ROMANTIC PROPOSAL
Former New Zealand Breakers’ star Alex Pledger has popped the question to his pint-sized makeup artist and blogger fiancee Bailee Wilson-Yates.
The couple moved to
Australia last year when Pledger,
32, signed with Melbourne
United. They are the perfect fit for each other and the good looking couple were noticed even more at events because of their height difference. Pledger is
2.16m and Wilson-Yates is 1.52m.
It seems Wilson-Yates, 31, sees the funny side of their height difference, her Instagram handle is @fivefootnothingau. The pair have been dating since Pledger’s early days with the Breakers. They met at 1885 the night the Breakers won the NBL championship for the first time in 2011.
“Bailee had no idea that we had won and because, coincidentally, the royal wedding was on that same night and she really didn’t give a crap about a NZ basketball team winning an Australian competition,” Pledger tells Spy.
“When I showed Bailee the championship ring that night, she dropped it and it took me a minute to find it among everyone, because it was pretty packed that night, so that was a memorable start.”
Eight years later the Tall Black popped the question on the picturesque Melbourne Star at night and thankfully, this time his partner did not drop the ring.
“I had been away for 6 weeks with the NZ national team for the World Cup and after just a few days back in Melbourne, I was away again for Melbourne United’s pre-season prep
. . . so except for a few days, it had been almost two months without seeing her, so she really did think it was just a date night as we hadn’t had one in so long,” he says.
“When the ferris wheel got to the top I told her to walk up to the window and look out over the city while I pretended to take photos for the gram. I said, 'yep I’m done' and she turned around and I was on one knee,” he says.
Pledger says his new fiancee eventually said yes after she had stopped crying. However on the way home when Wilson-Yates asked what the photos looked like when she was looking out over the city, he said he hadn’t taken any because he was sorting out the ring box . . . she wasn’t impressed.
Even though she had no idea Pledger was going to ask her to marry him that night, she did know about the ring.
“Bailee had an idea of what type of ring she wanted and I had a few ideas as well to put my own little touch on it and Layla Kaisi, from Layla Kaisi Collection turned all of our thoughts and ideas into an amazing final design.”
It looks likely the wedding will be back in New Zealand but for now the couple say they are loving being engaged and being in the same city at the same time.
Wilson-Yates is blogging, doing lots of makeup work and social media. Pledger says they have both loved every second in Melbourne and the fact they both knew a few Kiwi expats before they moved there has helped make the city home.