Clad in golden ankle boots and creamy lace, her face sprinkled with gold glitter, Pastor Bling-Bling was one of the vendors plying her trade at the inaugural Hemingways Mall Bridal Fair this weekend.
Just like the wedding cake bakers, makeup artists, bridal gown designers, florists, photographers, reception venue vendors and videographers promoting their services at the lavishly-draped expo, Helga Olivier was also signing up bookings.
“I am a fully ordained minister of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa and have done hundreds of weddings in the last 10 years,” said Olivier, who started her marriage business in Port Elizabeth before relocating to East London.
“I will do weddings anywhere and have done one deep in the Stutterheim forests. It was a beautiful fairytale,” Olivier said.
“I have also done beach weddings but they are risky because of unpredictable weather.
“I always dress glamorously, in fact they call me ‘Pastor Bling-Bling’.
“I have such a passion for it and sometimes officiate at two weddings in one day and so I have to tell the bride to be on time. Sometimes brides are terribly late. One was an hour and 15 minutes late.”
Also chatting to future bridal couples was former Stirling Baptist senior minister Matt Francis, who recently launched his marriage officiating business called I Take You.
Francis, who is also a life coach, said he had been a marriage officer for 17 years and also offered marriage preparation sessions for couples about to tie the knot.
Francis has officiated at more than 200 weddings all over South Africa including the Drakensberg, Hogsback, Cathedral Peak, Simonstown and a forest in Stellenbosch and will even say the vows in another language.
“I learnt to say the vows in German and Afrikaans for one couple because one of them was German and the other Afrikaans and I am happy to learn the vows in any language,” said Francis, who has seen his fair share of ceremonies going pear-shaped over the years. “Once the father of the bride’s cellphone started ringing, but he thought it was someone else’s phone and I’ve had people almost fainting.
“One bride swatted her husband because he was touching her hair!
“One bride’s dress was so skimpy that everyone gasped when she walked down the aisle and an outside wedding was so windy that the chairs blew away when the guests stood up,” he recalled. —
barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Bridal Fair even sees ministers plying their trade
Just like the wedding cake bakers, makeup artists, bridal gown designers, florists, photographers, reception venue vendors and videographers promoting their services at the lavishly-draped expo, Helga Olivier was also signing up bookings.
“I am a fully ordained minister of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa and have done hundreds of weddings in the last 10 years,” said Olivier, who started her marriage business in Port Elizabeth before relocating to East London.
“I will do weddings anywhere and have done one deep in the Stutterheim forests. It was a beautiful fairytale,” Olivier said.
“I have also done beach weddings but they are risky because of unpredictable weather.
“I always dress glamorously, in fact they call me ‘Pastor Bling-Bling’.
“I have such a passion for it and sometimes officiate at two weddings in one day and so I have to tell the bride to be on time. Sometimes brides are terribly late. One was an hour and 15 minutes late.”
Also chatting to future bridal couples was former Stirling Baptist senior minister Matt Francis, who recently launched his marriage officiating business called I Take You.
Francis, who is also a life coach, said he had been a marriage officer for 17 years and also offered marriage preparation sessions for couples about to tie the knot.
Francis has officiated at more than 200 weddings all over South Africa including the Drakensberg, Hogsback, Cathedral Peak, Simonstown and a forest in Stellenbosch and will even say the vows in another language.
“I learnt to say the vows in German and Afrikaans for one couple because one of them was German and the other Afrikaans and I am happy to learn the vows in any language,” said Francis, who has seen his fair share of ceremonies going pear-shaped over the years. “Once the father of the bride’s cellphone started ringing, but he thought it was someone else’s phone and I’ve had people almost fainting.
“One bride swatted her husband because he was touching her hair!
“One bride’s dress was so skimpy that everyone gasped when she walked down the aisle and an outside wedding was so windy that the chairs blew away when the guests stood up,” he recalled. —
barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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