Sol3 Mio star Pene Pati has tied the knot with his sweetheart at the venue where he publicly proposed to her a year earlier.
The chart-topping tenor wed Amina Edris at Villa Maria Estate in Mangere this afternoon.
Just over a year ago, Pati got down on his knee at the same venue to pop the question in front of 7000 fans gathered for the Christmas in the Vines concert.
Pati had serenaded Edris - both in their 20s - with an aria before bringing members of both families on stage and presenting her with red roses. Fortunately for the South Auckland opera sensation, she said yes.
Sol3 Mio manager Scott Maclachlan was one of the guests at today's sun-drenched wedding Pati met Edris, a soprano, on a week-long singing course in Christchurch in 2011.
"It was funny - her room-mate was dating my room-mate and we were the two spare wheels that would find each other outside reading a book," Pati told the New Zealand Herald last month.
"She loved me before Sol3 Mio's success so I know she loves me for who I am. I'm a very lucky man."
Pati said he was "smitten" with Edris right away - but he wasn't sure it was requited. "Fortunately, I was wrong about that."
The pair started dating a week after the course, but had to endure long gaps apart as their romance blossomed. Pati trained as a tenor in Wales while Egypt-born Edris continued her opera training in California.
Pati recalled the moment he proposed in an interview with the Herald a week later.
"The proposal was a big surprise for Amina and when the moment came to do it, I took a big gulp and knew there was no going back," he said. "I had no plan B if she said no in front of thousands of people but I was quietly confident it would all go well."
- NZ Herald
