My big fat KFC wedding
|Published
“Thank you South Africa. Your kindness has truly warmed us,” said Hector Kansi and Nonhlanhla Soldaat after a video of their proposal in a KFC restaurant went viral.
When KFC posted a video of the mystery couple last week, it touched the hearts of thousands of South Africans on social media.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/KFCProposal?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KFCProposal https://t.co/ctXygfBu0I
— Tatiana Proaño M. (@TattiPro)
After a massive search, a Twitter user who goes by @alphi_s, located the couple, who wanted to have a small wedding ceremony because of a tight budget.
By Friday morning, Hector and Nonhlanhla had been identified and generous mense started opening their hearts and wallets.
The couple continued trending over the weekend under the hashtags #KFCProposal and #KFCWedding with donations and contributions pouring in and celebrities, companies and ordinary citizens offering to make their big day and honeymoon a special one.
“We would have never imagined that our love story would have touched so many of you,” the couple told Sowetan Live.
“While we appreciate the support, we ask that you please give us a moment to take it all in. We will definitely let you know about our plans around the wedding.”
According to Sowetan Live, the groom has explained that the pair, who have been together since 2010, officially married in 2012 but the ceremony was “not quite what they had envisioned”.
Hector explained his proposal: “I don’t work, so I didn’t have enough cash to give wife Nonhlanhla a befitting wedding/jewellery but wanted to do something small.
“I decided to come to KFC to give her a small surprise with a meal. I didn’t tell family anything; I wanted it to be a complete surprise with everyone.”
Twitters users have even taken it upon themselves to compile a wedding gift registry to keep track of all the donations and pledges, which so far include:
Helicopter rides from V&A Waterfront; honeymoons including flights and accommodation from Kulula.com; a 12-month DStv subscription; two cows; shopping vouchers from Clicks and Shoprite; R20 000 appliances from Defy; cellphones from Huawei; and wedding suits from DJ Black Coffee.
GENEROUS: Pledges for pair
Also thrown in are a trip to Cape Town for the Toni Braxton concert sponsored by McDonald’s; debt clearance from Standard Bank; a honeymoon in Zanzibar from Mango Airlines; Khanyi Mbau offered to be the MC; while hundreds pledged groceries, haircuts, photography and chauffeur rides.