A toast at the airport before Wendy headed back to Australia to plan the wedding
Despite having hopped off a plane from the UK only hours before, Wendy Schaeffer was positively beaming and full of exciting news when we caught up with her in Melbourne. Her English boyfriend, Nigel Macdonald had proposed shortly before Wendy had flown back to Australia and she had very delightedly accepted!
Wendy met Nigel in London in June this year at a party to celebrate the Thames Pageant. Her old school friend from Pembroke School in South Australia, Brigitte Tomlinson, now married and living in London, had invited Wendy to join them at their river apartment to watch the floating spectacle and introduced Wendy to her husband’s good friend, Nigel. The rest, as they say, is history.
Nigel, a Chartered Surveyor based in Putney, has been seen donning jodhpurs in recent times and hopping on horses, both for a casual hack as well as some more energetic workouts on some of Wendy’s horses, although it’s unlikely he will be competing against Wendy any time in the near future! In November last year he visited Wendy in Australia and could be found happily wandering around Equitana and the Australian International 3 Day Event when Wendy had to attend to ‘eventing business’; as most horsey females know, that it true love!
The marriage date has been set for July 14th; ‘probably’ a Registry Office wedding in London (although on her flight home Wendy started to prepare an invitation list which seemed to rapidly grow!) and a celebration in Australia later in the year when their commitments enable them to spend some time here.
Once Wendy heads back to the UK she will be based in Putney and thinks that initially she will try and keep the horses at Richmond Park. “I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to gallop in there” she laughs
Congratulations to Wendy and Nigel, who we have had the pleasure of meeting several times, and we wish them a very happy future together
