‘Wedding Bashers’ Wonderful Insight to South African Weddings

Everyone dreams of the perfect wedding day, but unfortunately there’s no such thing as perfect – the Bashers on MNet’s ‘Wedding Bashers’ pointed this out in the first season of the show.

While many of the contestants strived for a flawless day, the Bashers mainly looked at originality, cohesiveness, atmosphere and most importantly attention to detail. Having said that, the critical judges were very finicky throughout the season, albeit in fairness and with awesome humour. Well, let’s meet the judges.

The ever beautiful former Miss South Africa and Miss Universe runner-up who’s now a reality TV star did nothing but show up looking good to all the weddings and judged the fashion.

Nell held nothing back in this regard. Especially when guests showed up to an all-white wedding wearing anything except the theme. Even co-star Zavion Kotze came under fire for sporting a black and white tux.

Nell brought a critical eye to the show regarding the styling, and made a few hilarious comments along the way.

Alcohol, music and fun – this is what self proclaimed party girl Denise Zimba looked out for. Oh and chicken wings, she loves chicken wings.

With weddings from a variety of backgrounds, certain receptions had no place for alcohol, and others no place for meat. This was the death of Zimba during this season. Not to mention the time she fell asleep at a ceremony which was dragging on too long.

Zimba certainly added the fun factor to the show and dynamics among the rest of the judges with her quirk and outgoing personality.

Sweet Siba is what I called her this season. The celebrity chef known for her cooking show ‘Siba’s Table’ bashed the weddings to judge the culinary treats on offer. A few times she was impressed and others not so much, however she still kept a smile on her face.

One time, though, cold take-away pizza as a main meal did not sit well with the seasoned chef.

Well, you can’t bash a wedding without an actual wedding planner. Zavion Kotze filled these shoes. Kotze judged the wedding decor and the biggest sins any couple could commit was not following through with theme, fake flowers, organza and draping.

Kotze was, however, impressed with some of the more extravagant stages during this season.

‘Wedding Bashers’ showcased weddings from all South African cultures, religions, backgrounds and locations – not to mention the featuring of LGBTI weddings as well. This show brought a fresh insight into normal South Africans’ lives and was hit for its first season.

One couple which stood out was newlyweds from Johannesburg, Franco and Taryn, who won the season finale last Sunday.

The spirited and creative couple impressed celebrity bashers Nell, Zimba, Mtongana and Kotze, garnering the highest overall experience score and placing them on top of the pack. The lovebirds walked away with a spectacular wedding gift from the show: Prizes to the value of over R800 000.

The couple had a Lebanese/Portuguese mash-up wedding which was featured in the very first episode of the series, at the trendy Joburg inner city rooftop venue The Living Room in Maboneng. Their nuptials were an urban city chic event, with a generous budget of R150 000 and 110 guests.

The couple walked away with an amazing prize package which includes R250 000 cash from M-Net, designer appliances from Gorenje worth R200 000, a seven-night second honeymoon courtesy of The Moorings and Air Seychelles,

R100 000 worth of jewellery from Jack Friedman and R100 000 of make-up and cosmetics from Essence, Caribbean Tan, Lov and Catrice cosmetics.

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