NEW WEDDING SHOW ON THE CARDS FOR M-NET

Celebrity chef Siba Mtongana, Wedding Planner Zavion Kotze, former Miss SA Cindy Nell-Roberts, television personalities Mark Bayly and Denise Zimba. PICTURE: MNET

JUST how stylish could a beach wedding in Pretoria possibly be?

South Africa is about to find out in the latest TV series to cash in on viewers' voyeuristic addiction to watching strangers take their vows.

Wedding Bashers , which will hit MNet screens in September, will see a celebrity panel attending and critiquing various weddings - from the dress to the flowers and the venue.

On the panel are former Miss South Africa Cindy Nell-Roberts, party girl Denise Zimba, celebrity chef Siba Mtongana and wedding planner Zavion Kotze, who will attend 24 nuptials in search of “the wedding of the season”.

They are ready to attend your wedding. PICTURE: M-NET

Set to air in September with Survivor SA's Mark Bayly as the host, the concept is the brainchild of Idols SA executive director and producer Gavin Wratten.

“Weddings are one of those things everyone goes to and everyone has an opinion about, and Wedding Bashers is different to the other shows, it’s got its own unique twists and turns.

"We’ll have traditional weddings, very expensive weddings, poor weddings, city weddings just to give a nice spectrum of what goes on in and around South Africa,” he said.

Unlike popular wedding show Our Perfect Wedding, which raked in over a million viewers in the December ratings from Broadcast Research Council of South Africa, the new show will see a diverse pool of weddings costing between R20 000 and R1-million.

In each of the 12 episodes, two weddings will be showcased where "bashers" will add their expert opinion on what they thought of the weddings, and give them a rating.

Wratten said the aim was not to “bash” the weddings but to showcase “how other local people have weddings” across the country.

“We are whittling down the numbers, deciding which weddings we want to do, while we wait for entries to close on February 14.

“We’ve received entries that include a Hindu wedding and a beach wedding in Pretoria."

Nell-Roberts, who won Miss SA in 2002, said the “fashion and beauty” of weddings made her tick.

“I’ll also be looking for the glamour which comes from the beautiful bridal dresses, as well as hair disasters and stressed bridesmaids. I really don’t like pretentious weddings. I am an Afrikaans girl, we say what we think, we don’t sugar coat it."

Former Generations actress, V-Entertainment presenter and singer Zimba said she was “in it for the entertainment”.

“The song of the first dance, the DJ, the line-up, the band, the orchestration of the wedding and how the program flows - that's what I am keen to see at each wedding,” said Zimba.

Mtongana said she was excited as the show was different from what she does on her show Cooking with Siba.

“I do menu curation for weddings and work with wedding chefs and sometimes we find that brides forget about the food or doing the tasting of their menus before their wedding day. My eye will be on the food and wine,” she said.

Kotze, who recently tied the knot himself, said he’d be looking at the planning of the weddings, while keeping an eye on the flowers.

“When brides sweat the small stuff, that’s when things fall apart,” he said. - story by Gabi Mbele published in Sunday Times (29/01/2017)