Mowielicious

My French Wedding

It's been a mad week. It's been absolutely crazy, exciting, fun, adventurous, happy, emotional, stressful... and I have to say: I've enjoyed every second of it. 

It was Anita (Bruce's cousin) & Gerald's wedding last weekend in Nantes, France, and Bruce and I were invited. Not just as guests but as photographers. I was pretty anxious about how the day was going to go and how the photos were going to turn out, but it all turned out to be much better and much more fun than I thought. I got to meet a lot of Bruce's family for the first time and they are some of the nicest people I've ever met!

The wedding was lovely, from the dress that Anita's mother made, to the traditional South African flowers and the traditional French Croque en Bouche wedding cake - it was all just stunning. We ate, we drank, we met new faces, we took loads of pictures, we laughed and we cried.

I can't actually show you any of the pictures of the actual wedding, only because the bride and groom haven't seen any themselves yet, but I thought they wouldn't mind if I posted some of the foodie pictures I took for now. Stay tuned for more soon.

If you like these pictures and know anyone getting married that's looking for a photographer (or two!) and might be interested, I'm looking to expand my wedding portfolio and I would really appreciate it if you could put us in touch - I'm willing to travel too! Thanks so much! 

Belgian Speculoos & Puppies

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in Belgium last week, and I've come back completely inspired: I grew up with Spekulatius biscuits as a child, as it's German tradition to have them around Christmas time. It's a spiced biscuit that includes cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. The Belgians call them Speculoos and they use them in the most creative ways - as a base for cheesecake, soaked in coffee in tiramisu, and even as a paste for a divine spread! Yummy! I'll be attempting all of those very soon. Click on the image above if you'd like to see a larger version of the lifespan of the speculoos cheesecake we ordered - I don't think it even lasted 1 minute between the 5 of us! 

The other thing Belgians seem to be obsessed about is dogs - they were everywhere - and they were all adorable and gorgeous, especially the puppy on the bottom right below! It had me running like a crazed maniac after the owner just for a quick shot... I can only imagine what he must have thought! Mind you, I'm sure he gets it all the time:

The Gelato of Rome

I visited Rome last weekend for the first time and it was absolutely gorgeous - I had such an amazing time! 35°C by 10am everyday and not a cloud in the sky for all 5 days! The heat was lovely and a welcome change, not only because we've hardly had a summer here in London again this year, but if you remember from my post last week, I could feel the seasons changing to autumn before I left. So, what better to do in the heat of Rome than cool off by stuffing myself with gelato?! Bruce and I must have had every flavour imaginable, seeing as we had it for each of the 5 days, 3 times a day. I know, Mowie-isms to the extreme, but what can I say? It was just so yummy! And of course I couldn't help taking pictures of them all. Clockwise from top left: pistachio & limoncello, chocolate & nutella cream, blackberry & plum, lime & mango, prickly pear & melon, tiramisu & caramel.

 

 

Whereas I stuck to taking pictures of food only, Bruce went trigger happy and took some absolutely stunning shots of all the famous landmarks, as you can see above. Do visit his website, Cunningeye.com to see more of his amazing work. 

As for my baking, I will resume my crazy antics this weekend. All I can say is: expect lots and lots of chocolate!