Yesterday afternoon, wedding and event venue ‘t Twiskerslot held their ‘Men’s Day’. Lots of vendors did everything they could to make it a memorable afternoon for all the guys attending: wine tasting, beer tasting, massages, fancy shoes, tailored suits, nice cars…. We were there to capture it all.

Participating vendors:
‘t Twiskerslot, Twisk
Puur&Zuiver Spa, Twisk
Wijnimporteur J. Bart, Purmerend
Groot Schoenmode, Hoorn
E.P. Beerepoot elektronica, Hoorn
Personal Car Lease
Sanne Swart goudsmid en fotograaf
Meubels en keukens op maat, Stijlwerk
Tillemans, maatkleding voor heren, Hoorn
Schmalz mannenmode, Schagen
Kaasboerderij Spil, De Weere
De Kweker speciaalbieren, Wervershoof

‘Tis the season for corporate End of Year Parties and we photographed the Boon Edam company party last week in  ‘De Jozef’ in Volendam. ‘Volendam’ was the theme of the party and the many Volendam’ers working with Boon Edam sure liked that. There was a fish shop with raw herring and other delicious fishes, the band Volendam Alive performed, the well known Volendam’er Kees ‘Parre’ Tol was the Master of Ceremonies, they had Volendam snacks and best of all, a show by the famous Volendam rockstars the 3JS at the end of the night. Quite a party!

Just like in former years, we brought our mini-studio set up. And to keep in line with the Volendam theme, we decided to use a chromakey background. We had visited Volendam earlier that day to shoot some backgrond images to use with the chromakey, so we could photoshop everyone into a true Volendam scene. I’m sure Boon Edam is a great company to work for, as the people that work there are so much fun. We had a blast again. Here are some chromakey images.

(Do you recognize anyone in the above image? We shot both Yvonne and Daan’s wedding (a few years ago) and Michelle and Raymon’s wedding (in September of this year!)

Kees ‘Parre’ Tol tought a Volendam lesson or two. If you don’t pronounce the ‘h’ you’re halfway there, but it’s still very hard to understand Volendams:

Accordeon and Volendam Alive.

When the MC announced that the 3JS would start their performance ‘any minute’, I moved closer to the stage. Just like all other ladies there. A girl excitedly whispered in my ear that we stood at the best site of the stage, as ‘Jaap Kwakman will be on this side of the stage!’. Well, I found out I kind of recognizes exactly one of the 3JS’ songs, so the whole 3JS hype is a bit over my head, but they gave the audience a great show!

Amerongen Estate has ‘tasting afternoons’ a couple times a year. Brides and grooms who are thinking about celebrating their wedding at this awesome venue are invited to come and get a taste and feel of the venue. The Amerongen Estate is one of our favorite wedding venues in the Netherlands. It’s a beautiful estate, there are gorgeous buildings to get wed in, to dine in and to party in, there are plenty of great photo spots, they have real gourmet food and best of all, their team is very professional, passionate, thoughtful and nice – they really help to make your wedding a dream wedding. We were there to photograph the event for the estate. They also had their own florist, the patissier, the sommelier and the D.J. to help make it a very pleasant afternoon for everyone!

The WIT Wedding Catwalk & Wedding Fair was held in the Lichtfabriek in Haarlem yesterday. They had fun booths: colleagues of ours promoting their wedding photography, a patissier, a videographer, wedding planners, a cocktail bar, make up artists and of course, bridal shops. The bridal shops put on two awesome catwalk shows during the wedding fair. We were there to once again cover the event for WIT Wedding. The catwalk show was opened by this beautiful dark model in a dress by Victor’s Wedding Design – a great statement to make it very clear to everyone that WIT Wedding is the non-traditional wedding magazine of the Netherlands!

This is the poster for the event, with photos we took at the WIT Wedding catwalk last year.

Pisa is a community centre for people with cancer, and their loved ones. It is a welcoming home in the city of Hoorn and it is a very important place. It supports people with cancer and organizes many different activities. Partners and family members are welcome in the centre as well. And last week on Thursday, Pisa organised a special day to pamper its visitors. There were masseuses, and a hairdresser. Mindfulness traning and a zumba-workout. Great snacks and drinks by the Hoorn Bagels&Beans team. And the possibility to have a professional portrait done. Me, my lights and my camera were at the Pisa ‘pamper day’ last year and I couldn’t wait to join the team again this year.

I photographed strong, beautiful, vulnerable women. And a few men. But I didn’t just take photos last Thursday, I mainly listened. All these people have their own unique story. I can only hope these images do them and their stories justice.

The Pisa centre is going through some rough times due to the economic recession and cost cutting, but last Thursday made very clear why centres like this are so important. This is a small selection of the photos I took. Thank you all for posing for me. Thank you all for letting me share these images with our readers.

ps/ On the left, in the middle, with the great smile and the beautiful flower on her sweater, is Wiek Luza -the centre’s co-ordinator and the driving force behind Pisa and this special day.