Vows & vengeance

It’s the Wedding Of The Year – but not for the reasons Yvonne and Damon would’ve liked!

Yvonne and Damon’s (Kgomotso Christopher and Craig Urbani) engagement on Thursday 19 January was certainly a shocker. But photographer and reporter Anzani (Fulu Mugovhani) had better keep her camera at the ready on their big day, starting Wednesday 8 February, as cops and guns and secrets crash the party! “It all seems perfect. The dress was imported from Bahrain, the venue is spectacular… until something crazy happens,” hints Kgomotso. “When it has to do with Yvonne, that’s always what happens. It’s one of those bittersweet, funny, comedic wedding storylines.” While Yvonne winds up roaring in a bouquet-flailing bridezilla rage onscreen, behind the scenes Kgomotso clearly had a blast. “It’s a TV wedding but (as an actress) you get giddy like you are the real bride,” she says.

BRIDE & GROOM

“Yvonne has always dreamed of a fairytale wedding. She’s never had one. This is her big chance,” says Scandal! producer Ilse van Hemert. Among all the secrets surrounding the big day, the top one is Yvonne’s gorgeous dress. Scandal!’s head of wardrobe Corlene Furstenberg tells us, “I started looking at options about three months before shoot date. We needed vintage drama imported from an old, established Italian fashion house – something she dreamed about all her life. We also wanted it to be as romantic as possible. I loved the rose gold tone to the beading and the vintage hair combs I found, which added that extra sparkle.” And while Yvonne looks gor- geous, there was even a special requirement for Damon’s outfit. “The groom had to have the James Bond look and be able to move like Jagger,” hints Corlene.

THE LOCATION

The venue was Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg. “It was chosen especially for Yvonne, as she would have loved it to be the perfect venue to impress everyone she knows,” says Scandal! art director Pieter Britz. “We only had access to the venue on the day of filming, so setting up the venue in less than two hours was the greatest challenge with this wedding shoot. The wedding budget was almost equally spent between the venue hire cost and flower cost. The flowers and draping was in the area of R40 000!”

Uh oh! Yvonne’s livid and Damon looks like he’s been busted! Could those strange phonecalls Yvonne gets just before the wedding be on the money?

Officer Lerumo (Tshepo Mosese) will be crashing the wedding with the boys in blue, thanks to Yvonne’s ex Siseko (Hlomla Dandala) who has a little chat to bad-boy tech whiz Romeo (Hungani Ndlovu) on Monday 3 February.

The groom’s sister Layla (Natasha Sutherland) and her son Quinton (Brighton Ngoma). “We wanted to use a dreamy pastel pallet and needed to tell the story that most guests weren’t too happy to attend but they did go to the effort,” says Scandal!’s head...

Ex-partner Neo (Jerry Mofokeng) makes his disappointment with Yvonne’s choices clear.