The real life love story of Amanda and David who recently got married at Blue Bay Lodge in Saldanha.

David and Amanda were both on a three week overland tour of Southern Africa in September 2012 starting in Cape Town and finishing in Zambia for Amanda and Kenya for David.

They were drawn to each right from the start and spent a lot of time together chatting, star gazing and getting to know one another. One night (in Botswana at the Okavango Delta) they stayed up so late chatting around the campfire that they had to be told to go to bed!

On arrival in Zambia and despite all of David’s efforts to convince Amanda to stay, Amanda had to go back to the UK due to work commitments. David stayed on the tour right up to Kenya and briefly stayed in touch with Amanda online, before going home to Australia. He then met someone else and so unfortunately lost contact with Amanda over the next one and half to two years.

Late in 2014 they got back in touch and started messaging each other regularly and spoke to each other over the phone for the first time on New Year’s Eve that same year. The conversations quickly became daily and several hours long, despite the time zone difference.

As a birthday surprise for Amanda, David went over to the UK for a week in January 2015. This would determine if the affection and interaction was as real in person as it was over the phone. It was and they had the most magical week together! From that point onwards, they were officially a couple.

David returned to Australia and they immediately started planning when they could next see each other.

Mid-June 2015, David flew back to the UK for a friend’s wedding, and they spent another three weeks together exploring and having wonderful adventures.

On returning to Australia they discussed the possibility of one of them making a more permanent move to the other persons country. A set of ‘fortunate’ work circumstances and the acquisition of an EU passport meant that David was on a one way flight to the UK at the end of August 2015.

They have lived together ever since in a combination of student/share houses, parents’ spare bedroom, a rental cottage and, for the last two years, their own home where they continue to make amazing memories and plan wonderful adventures together.

David proposed to Amanda in October 2018 while on holiday in Madagascar with a ring specially designed in London. He had called the tour operators in advance to determine the ideal place and time during the trip when he could propose to Amanda. The first ‘planned’ location for the proposal wasn’t as romantic and private as he had hoped for, so with some slight improvising plan B’s location was put into action for the proposal.

‘WILL YOU MARRY ME’ was written on a large leaf (something that the locals do to arrange secret rendezvous) and placed in a paper aeroplane with flowers on their lodge porch during sunset.  Amanda thought David was simply killing time making stuff while she got dressed for the evening and stepped over the leaf/aeroplane, not even noticing the proposal! It took some encouraging from David to get her to just pick up the leaf and plane, and at which point she finally saw the proposal, with David on one knee behind her with the ring…..

They decided to stick with the Africa theme and get married in Cape Town where they had first met. The wedding date coinciding with the anniversary of the start of their relationship. Blue Bay Lodge in Saldanha was chosen as their wedding venue. Henry’s Hall was decorated with gorgeous fresh flowers in bright garden colours.

For their wedding cake they both wanted something different: a croquembouche for one, a traditional wedding cake for the other – so a compromised was agreed upon. A single tier wedding cake sitting atop an avalanche of profiteroles – both components decorated to fit in with the overall garden theme.

I would like to thank Amanda and David for kindly sharing their Love Story with us and wish them both much love and joy for a beautiful and adventurous life together.