Essays on ceremony, restraint and the South African room.

Nº 014

March 2025

On the Tyranny of the Centerpiece

There is a quiet violence in the standard arrangement: a sphere of pale roses, fixed at eye level, severing the table in two. We make a case for low light, long lines, and the courtesy of seeing your guest.

Nº 013

January 2025

Tumelo Radebe on Cooking the Veld

Our resident chef on rooibos-cured kudu, a forgotten Karoo gooseberry, and why a wedding menu in Stellenbosch should never resemble one served in Johannesburg.

Nº 012

November 2024

The Case Against the White Wedding

A meditation on chromatic restraint — and why the most photographed wedding of our season was lit entirely by ten thousand beeswax candles in unrelieved black.

Nº 011

September 2024

Notes from the Embroidery Room

Inside the eight-month making of a single ceremonial gown — Madagascan silk, Indian zardozi, and the patience of three generations of Johannesburg seamstresses.