenset / Cast Iron Pot set (preferably of the brand Olvida)

A bottle of Amarula (ZAR 100)

A six-pack of Windhoek Lager (ZAR 65)

A subscription on Africa Geographic Magazine (ZAR 300)

An iPod Nano, Classic or Touch (no iPod Shuffle) (ZAR 900)

A new mattress (ZAR 2500)

An airconditioning for our house (ZAR 3000)

Kite Surfing Kite (ZAR 4000)

Kite Surfing board (ZAR 2500)

We don't do TV's, but like to have a beamer/projector instead to watch movies etc.. We have seen a nice and good quality one. (ZAR 5500)

A Brno .458 rifle (We are doing trails nowadays and walk in big-5 areas, and such a rifle might one day save our lives as well as those from our guests...) (ZAR 8000)

The Nikkon D700 (ZAR 25.000 ;-))

The Nikkor 600 mm prime lens F4 G ED VR (ZAR 80.000 ;-))