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Wedding venues are basically printing money these days, and that’s especially true if you’re tucked away in a picturesque town like Stanford.

Two hours drive from the city lies Beloftebos. Although the venue is beautiful, punted on their site as a “place where heaven meets earth”, it seems there’s an ugly side to those who run the show.

That has once again been exposed by Alex K Thorne, who wanted to marry her American fiancée Alex Lu at the venue in October of next year.

According to her Facebook post, here’s the reply she received:

In case that’s a little tough to read, this is what owner Coia de Villiers wrote in reply:

Alex

The issue is indeed not with the dates. The reason is that we only host heterosexual marriages. We wish not to offend with this but it is our venue policy.

Kind regards

Well you can take your kind regards and stick them, pal.

Alex’s response to the email via the same Facebook post:

Hmm. Nothing like the smell of bigotry in the morning. If I was seriously looking for a wedding venue and not just window-shopping, this kind of discrimination might have bummed me out just a little.

Thanks Beloftebos, Beloftebos Wedding Venue for reminding me that pretty things are reserved for straight people. Real classy. 🏳️‍🌈

Times LIVE spoke with Alex:

Thorne said that she was “saddened and disappointed” by the experience‚ but that she had not given up on having her wedding in her home country.

“The outpouring of support has been overwhelming‚” she said. “A few venues have offered their services. It’s amazing how people have jumped on this.”

De Villiers and her husband Andries are keeping pretty mum:

“We are in the process of taking legal advice and have been advised not to do any media interviews until such time as we have consulted on the issue and the way forward. Once we’ve consulted with our legal representatives, we are happy to revert to you. We trust you understand.”

For legal advice let’s check in with Pierre de Vos, one of our country’s leading experts on Constitutional Law:

Yeah guys, you really stepped in it this time.

I’ve seen it mentioned on social media that this isn’t the first time the venue has come under the pump for refusing to host same-sex marriages, but apparently the uproar tends to fizzle out and business carries on as usual.

Perhaps this time it will be different, and people thinking of hosting their wedding there will refuse to support such a bigoted, and ultimately unconstitutional, business.

Here’s the worst bit – the bigotry runs so deep. Some comments on Facebook:

Well Jim, Jacques and Raymond, you can all suck a big bag of … well, you know what.

Bigots beware – do and be better, Beloftebos.

There isn’t exactly a shortage of wedding venues in the Cape, friends – remember that.

[sources:facebook&timeslive]