Exciting news!  A local Cosmetics company unlike any other has just launched in South Africa.  Eunoia Cosmetics had their  launch at the gorgeous new venue, L’Atrium,  in Paarl.

About Eunoia Cosmetics

The word, Eunoia, means beautiful thinking which encompasses their companies philosophy. Their philosophy is that make-up should not harm people or animals and should certainly allow your inner beauty to shine through.

All their ingredients are carefully sourced and their products are certified to the highest standards.  Their products are rich in vitamins and botanical extracts, cruelty free and not tested on animals.

The majority of their products are vegan certified.  A handful of their products are not  as they contain beeswax.  Foundations, while complementing complexions, will not clog the pores (non-comedogenic) and it is safe to use on sensitive skin.

Eunoia offers an assortment of lipsticks in exciting colours, specially formulated to nourish and repair your lips.  They have eye shadows to enhance your beautiful eyes,  whether for work or play.

The Launch evening

Guests mingled with many influential instagrammers, as well the, Who’s who in the Make-up world.  Christine Meintjies and her husband, Ian, from the Pretty Blog  and The Local Edit made an appearance, as well as  the former Miss Universe, Rolene Strauss.

N Concepts treated guests to a beautifully styled walk around of the cosmetics as well as  having attentive waiters topping up the Champagne and Wine glasses throughout the evening.  Delicious canapés were supplied by Kos Kouture!

ABOUT THE CEO

The CEO of Eunoia Cosmetics is  Judy Vermeulen, who has spent the past two years researching this  range.  With Judy at the helm, we are sure that Eunoia Cosmetics will become a power player in the South African cosmetics industry.  We wish her much success.

Go give Eunoia Cosmetics a follow on Instagram!

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Belair Wedding – Paarl

Megan and Evan – a joyous Belair wedding reunion!

This Belair wedding was joyous.  I have never, ever seen a bride who glowed with happiness as much as Megan did on her wedding day.

Evan was definitely the biggest reason that she glowed but he wasn’t the only reason. Although without a doubt, he was the main reason!

The other reasons!

Two months before their wedding, Megan and Evan emigrated to Australia as she had successfully applied for a position in Melbourne  but had to start immediately.  They decided to go but fly back to Cape Town for their wedding.  Needless to say, coming home after two months and having all your family and friends at your wedding was another reason to glow!

The final reason, I am sure, is that jet lag definitely was catching up with her, so the best way to handle it , is to pour the bubbly and be jolly!

Friends and family came from across the globe to celebrate this stunning wedding.  Her best friend travelled from Sydney, her uncle and his family travelled from the USA and her sister and her family flew down from Johannesburg.  Not only was this a wedding but it was a glorious reunion too.

Suppliers

Belair was the most magical, pretty venue in Paarl.  A perfect backdrop to a beautiful wedding.

Tracy from Trunk Events was the cool, calm & collected wedding planner.  It is always a pleasure to work alongside this talented lady.

My Pretty Vintage were the talent behind the floral creations. The venue looked amazing.

Shake ‘n Bake created the beautiful cake!

The awesome, Minki Du Plessis was the Make-up and Hairstylist.

Her perfect wedding dress was from Tying the Knot!

DJ Joe kept the party going until way after my bedtime!  He had everyone on the dance floor all night long.

DJ Dean was in charge of all the sound and lighting.

Chef Daddy were the caterers and  also treated the guests to midnight snacks.

A big thank you to my second shooter, Just Judy!

View previous wedding here!

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Newborn Baby Mason

Newborn Baby Mason is gorgeous but I am not surprised!   He has inherited the great genes from his parents and grandparents.

A small world!

I have known Baby Masons’ maternal grandmother for a good few years and even though I didn’t know her daughters well, I obviously knew about them both.  Strangely enough, I  have also met Baby Masons’ paternal grandmother as she is the sister of a friend and Sean is the cousin of my sons good friend.  Imagine my surprise when I realised that these two separate friends had become family.

I was very stoked when I was asked to photograph this gorgeous little man!  I couldn’t wait to meet him.

His parents, Sean and Jennifer are completely in love with this little dude!  It’s beautiful to see!

These two gorgeous parents are absolute naturals and are completely relaxed with being new parents.

Newborn Baby Mason with his rabbits.  It will be cute to check on his development every month to see how much bigger he is than his rabbits!

No, I am positive that that is not a wind smile!  How perfect is he?  Gosh, no wonder he has everyone wrapped around his finger!  He is just so adorable and so absolutely relaxed!

Beautiful Jennifer and her gorgeous boy!  I think she is totally smitten.  He definitely has all the ladies twisted around his little finger!

Granny Gusti is also totally bowled over!  She told me the other night that she is getting withdrawal symptoms if she hasn’t seen him!

Such a beautiful natural mommy!  Jennifer seems to be so comfortable this tiny baby.  It’s hard to believe that he is her firstborn! And he was only born 11 days previously at Louis Leipoldt Hospital!

It is always special to see young couples become a family!  Sean and Jennifer are naturals  and I am sure it won’t be too long before they give this little cutie a brother or a sister!

This was the only time that I saw him cry, when he was changed!

How cute is that face?  I love those baby expressions!

Link to the cousins proposal!

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Anderson & Jackie

This windy Blaauwberg Beach proposal took lots of planning on Andersons’ behalf.

Anderson and Jackie have been a couple since high school.  They have encouraged each other through high school and university.  Both of them had difficult courses.  Anderson is a qualified Chemical engineer and Jackie is a Chartered Accountant.  Both Jackie and Anderson knew what their end game was.  There was never ever any doubt that they would be together.

Where it all started!

They met at Pinelands High School in Cape Town.  They have now been together for nine years!

Anderson recently moved to Pretoria to take up a position as a chemical engineer.   For the last couple of months this has been a long distance relationship.

He definitely felt it was time to take the next step and to propose to his lady love.  He had no doubt that it was Jackie he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

But trying to get the logistics of the proposal correct was quite a challenge.  He had to make one trip to Cape Town to officially ask Jackies’ parents for their permission.  This was difficult to do without Jackie figuring out what he was up to.   Another challenge was to keep it secret for another two months until he was able to get some leave in order to fly back to down to Cape Town and pop the question.

Organising me as the photographer was the easy part as Jackie had always wanted to do a couple shoot.  So he gifted her the couple shoot as her Christmas present!  Her sister actually asked her if he was going to propose but because they had asked blatantly, it threw Jackie off the scent.  She didn’t think they would be so obvious plus she thought he would propose on her birthday in April!  Needless to say that is exactly what the family were hoping!

When Jackie turned around after admiring the view and found Anderson on his knee she was totally blown away!  She hadn’t had a clue!  It was pretty magical!

These two are perfect together.  They are perfectly in tune with one another.  Relaxed, comfortable and natural with one another.  I am excited to see them tie the knot!

Alex and Carl luxury wedding can be viewed here!

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Four Generations of Australian Beauties!Four generations of Australian beauties are photographed at their private home in Camps Bay.

Previous blogpost can be viewed here!

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Engagement shoot

I am so excited for this beautiful young couple who have recently got engaged and set the date! I have no doubt that this will be a beautiful wedding as Heine and Inge are perfect together. You can feel the love, support and respect between them.

Where have you seen them before

If they look familiar, then its probably because you recently saw them on my blog or instagram account. They were the gorgeous couple who met me in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris during my recent trip to France. Check out the Paris photoshoot here!

A jewel fit for a queen!

It was very exciting to see on social media when Heine dropped his knee and popped the question about a month later in the Italian Alps. Heine had her gorgeous ring made by a talented, local Cape Town jeweller, Gerhard Moolman who has apparently been their family jeweller for many years.

The post Theewaterskloof Dam engagement shoot appeared first on Jo Ann Stokes.

Bryce and Angelique

This perfect Cape Town proposal has been in the planning for a good few months. Bryce had bought the engagement ring while Angelique was on an overseas hockey tour in Holland. He knew exactly what he wanted to do to make his proposal special for his ladylove. He wanted to take her away for a weekend and it had to be rustic and where nature was the main drawcard.

The downside was that they both had very busy schedules and trying to organise a surprise proposal with so many elements became difficult. Firstly all the cabins were fully booked, secondly Angelique was writing exams and finishing her university course and thirdly Bryce was fully booked with hockey coaching and tournaments and lastly, my availability dates also had to be consulted.

But life has a way of working out and these two were meant to be together and so the stars aligned and the universe made a plan. Copia Eco Cabins phoned Bryce and said they had had a cancellation and would he be interested in the first weekend of 2019! Bryce knew that he and Angelique had their first free weekend before heading off to a hockey tournament up country. All he had to do was double check if I was available and luckily I was. The stars had aligned, we could go ahead a plan this surprise engagement.

Bryce and I came up with the plan that I would contact Angelique and ask her if they could help me out as a couple had just dropped me for a photoshoot that I was doing at the Cabins in order to give them some content for their instagram page. If she had really done her homework, she would have realised that Copia Eco Cabins have plenty of content for their instagram page but hey it worked and she fell for it hook, line and sinker!

The cutest moments was when she got to the cabin and was so excited about the shoot and said the container cabins were awesome and she thought that this would be a perfect proposal spot. I was slightly worried that she had cottoned on but luckily she hadn’t.

Bryce definitely scored brownie points for his choice of the location. It was romantic, peaceful with no internet connection! Bryce had also got his mom to purchase all the supplies for the weekend! And when Angelique realised that this was the spot for her surprise proposal she was beyond elated.

Like most ladies, she couldn’t wait to tell the world that Bryce had put a ring on “it”. The most important people knew and were able to be phoned but social media had to wait! We all promised that we wouldn’t post until she was back in the land of the “internet” and could make the big announcement herself!

We all had a celebratory glass of champagne with the happy couple and then we all left them to enjoy this special time.

Congratulations Bryce and Angelique! You are absolutely perfect for one another!

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Table Mountain maternity shoot

Sophie and Yonathan

Table Mountain was a gorgeous backdrop for Sophie and Yonathans maternity shoot.  This beautiful couple are from Ethiopia but met each other in California, USA, where Sophie was studying and Yonathan was working in IT.  They plan on heading back to the States for the birth of their little boy.

Luckily, we had no rain on the day of the shoot although the wind pumped and was freezing!  Not too bad on the side of Table Mountain but the wind on Signal Hill was gale force!  In fact it was pretty scary!  It was a case of take a few pics and run back to the car, warm up a bit and then brave the elements for another few minutes.  I am pretty glad that we persevered as when Table Mountain lit up with the setting sun, it was pretty awesome.

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Couple shoot – Tracey and Leonard

Cuteness overload!!!

This cute couple are getting married in November at Bakenhof in Wellington!  I can’t wait as I know there will be lots of cute moments and without a doubt lots of laughter.  

Tracey and Leonard have been a couple for quite a few years but it shows because they are totally in sync with one another.  They are cute, playful and fun to be around!  Just absolutely perfect for one another!  

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Couple Photography – Cape Town

What more could I ask for!  A couple in front of my lens captured in the most beautiful place in the world, Cape Town, on a cold, winters day!  Most people think I am mad but I love winter!  Its my most favourite time of the year in Cape Town.    The landscapes are green and lush, the weather is wild and moody.  Moody weather lends itself beautifully to emotive photography.  I have to admit though, it does take very brave souls to be photographed when the weather is freezing so when I find volunteers I don’t think twice.  And these two mad hatters asked me, what are the chances!

Sinead is my niece.  I am sure if anyone goes through my website or blog, they will find her in quite a few posts.  Shane, has also featured once before but as a model for a styled shoot that we did a few years back.  Funny enough they are now a couple and I didn’t introduce them!  I thought he might look a bit too “bad boy” for my school going niece, even though I knew he was quite a softie and very likeable. I am lying ….I didn’t give it a thought!  I have never ever had to find dates for Sinead, she manages quite nicely on her own.

 If any couple is looking for wild, moody, emotive photography ….then I am your gal!  Give me a shout!

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