Cape Town - They’ve known each other since high school and have been dating for just over five years.
And now Lions rugby player Robbie Coetzee (28) has popped the question to his long-term girlfriend, Camilia du Plooy (28).
“Apparently he already planned it four months ago. He even asked my Dad for permission, without my knowledge,” Camilia, co-owner of a PR and social media management company, told YOU excitedly.
“I’m still in shock.”
Robbie went all out to plan the perfect proposal for his “liefie”. With help from Brenda Dooge at the Guvon Hotel group, he arranged the special day at Askari Game Lodge.
“I have been asking him to go to Askari for the longest time, since touching an elephant is on my bucket list,” Camilia revealed
“Brenda is one of our closest friends, and one night around the dinner table, Brenda asked us to join her for a special outing to Askari in memory of her late husband, and that maybe we could do a shoot with the elephants of Zemvelo adventures for the website at the same time.”
“I even asked her if she didn’t want me to rather arrange a real model... you know, a skinny one,” Camilia added with a laugh.
But Brenda insisted that it should be the two of them, and the couple agreed to go forward with the shoot.
On Sunday morning, Robbie woke Camilia up extra early to make sure they didn’t miss the shoot – but she had no idea what her beau really had up his sleeve!
“I didn’t expect anything else to happen except this ‘shoot’,” she said.
“I’m not going to lie, I was as excited as a child about getting to meet the elephants... my two best friends also came along, Khieran Trent, the photographer and his boyfriend Jannus Jay Du Preez and they managed to capture everything in the photos and videos,” she said.