We're so excited to celebrate with you!

Jess likes to think we met at my cousin Nick Reid's 18th birthday party in August 2011 but there is photographic evidence of us running around together as toddlers - Jess's hair in her signature pineapple style! Over a decade later, we 're-met' at Nick's 18th birthday party and I was immediately smitten. I may have even been compelled to send a Facebook message the next day along the lines of "you got so beautiful since I last saw you"! Incredibly, this romantic gesture wasn't quite enough and it was only several months later when Jess arrived at UCT that I was able to convince her to go on date with me :)

In late 2020 / early 2021 I was trying to plan a proposal amidst constantly changing travel restrictions. With Jess in SA and myself studying in the US, the Maldives was one of the few places that allowed both SA and US travelers and happened to be rather idyllic. With the ring in hand (or rather very secretly located in an airpods box that I hoped Jess wouldn't look in) and Jess's Dad Steve's blessing secured (almost as stressful as the proposal itself), I set off for the Maldives. I had arranged a private dinner on the beach for our 2nd night on the island (I wasn't sure that I could keep acting normally for longer than that) but the evening Maldivian storms were having none of it! Whilst Jess was enjoying one of her usual afternoon naps I discovered that there was going to be a gap in the weather just as the sun was setting so I quickly adapted the plan and pivoted to a sunset proposal. We went to enjoy a sundown cocktail on the beach and I thought that I was being my usual cool, composed, casual self, layering in a few reminiscent and romantic one liners about our relationship to set the scene. [Jess will tell you that there was very little composure and that I was speaking at a rate of knots that evening]. As the sun was setting we walked to ocean where we were the only two people on the beach and I dropped to one knee (I had actually researched which knee was supposed to be on the ground and had rehearsed multiple times but I'm pretty sure I still got this wrong in the moment!). The rest is a bit of a blur but she said Yes so Great Success!