Last year, I was shooting a wedding for Zavion and stayed over at Inimitable. The next morning, Zavion took me to a new space he was developing. I arrived at a site that was just starting to take shape—heaps of ground, foundations going in, the beginnings of something truly massive. As Zavion shared his vision for this space, I felt my heart race with excitement. This incredible human has a gift for turning everything he touches to gold. I saw the site once more before it was completed and was shocked at how quickly it was transforming. Fast forward a few months, and here I was, stepping into the reality of what was once just a dream.

When I arrived at Stay by Inimitable, I knew I was stepping into a beautiful space, but I wasn’t prepared for how truly awe-inspiring it would be. From the moment I walked in, I was captivated by the seamless blend of elegance and modern design. For anyone seeking a wedding venue that combines luxury with simplicity, Stay by Inimitable offers something truly unique.

Zavion’s talent for interior design truly stands apart. Stepping into Stay by Inimitable feels like arriving at a five-star resort, with every detail crafted to delight the eye around every corner. Honestly, if I could take it all home with me, I would!

The architecture immediately caught my eye. It is striking —clean lines, open spaces, and every detail so meticulously crafted. As a photographer, I’m constantly on the lookout for spaces that capture light beautifully, and this venue does just that. Natural light flows through every corner, making each room feel bright, inviting, and full of life. Every part of the space serves as the perfect canvas, capturing a balance between sophistication and warmth that’s hard to come by.

But beyond the aesthetics, the team at Stay by Inimitable is something special. Working with them always feels like coming home to a loving family. They bring passion and precision to everything they do, creating an experience that’s as welcoming as it is seamless. I could see that this venue isn’t just a place to get married—it’s a space designed for celebrations that will be cherished forever.

Just a short drive from the city, this venue feels worlds away, offering an intimate escape surrounded by nature’s quiet beauty. For anyone dreaming of a wedding that’s as stunning as it is stylish, I truly can’t imagine a better backdrop than Stay by Inimitable.

To explore this breathtaking venue yourself, I encourage you to visit Stay by Inimitable and see what makes it so exceptional.

Charlotte and I grew up mere steps apart. Our early years were enriched by the frequent encounters with wildlife on our family farm. Additionally, our grandparents farm, nestled on the border of the Kruger National Park, right next to the Crocodile River, it offered us unforgettable moments, like observing elephants from our grandmother’s veranda.

This backdrop seemed perfect for Charlotte and her fiancé Stephen, both big admirers of the bushveld. Charlotte's bond with nature extends beyond appreciation; she is a gifted sculptor whose works brilliantly capture the essence of wildlife. I highly recommend exploring her exquisite creations under the name Charlotte Elizabeth.

I am thrilled to present Charlotte and Stephen’s Bushveld Safari session at Adventures with Elephants. Despite the sweltering heat on the day of the shoot, the outcome and feeling were nothing short of magical. Surrounded by the majestic presence of elephants, their grace and beauty left us in awe, a sentiment shared by everyone at AWE. This experience was not just a photo session but a celebration of nature, love, and artistry.

Make up by Nerina

Adventures with Elephants is not only a research facility, but AWE is also open for visitation and is only about 2 hours’ drive from Pretoria, perfect for a day outing if you have no idea what to do. They offer educational experiences, nature walks with the elephants, 1-hour private session (ideal for a photoshoot - bring your own photographer) and a couple more options.

Book your experience here.

I feel like I am always saying the the planners I work with are amazing, but they really are. Once again I have a wedding up here and the outcome was just so amazing. Love this one especially because it was black tie and the outcome was so chic and classic!

Planning & Styling Zavion Kotze Events | Venue Inimitable HOUSE | Food Andrew Draper | Suit Brereton Bespoke | Stationery Chrystalace | Makeup and Hair Anni B Studio | Video Cinastage Studios

Another beautiful wedding by the lovely Infinite Luxe Weddings. When you have a beautiful backdrop like Summer Place and a great team, a cloudy day seems like the perfect weather… and what is not to love about this soft box weather?

Everything looked magical, from the beautiful couple to the stunning garden ceremony and reception setups!

Creative team

Planning & Styling Infinite Luxe Weddings | Venue Summer Place | Stationery Chrystalace | Makeup Precious Xaba | Furniture Reserved Exclusive

Walking into the room I immediately knew this will be one of those weddings, you know, the one where fun is the main agenda. The love is evident in these moments I captured!

The vibe of this wedding screams awesome and I could not help but have a smile on my face as each part of the day was happening.

That being said, it also helped that an amazing team of creatives was behind the execution and success of this beautiful day, shout out to all them.

Planning & Styling Zavion Kotze Events | Venue Inimitable | Hair Bridal by Armon | Makeup Rebeca Artistry | Dress Vonve Bridal Couture | Stationery Nova Bespoke Stationery

Loved shooting this romantic wedding styled session with my friends who also happen to be wonderful, inspirational creatives at the beautiful Inimitable House in Muldersdrift.

Venue Inimitable H O U S E | Styling & Planning by Zavion Kotze Events Company | Dress Elli-Nicole Bridal | Suit Brereton Bespoke | Bloom Makeup & Hair | Stationery Chrystalace | Food by Andrew Draper | Wine Deetlefs Wine Estate | Models Bianca Bezuidenhout + Lance Jelliman | Photography by me

“Yes!” to this Black & Yellow Wedding inspo by Marble & Mauve.

Planning & Styling Marble & Mauve | Venue Hello Timber | Dress Marlize Meeding | Flowers Shop Botanicus | Stationery Fleur Design Studio | Model Agency Ultravision Brand Activators | Model Zee MBambo | Makeup Precious Xaba Makup | Photography Rensche Mari

Winter days in Johannesburg can be so magical. This engagement session was captured one warm winter afternoon at Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg. It was wonderful having this couple in front of my lens and I look forward to the day I get to photograph their wedding!

Planning by Uthingo Events Group | Venue Shepstone Gardens

I have to confess that since the start of lockdown it been so difficult and depressing to blog, because our industry felt so hopeless. Now as things are starting to pick up again, I am taking a little throwback to when the world was a different place. This is just a sneak peak of the beautiful post-wedding reception from 2020 pre-lockdown, and it is one of those events that gets you all excited about being creative.

Fudhail & Humaira celebrated their union at The Four Seasons in Westcliff Johannesburg and the epic planning and styling was done by none other than the Zavion Kotze Events team. The theme was black & white, like you have never seen before.

Planning & Styling Zavion Kotze Events | Venue The Four Seasons | Videography Hauke Weddings | Stationery Chrystalace | Furniture Reserved Decor

Watch this amazing Video of the Venue by Hauke

Zavion Kotze Events - Ying & Yang Revolution from Hauke Digital on Vimeo.

I simply loved working with my friend UV from Marble & Mauve on this beautiful styled wedding session at Hello Timber Venue just outside Pretoria. It felt good to be working on something when our country went into a stricter lockdown again on 15 January 2021. Have a look at what this amazing team created!

Planning & Styling Marble & Mauve | Venue Hello Timber | Dress Marlize Meeding | Flowers Shop Botanicus | Stationery Fleur Design Studio | Model Agency Ultravision Brand Activators | Model Zee MBambo | Makeup Precious Xaba Makup | Photography Rensche Mari

There is nothing I love more than to be in the bushveld and to be surrounded by our beautiful wildlife. I grew up right next to the Kruger National Park, so whenever I am in the bush I feel right at home, and the older I get the more sacred the bush becomes. Today I am sharing a very special shoot, I urge you to read the whole post as I feel so many people are uneducated about these gorgeous Gentle Giants I get to photograph so often, this is my opinion and how I have experienced Adventures with Elephants. >

I love visiting Adventures with Elephants (AWE), the people here take in elephants that society has seen as ‘problem' elephants and they habituate them. Many of you might not like this idea of elephants being habituated, but they have nowhere else to go, their choices are limited to being culled, poached or rescued and placed in captivity.

Do you know how much an elephant is worth in Africa? The truth is that no one wants elephants, they destroy habitats (not through any fault of their own) and are very expensive to move to new locations, you will probably have to pay someone to take them off your hands and most of the time the people who will pay top dollar for them are the ones that want to hunt them for sport.

It is an appalling fact that over the last 100 years the African elephant population has been reduced from 3.5 million elephants to only 375 000 remaining today, and habitat destruction has reduced the land available to elephants to only 5% of what they once had (usually the worst lands, as humans have taken the best for cities, agriculture and such) and if the current rate of poaching continues then we will lose all our elephants within a decade’. [Source]

Our elephants are in trouble and there is an urgent need to protect these gentle giants. >

A little more about AWE

The group of 7 elephants at AWE have a purpose that is far better than just being rescued and placed in a national park where they will just over populate it futher, the elephants at AWE help their species and other species by means of educating us humans.

The program they run here is to; 1, look after the 7 elephants 2, help the communities around them by job creation 3, Educate the locals who have to live with the elephants, 4, observe the elephants and learn from them. Their end goal is conservation through education. Adventures with Elephants help our wildlife more than you know:

Some facts about Adventures with Elephants:

• Adventures with Elephants have 7 elephants

• 5 of them were considered troubled elephants and were going to be culled. 2 Elephants were born into the herd.

• The 7 elephants get to roam freely on 300 hectare during the day - they need way more than this, but unfortunately land is limited (still, they are far from being caged like zoo animals - in my opinion).

• At certain times during the day they go and meet visitors > the keepers teach the visitors more about the elephants, their habits and the habitat they occupy.

• At night they sleep in a boma with some of the keepers to keep them safe from poachers.

• These elephants are habituated and humanly trained for a variety of roles from educational demonstrations of their abilities to film and research work as well as daily enrichment and anti poaching efforts for all wildlife in the area.

• AWE’s elephants are one of the most diversely researched herds in South Africa and have been contributing to many different research projects.

I started working with Adventures with elephants about 6 years ago and it has been a treat to go there every now and then. I hope more and more people will go and visit this place to see what it is all about. >

I had so much fun shooting this beautiful setup by an amazing team of creatives. This was for the ZK Flower school and Rensche Mari Wedding Photography workshop back in September. After lockdown was eased, this was a breath of fresh air.

The amazing Creative team:

Flowers & Styling by Zavion Kotze Events | Stationery & Wall Paper Chrystalace | Dresses Elli-Nicole Bridal Couture | HM + model scouting Bloom Hair & Makeup | Food by Andrew Draper | Cakes Kelly Jayne Cakes | Furniture Reserved Exclusive | Models Anita, Zandria, Palesa | Wine Sponsor Deetlefs Wines

Loved photographing this elopement of David & Marguerite at the beautiful Summer Place venue in Johannesburg.

Venue Summer Place | Makeup Missy Makeup Artist | Earrings Jade SA

Lockdown Elopement Summer Place

It is hard to imagine that we are in August already, months have passed since Lockdown started and my last wedding before Lockdown feels like a lifetime ago but July has been good to me and I got to work on a couple of projects, one of which was this gorgeous elopement.

It feels exhilarating being able to capture my client’s memories again. I had the great pleasure of photographing Anele & Noxy’s elopement shoot and it was nothing short of spectacular.

Venue Summer Place | Makeup Kazie Beatz

Safari Couple Photo Shoot

During the lockdown so many businesses are going under and even though we can’t possible save the whole South Africa, I do feel we should do everything in our power to help those who cannot help themselves, including animal conservation. Right now Adventures with Elephants have lost all their bookings during lockdown and possibly indefinitely since we do not know when this will end. They are an amazing company that gave these elephants a home, they are very happy to live here, they get to roam the farm when there are no visitors and sleep in a guarded area at night to protect them from poachers. Please visit the Adventures website in the link above to make a donation or spread the word.

Here is the beautiful Mavie and Werner celebrating their life in South Africa, they are immigrating to Canada and thought it would be a great idea to give themselves a farewell treat with this elephant experience.

Makeup by Missy Makeup Artist

Your Home and Life captured

With so much uncertainty out there it feels kind of silly blogging, but being confined to your home is no easy task, and in the end keeping yourself busy, keeps your mind off doomsday thoughts. So here is a little distraction to hopefully make your home quarantine a little easier. This is the ideal time to practice Slow Living so please be safe and stay home, go out for necessity only. Keep yourself busy with things you have been wanting to do around the house, check out this pin board of things to do with your kids, read a book or cuddle with your furries!

About 8 weeks ago I did this shoot and it was so amazing being part of Melissa & Antonie’s adventure for the past 3 years. These two have expanded their family with two beautiful fur babies, Lexi and Lana (Shetland Sheepdogs). They are so sweet and cute it just makes me want to hug them!

Makeup by Missy Makeup Artist

Zavion Kotze Event Company creates a beautiful wedding at Inimitable

A gorgeous wedding with a dream team and the loveliest people to photograph. Phanki & Londeka celebrated their wedding day with close family and friends at Inimitable Wedding Venue situated in Muldersdrift. It was a perfect summers’ day and Zavion Kotze Events Company styled the wedding with beautiful white flowers and subtle touches of green.

Planning & Styling Zavion Kotze Events | Video Hauke Digital | Venue Inimitable | Food by Adrew Draper | DJ Events Engine | Stationery Nova Bespoke | Singer Sofaya | Suits Mastersuit | Assistant Photographer Rolene vd Merwe

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]]>WHITE & GOLD FLORAL WEDDINGInternationalZavion Kotze EventsRensche MariFri, 20 Dec 2019 11:20:36 +0000https://renschemari.com/blog/12-2019/mauritius-green-and-white-destination-beach-wedding-lux-belle-mare-zavion-kotze531a23e1e4b0cc8a5407729d:531a322fe4b0c5d02619806c:5dfb47e3afb9f51620f3d40b

Destination Wedding Photography in Mauritius

Mauritius; a short 3 hour flight from South Africa but all the island you need to have a fantastic destination wedding week with your close friends and family and an amazing team of creatives to make everything easy and looking fabulous.

Our lovely couple, Benjamin and Kira looked beautiful on their big day. The Zavion Kotze Events team transformed the Lux Belle Mare Beach Rouge bar to an elegant event that blew everyone’s breath away.

Creatives

Planning & Florals Zavion Kotze Events | Hotel Lux Belle Mare | Makeup Hair Sam Scarborough | Video Hauke Digital | Stationery Chrystalace

Destination Couple Photography

This was such a great adventure traveling from South Africa to Mauritius with the amazing Zavion Kotze team to spend a couple of days documenting Kira and Ben’s destination wedding. I loved the couple’s laid back sense and I am looking forward to sharing some of my favourite highlights from their wedding day soon!

Kira & Ben’s engagement shoot was a dream in the beautiful Mauritian forest with the green lush fauna, magical sunbeams and a striking tropical bouquet by Zavion. We ended up at a lagoon nearby with the perfect sunset.

One of the things that I love about Kira is that she’s not only a vet by trade but her love for animals is as big as mine. For her guests she asked that instead of a gift they donate money to a charity that helps animal welfare for the animals and education to the locals of Mauritius, who currently have a huge overpopulation which leads to cats and dogs being malnourished and ridden with diseases. These babies need your help so if you would like to donate either your time or money visit Paws Mauritius to help.