Marinda Bootsma and Attie Tiley tied the knot on Saturday after completing the three-day 2021 KAP sani2c Adventure, which kicked off on 12 May. Restonic SA has been supporting the KAP sani2c event for more than six years, sponsored race kit and wedding elements for the bridal couple. This was both the bride and groom’s first sani2c ride.

The KAP sani2c is one of the oldest mountain bike stage races in South Africa, offering 266km of spectacular mountain bike trails between Himeville in the southern Drakensberg and Scottburgh on the South Coast in KwaZulu-Natal. Two versions take place over four days – the Adventure event (12 to 14 May) and the Race event (13 to 15 May). For Bootsma and Tiley, the Adventure event was the perfect lead-up to their wedding.

Bootsma says that the idea was first seeded when she and Tiley were driving back from the 2019 KAP sani2c, which they attended as supporters. “Attie was saying that when we get married, he doesn’t want a big hoo-ha; he just wants something small, but it must be epic,” she says. “And I said, ‘Well, I’m not doing the Cape Epic’ and so he said, ‘How about if we get married at sani2c?’ and so we decided we’d find out if we could go down to the beach from the finish line after the race and get married.”

The avid cyclists have been together for 13 years (and Bootsma says they’ve only had one real spat in that time). They had originally planned to speak to the race organisers about getting married after the 2020 race event, but with the race being postponed due to Covid, they decided to wait for the 2021 event. Bootsma is friendly with Roxy Harley, and told her about the plans. Roxy told her husband, Dale Harley, executive: sales & marketing at Restonic SA.

Given that Harley is a keen cyclist himself and that Restonic SA is a long-time supporter of the KAP sani2c, he immediately offered to assist the couple. Restonic sponsored their cycling kit for the first two days of the race, as well as specially designed kit for the final day, which was printed to look like a wedding dress for Bootsma and a wedding suit for Tiley. Restonic SA also sponsored a wooden wedding arch, which was set up near the finish at the Scottburgh Golf Club, wedding décor for the arch, sparkling wine and snacks, and a brand new Restonic iDream queen-size bed valued at R16 000 for the couple, custom-embroidered embroidered with the words “Just Married”.

“When I think about everything that Restonic has done for us, I don’t have words, I says Bootsma. “It really shows me that there are good people in the world who support love.”

“We’re thrilled to have been part of this special day and to help Marinda and Attie make it a memorable occasion,” says Harley. “At Restonic SA, our tagline is ‘Supporting dreams since 1938’ and as a company, we love the chance to help people make their dreams come true. We wish Marinda and Attie many happy years together.”