A PHOTOGRAPHER’S VENUE GUIDE
KAY & MONTY
VINEYARDS
Kay & Monty Vineyards is a 220-hectare wine farm and polo estate in The Crags outside Plettenberg Bay, best known for its light-filled converted greenhouse venue seating up to 200 guests.
WEDDING VENUES • THE CRAGS • WEDDING VENUE • UPDATED 2026
01
WHY COUPLES CHOOSE IT
Why couples choose Kay & Monty
I’ve photographed eight weddings at Kay & Monty, more than at any other venue, and I still get excited on the drive out to The Crags. The greenhouse is the reason everyone falls for this place: a glass venue that holds golden light like nowhere else in the region, dressed differently by every couple and beautiful in all of them.
Outside, the farm rolls: vines, polo paddocks with ponies, the dam, and the Tsitsikamma range stacked behind everything. The food has a reputation of its own, the wine is grown metres from your table, and the five-bedroom Country House keeps the morning-of calm and close.
01 / LOCATION
The Crags, Plettenberg Bay
02 / BEST FOR
Up to 200 seated
03 / CEREMONY
Lawns, vineyard or greenhouse
04 / WET WEATHER
The glass greenhouse itself
05 / STAY
5-bedroom Country House, exclusive use
06 / FOOD
In-house, renowned kitchen
07 / FROM PLETT
±20 minutes
08 / STYLE
Boutique vineyard & polo estate
THROUGH SHARYN’S LENS
Photographing a wedding at Kay & Monty
Eight weddings in, I can tell you the greenhouse is really two venues. In daylight it’s bright and airy, glass to the lawns on every side; at dusk it becomes a lantern, from outside, lit up against the mountains, it makes the single best blue-hour shot on the Garden Route. I plan every Kay & Monty timeline to be outside with the couple for those ten minutes.
For portraits we walk: the vine rows for structure, the dam for reflections, the paddocks if the ponies are feeling social. The farm faces the mountains, so the golden-hour direction is reliable, what changes with the seasons is when it arrives, and that’s what your date-specific timeline is built around.
PLANNING AROUND THE LIGHT
A timeline shaped around your date.
Sunrise and sunset shift throughout the year, so there is no single perfect ceremony time at Kay & Monty. I build each timeline around the sunset time on your actual date, the ceremony space, the weather and how the greenhouse holds and throws light through the day.
MAR TO SEP
March – September
The sun sits lower and golden light arrives earlier in the afternoon. The low sun reaches deep into the greenhouse by mid-afternoon and the lantern moment at dusk comes early, ceremonies sit earlier, keeping the vineyard portrait window safe.
OCT TO FEB
October – February
Days run long and the light stays strong late. Long evenings mean a later ceremony still leaves time for the vines, the dam and the blue-hour greenhouse shot, usually in that order, with dinner waiting inside.
YOUR DATE
Your personal timeline
Once your date is confirmed, I work backwards from sunset and create a photography timeline around your ceremony, portraits and reception, with enough flexibility for weather and the unplanned moments that make the day yours.
THE RHYTHM
The shape of the day
Getting ready → Ceremony → Family photographs → Golden-hour portraits → Dinner & dancing
FLEXIBILITY
Exact times stay personal
Exact times are created for your date, never copied from a generic schedule.
ONE VENUE, MANY STORIES
Real weddings at Kay & Monty.
Every gallery below is mine, shot at Kay & Monty. Eight weddings, eight completely different days.
JEMMA & JONO / KIM & DYLAN / CLAIRE & BRENDAN / CELIA & STEFAN / SARAH & TOM / HEATHER & BRAD / SHARLIZE & ADRIAAN / SHANNON & DAWIE
“
Eight weddings in, I can tell you the greenhouse is really two venues.
SHARYN HODGES / PHOTOGRAPHER’S VENUE NOTES
THE PRACTICAL BITS
Plan the day, keep the feeling.
Facts to reconfirm with the venue before you book, capacities and packages change. [Verify with venue before publish]
BEST FOR
Up to 200 seated
CEREMONY
Lawns, vineyard or greenhouse
WET WEATHER
The glass greenhouse itself
FOOD
In-house, renowned kitchen
NEED TO KNOW
Before you book.
A photographer’s answers to the questions couples ask most often about Kay & Monty Vineyards. Venue details and packages can change, so confirm the final information directly.
Up to 200 seated in the greenhouse venue, with smaller weddings designed just as thoughtfully, I’ve shot both ends of that range here.
A converted orchid greenhouse in glass, bright by day, glowing like a lantern by night. It doubles as the wet-weather plan, which means rain never threatens the day here.
The restored five-bedroom Country House is available on an exclusive-use basis, ideal for the wedding party’s weekend. Guests stay in Plett, twenty minutes away.
Every season works, the greenhouse guarantees it. Autumn brings colour in the vines; summer gives long evenings for the dam and paddocks. Your timeline is built around your date’s sunset.
The estate’s own kitchen, genuinely one of the best wedding kitchens in the region, with menus built around the farm and its wines.
ALREADY IMAGINING IT?
Getting married at Kay & Monty?
Eight weddings at this farm, I know the greenhouse’s moods, the dam’s reflections and exactly when to step outside for the lantern shot. Nobody knows Kay & Monty through a lens like I do.
