The Gypsy Caravan is Hitched

Dear Caravaners,

Yes the rumours are all true, this little boho princess is finally getting married to her prince and I honestly could not be happier or more excited.

SO….. How did he propose?

As a full time employee at MAC, I am entitled to two weekends off a month, and a while ago Trav asked if I could predict when they would be because he would like to start taking weekends off so that we can spend them together. I gave him the weekends and I said that I have nearly every Wednesday off as well if he was curious. So he was planning for us to do something except this morning I had to do dress fittings as well for my friend who is also getting married. I spent about an hour to two that morning doing the fittings and then coming home and getting ready because Trav was very specific about what I must wear. Now normally on an off day I don’t wear makeup or give two hoots about the way I look because I literally get super dressed up every day for work, and I made this clear to him as well

“I won’t wear any make up – it’s my off day I’m going to take it easy.”

Of course this worried Trav...

“Well babe the place that we are going to is actually quite a smart place so I think maybe just wear a bit of makeup and a nice dress at least.” – Trav

He picks me up and we are now driving to the place, keeping in mind that I have no idea where we are going because normally Trav likes to surprise me.

So Trav turns to me and says that we are a little early for the other place still and we are coming up to Rand Airport so why don’t we pop in and see those big planes?

Side note – that Wednesday, one of my fave movies was on TV, Invictus, and it is about the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the banishment of Apartheid. Anyway a big plane flew over the stadium just before the Finals and so that is why we were talking about it and why we wanted to go see it.

We take the turn off and the whole time Travis is telling me about the restaurants there and how big the planes are (because he has seen them before) we pull up to the one parking lot and start looking for an office to find out where the planes are. We were in the wrong building entirely but there was a restaurant just next to it and Trav was going on about how he really wanted a coffee, so we went in and got a table and ordered a coffee and a pot of tea for myself. Once we had our tea and coffee Trav asked for the bill and I said don’t worry I will pay…it was only R50.00 and he put up such a protest, no no no he will pay I mustn’t pay…I paid anyway LOL, but we got a little flyer or voucher with our bill. It read “Congratulation! You have won a Helicopter Flight and Picnic for Two”. As amazing as that sounds that we won something – living in South Africa – that does sound a bit dodge, like we just ordered coffee and tea though? I was skeptical, I won’t lie.

The voucher that was with our bill

I look at the voucher and I am like

“It’s only valid until today – do you think we will still make it?”

“Well let’s phone the number and see.”

So he phones the number of the person on the voucher and turns out it is freaking legit. The pilot tells us to meet her at this specific office just around the corner from the restaurant.

We get there and we wait for a few minutes – about 10 – 15 minutes – it wasn’t a long wait. The best part is that while we are waiting in the reception area I am going through pinterest and showing pictures to Trav of bridal dresses and ring ideas. Lol like I knew what was going on but at the back of his mind he was probably like "oh my gosh the ring doesn’t look like that now what?"

Heart Pulpitations were real haha!

The pilot approaches us and says:

“Hello are you the winners for today? Congratulations!” – Insert Pilot Voice

She introduces herself and so on. She then explains how we will be taking a helicopter to the side of this mountain and we will have a picnic there for two. It sounded really exciting because I have never been on a helicopter before. We follow the pilot into the office and we meet up with her chosen photographer. She only flies with this photographer and she was just assuring us that the reason why we are bringing the photographer is because they just need a few pictures for their website – which made sense to me at the time like they probably do this often you know – totally natural?

So they get everything ready the picnic basket, the blankets, the pillows –just everything we need. We then start following her through to the hanger where the helicopter launch pad is. We load up the helicopter, the photographer takes some pictures of us and then we are met up by another pilot who will be assisting with the flight.

They were the nicest pilots I have ever met. We go into the helicopter, they hand us our flight tickets and we take off. I don’t do so well with flying unfortunately so within the first 5 mins of takeoff I was already ill and just not feeling well at all – I had to calm myself down to try and not vomit or anything – Mind you, I hadn’t eaten at all and I am taking antibiotics for my flu too so the mixture of everything was just a big NO to my body.

Just about to board the Helicopter

The view was amazing though; they flew us all around Johannesburg CBD, around the FNB Stadium, over a river (not that I really cared at the time because I was really just focusing on not getting sick) and then finally up to the mountain where we would be having the picnic.

We land and I immediately just wanted to flop out and vomit but luckily I didn’t, the pilots gave me some water and just helped me settle first before moving on.

Trav and I grab the picnic basket and the blanket and set off to find a spot.

The mountain was so quiet; there were trees everywhere, no highways, no cars, no noise – just absolute peace.

The food we had was really good – all my favourites, chicken, choc chip cookies, chocolate and the little round cheeses that you peel the red stuff off?

Clue number 1 – the little lunch tin the basket had a caption on the lid that read “Eat diamonds and Shine All Day” dumbass here did not put two and two together. (I was sick what did you expect)

Over the hills and far away

A Picnic basket of all the good things

I wasn’t feeling well so to eat was the main focus for me – I just wanted food. I still said to Trav how nice of them to do this for people like can you imagine the amount of money it must cost for petrol and to buy all the food and organize this for us.

He gets up and says he just wants to find out how long we have before they want us to go because obviously we can’t be here for forever.

When he came back he said we have about a half hour or so because there is lightning in the distance. Perfect time to pop the bubbly right? Let's party with a storm approaching and all.

Champers

There was a bottle of champagne in the basket so we decided to have that last just before we left. Real champagne! The expensive one sommer net nogal.

At about this time the photographer starts coming around and taking pictures of us – like paparazzi taking pictures of a celebrity, it was weird but cool at the same time.

That’s when trav starts getting creative and starts suggesting photos that we can take while we do have the photographer. He says stand there and look out over the mountain. So I say OK and get up and go and stand on this rock, well first we had a mini argument because I didn’t want to put my shoes back on (being the typical Boksburger) but he made me do it so I put my shoes on posed for photos.

The whole time the photographer is telling trav where to stand and how to pose behind me and whatever and the whole time I'm not looking because A. I got told not to and B. I was so drowsy in the sun and was kind of enjoying it.

Eventually I say are we done and Trav says yeah let’s go…

I turn around and he is kneeling behind me on one knee holding a ring…

“Shan we have been together for 8 years now and I love you so much, will you be together forever” – Trav

I didn’t know what to do I just started crying and I couldn’t get the words out to say yes so I just mouthed them and nodded at the same time. Such a girl, it was the most amazing feeling that I could just throw up LOL but I didn’t!

The pilots and photographer clapped and cheered and came and gave us hugs and shook hands to congratulate us. To celebrate Trav and I did a chest bump and of course we did a cliff dive off the side of the mountain with the helicopter – just for the heck of it – Kill ourselves while we are still young you know.

I was so impressed that Trav organized the most perfect and amazing way to propose – it was just the best and I can’t thank everyone involved enough for helping him with this. The pilots: Susan and Deon from Classique Aviation. The photographer: Bruce Perkins. The admin staff for the pilots: Linda. The Restaurant: Harvard Cafe. To my wonderful Fiancé: Travis:) To my parents for saying yes hahahaha:)

We ran home and told our parents and then had a dinner with the family to just celebrate and make it official:) It is one of the best days ever and now I have my baby fish forever and ever. I am so happy and excited to now be able to say that I am going to marry the love of my life.

Thank you to everyone who have shared this journey with us and who have seen Trav and I grow together in the last 8 years we are truly blessed to have all of you in our life and I can’t wait for what’s to come.

Please go and check out the photos on Facebook as well, like and comment:)

Watch this space – this gypsy caravan is about to be renovated<3

Love Travis & Shanice

PS: In case you were wondering, this was the ring I wanted, not the ones I was showing Trav in the waiting room....

The Gypsy was here