filzams
another filzam getting married, another filzam reunion. it seems that in order to get a large number of filzams to get together, someone needs to tie the knott. of course the exception was new years in nyc... but most of the time, it's usually a wedding. before saying goodbye to everyone, margaret's boyfriend, paul was saying that we shouldn't wait for another wedding for everyone to get together again... i really wish that was possible, but the reality is that everyone is busy with their own lives and its kinda hard to get this many filzams together without having a special occasion. i guess if you all live in the same city or area like they do in canada, those reunions can easily happen, but for most of the filzams i know... we're all over the place. seattle, houston, san francisco, south carolina, new york, virginia, las vegas, michigan, boston... definitely not easy to get together.
so jesse and pellagia's wedding... a perfect opportunity for a reunion. i was definitely going, heck i'd been to kristabel and mike's weddings and so there was no way i was missing jesse's. initially there were several other filzams supposed to be here... but not surprisingly, reality set in and some of them weren't able to make it. wish they could have, especially ryan, since this was definitely a case of "the more, the merrier". still... as you can see from the pic, we had a fairly large turnout.
i spent most of the wedding ceremony taking pics. i basically acted as if i was working and i took pics as if i was their official photographer. i wasn't, they had a friend taking their photos and she was using a film camera. i'm pretty sure her photos were amazing... i gotta give lots of respect and props to anyone still shooting film in this digital era. i don't have the skill or talent to shoot film... i need digital's flexibility and instant feedback. i think i did a fairly decent job, i was able to capture a lot of key moments. one thing that did throw me for a loop was that the couple who married jesse and pellagia stood between the couple and the wedding guests... something i'm not used to and if i was the official photographer, that would have bothered me since i wouldn't have been able to get any shots of just the couple exchanging vows... usually a very important shot when it comes to wedding photography. but i guess its just one of those challenges or variations that comes with doing wedding photography... another reason its considered one of the hardest photographic assignments anyone can do... and why i keep turning down offers of wedding jobs no matter if they tell me that it will be a small wedding and it should be easy... there's no such thing! i'm just not ready to photograph a wedding by myself.
we had a bit of a break after the wedding and i was able to drink some delicious peche to quench my thirst. thanks to adee for bringing that and some biltong as well.
the reception was a lot of fun. and as i mentioned in my blog post yesterday, despite the fact that the wedding reception was on sand, it really added to what made this a unique reception. after a fairly formal wedding ceremony, a lot of people changed to a more casual dress for the reception and the sand didn't really inconvenience anyone. the kids certainly loved it. kris's son gavin and mike's daughter jasmine were practically rolling around in it... which is sort of fitting. kids are supposed to get dirty. one of the highlights for me was hearing pellegia's story and how she and the royce's became family. it was really amazing and such a touching story. i don't know the royce family, but from what i saw that weekend, they are such amazing people and pellagia and jesse are people to have them as family. then jesse's best man, david, gave his speech and he informed us that he was going to try and keep it short... and then proceeded to give the longest bestman speech that i've ever witnessed... and believe me, i've worked over 40 weddings over the past ten years... and none of them went as long as he did. hahahaha... david, if you're reading this... don't get mad... i'm just saying that it was funny cos you tried to keep it short and well... it was long! hehe. things got really going once the dancing started and they played several african songs. i did notice that apart from the bouquet toss, they didn't really do any of the traditional wedding events... which was cool cos everyone wanted to get to the fun part which was the danciing! the dancing went on for quite a while and while a lot of the other guests had gone home, we were still here and along with some other guests... we just kept on dancing and dancing! as they say, all good things must come to an end... and so after helping to clear up for a bit, we all took a couple of pics like this one (which led to a rousing rendition of zambia's national anthem) and then we headed back to the hotel. but the night wasn't over yet, not for some of us. most of the people in this pic, paul, tommy, jeff and david went to a bar across the street from our hotel to just relax, have some drinks and eat some pizza... it was pretty fun. probably cos most of us were tired and hungry after the reception and all the dancing, the pizza tasted really really good.
after i got back to the room, i tried to view all the pics i had taken that day (around 700) but i was just so knackered that i gave up and went to sleep. this definitely was a fun day... and i just want to congratulate my friends, jesse and pellagia on this special day. you guys are awesome!
today wasn't the perfect day however... because i was at this wedding... i missed my friend, allan jay's wedding which also happened this same day. it killed me to have to choose between these two. but jesse and pellagia had planned and set this day for such a long time that i had to go with the first wedding that i committed to. i really really wish i had been able to attend allan jays... it will forever haunt me that i wasn't able to go. but he's been pretty cool about the whole thing even though i know that he's disappointed in my decision. can't really do much about that tho. what happened happened. from all the details that i heard, his wedding was fairly spectucular... just a case of bad timing.
and to make matters worse... one of my favorite events of the whole year, comic con was this same weekend. but in the end... going to one of my oldest friend's wedding was the right choice to make and as i mentioned several times, i had a lot of fun. comic con is an annual event... jesse's wedding was a once in a lifetime event... and so was allan jays which again makes me feel like crap for missing it. c'est la vie...
so jesse and pellagia's wedding... a perfect opportunity for a reunion. i was definitely going, heck i'd been to kristabel and mike's weddings and so there was no way i was missing jesse's. initially there were several other filzams supposed to be here... but not surprisingly, reality set in and some of them weren't able to make it. wish they could have, especially ryan, since this was definitely a case of "the more, the merrier". still... as you can see from the pic, we had a fairly large turnout.
i spent most of the wedding ceremony taking pics. i basically acted as if i was working and i took pics as if i was their official photographer. i wasn't, they had a friend taking their photos and she was using a film camera. i'm pretty sure her photos were amazing... i gotta give lots of respect and props to anyone still shooting film in this digital era. i don't have the skill or talent to shoot film... i need digital's flexibility and instant feedback. i think i did a fairly decent job, i was able to capture a lot of key moments. one thing that did throw me for a loop was that the couple who married jesse and pellagia stood between the couple and the wedding guests... something i'm not used to and if i was the official photographer, that would have bothered me since i wouldn't have been able to get any shots of just the couple exchanging vows... usually a very important shot when it comes to wedding photography. but i guess its just one of those challenges or variations that comes with doing wedding photography... another reason its considered one of the hardest photographic assignments anyone can do... and why i keep turning down offers of wedding jobs no matter if they tell me that it will be a small wedding and it should be easy... there's no such thing! i'm just not ready to photograph a wedding by myself.
we had a bit of a break after the wedding and i was able to drink some delicious peche to quench my thirst. thanks to adee for bringing that and some biltong as well.
the reception was a lot of fun. and as i mentioned in my blog post yesterday, despite the fact that the wedding reception was on sand, it really added to what made this a unique reception. after a fairly formal wedding ceremony, a lot of people changed to a more casual dress for the reception and the sand didn't really inconvenience anyone. the kids certainly loved it. kris's son gavin and mike's daughter jasmine were practically rolling around in it... which is sort of fitting. kids are supposed to get dirty. one of the highlights for me was hearing pellegia's story and how she and the royce's became family. it was really amazing and such a touching story. i don't know the royce family, but from what i saw that weekend, they are such amazing people and pellagia and jesse are people to have them as family. then jesse's best man, david, gave his speech and he informed us that he was going to try and keep it short... and then proceeded to give the longest bestman speech that i've ever witnessed... and believe me, i've worked over 40 weddings over the past ten years... and none of them went as long as he did. hahahaha... david, if you're reading this... don't get mad... i'm just saying that it was funny cos you tried to keep it short and well... it was long! hehe. things got really going once the dancing started and they played several african songs. i did notice that apart from the bouquet toss, they didn't really do any of the traditional wedding events... which was cool cos everyone wanted to get to the fun part which was the danciing! the dancing went on for quite a while and while a lot of the other guests had gone home, we were still here and along with some other guests... we just kept on dancing and dancing! as they say, all good things must come to an end... and so after helping to clear up for a bit, we all took a couple of pics like this one (which led to a rousing rendition of zambia's national anthem) and then we headed back to the hotel. but the night wasn't over yet, not for some of us. most of the people in this pic, paul, tommy, jeff and david went to a bar across the street from our hotel to just relax, have some drinks and eat some pizza... it was pretty fun. probably cos most of us were tired and hungry after the reception and all the dancing, the pizza tasted really really good.
after i got back to the room, i tried to view all the pics i had taken that day (around 700) but i was just so knackered that i gave up and went to sleep. this definitely was a fun day... and i just want to congratulate my friends, jesse and pellagia on this special day. you guys are awesome!
today wasn't the perfect day however... because i was at this wedding... i missed my friend, allan jay's wedding which also happened this same day. it killed me to have to choose between these two. but jesse and pellagia had planned and set this day for such a long time that i had to go with the first wedding that i committed to. i really really wish i had been able to attend allan jays... it will forever haunt me that i wasn't able to go. but he's been pretty cool about the whole thing even though i know that he's disappointed in my decision. can't really do much about that tho. what happened happened. from all the details that i heard, his wedding was fairly spectucular... just a case of bad timing.
and to make matters worse... one of my favorite events of the whole year, comic con was this same weekend. but in the end... going to one of my oldest friend's wedding was the right choice to make and as i mentioned several times, i had a lot of fun. comic con is an annual event... jesse's wedding was a once in a lifetime event... and so was allan jays which again makes me feel like crap for missing it. c'est la vie...
posted by Joits at 12:14 AM
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