Our story doesn't have a clean "how we met" because we never really did meet. We just always were. Miché was in Grade 4, Armand in Grade 6, and from there for the rest of school he was simply there, best friends with her brother, part of that big, loud, wonderful friend group that never really let anyone go. Just two kids on the edges of the same friendship, watching each other get older one grade at a time.

 

Then life did what life does. Armand headed off to Bloemfontein, Miché to Stellenbosch. We'd cross paths maybe once a year, a Halloween party, a housewarming, a quiz night, always warm, always easy, never anything more than that. Two people on parallel roads that happened to touch down in the same city every so often.

 

In 2023, Armand moved back to Pretoria. Miché followed at the start of 2024. And that's when Bianca Oosthuizen, self-appointed matchmaker and the reason this whole thing started, suggested Armand invite Miché to an opening function with his family and friends.

Same person, but not, more sure of themselves, funnier, easier to talk to, with a warmth that hadn't quite been there before, or maybe just hadn't been seen before. From there, things moved the way good things do: unhurried, but unmistakable.

 

More braais. More time with the same friends who'd unknowingly kept us in each other's orbit for years. Miché was working at a gym at the time, and Armand started finding reasons to stop by, a quick hello, a coffee, sometimes her favourite coffee already in hand before she'd even asked. Then came the first real date.

 

More dates followed. Armand planned little surprises, thoughtful gifts, small moments that added up to something big. The rest, as they say, is history.

And on 20 December 2025, we made it official.