Wedding planners to the stars: how Somhale’s Union was made

It takes more than a couple of grooms to make a wedding – and few nuptial ceremonies have required as much input from talented people as Somizi and Mohale’s spectacular celebration.

One team that really did themselves proud is Liquid Image Consulting, who worked alongside Zavion Kotze as the official wedding planners of the extravagant white wedding.

Showmax recently spoke to Ntando Zikalala, director of Liquid Image Consulting, to find out more about how they went about planning the event of the year.

Watch: Living the Dream with Somizi Season 5, coming to Showmax on 4 May 2022.

“We actually don’t do weddings”

Liquid Image is known for its amazing media launches, savvy digital strategies and other corporate services – but they’d never planned a wedding before. But Ntando says the experience wasn’t too far out of their comfort zone.

“We actually don’t do weddings – this was a special request from Somizi. I think because we already provide a service to corporate companies, the standard of how we do business is high,” Ntando said. “So, from a business perspective, we didn’t take it as just a wedding but we took it as a strategy. We then came up with a plan of what we thought would be best for Somizi’s brand.”

The company worked out every little detail of how all the fabulousness would be executed. “We treated this project like we would any other client and we looked at this event from a brand perspective and not from a wedding perspective,” said Ntando.

One of the greatest challenges? Juggling multiple partners

Of course, the success of  Somizi and Mohale’s wedding journey didn’t depend solely on the wedding planners. There were many talented companies involved, including Kelly Jayne’s Cake Boutique, which made the incredible cakes for both weddings, and Nungu Diamonds, which made the glittering wedding bands. It was up to Liquid Image to streamline the look and feel and bring all the partners on board to execute the overall vision of the wedding.

Black Coffee’s performance was a genuine surprise

The highlight of Somizi and Mohale’s white wedding was Black Coffee’s surprise performance during their reception. A visibly elated Somizi could not believe that they managed to get hold of Black Coffee, considering the DJ’s busy schedule.

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We asked Ntando how they managed to keep Black Coffee’s performance a secret from Somizi for so long and, it turns out, it was a case of pure luck.

“What initially happened is that Somizi had mentioned on his radio show that he wanted Black Coffee to perform at his white wedding. Listeners of the show then began tagging the DJ on social media about Somizi’s request. 

“After the date of the white wedding was sent to Black Coffee, he replied saying that he wouldn’t be able to perform because he was going to be out of the country on those dates.

“Somizi was crushed. But the next day I got a call from the DJ’s team saying that, actually, they wanted Black Coffee to do a surprise performance for the couple. 

“And that’s how it happened that Black Coffee performed for an hour at the wedding.”

The memories that Somizi and Mohale have shared with the rest of South Africa will be engraved in our hearts for years to come. To experience Somizi & Mohale: The Union, binge-watch the four-part hit show exclusively on Showmax.