‘If magic was a dress’: Mia le Roux gushes over Anel Botha wedding gown

Former Miss SA Mia le Roux has praised designer Anel Botha, a long-time Miss SA favourite, for her fairytale wedding gown. Here's their shared history. Former Miss South Africa Mia le Roux has been singing the praises of the woman who dressed her for the biggest day of her life. Days after marrying her long-time love, Luke ten Oever, on 16 October, Le Roux took to Instagram to thank designer Anel Botha for her wedding gown, a designer with a long and well-documented history with the Miss SA stage. “If magic was a dress” A day before she shared her wedding video, Le Roux posted a closer look at the gown. She wrote that, “If magic was a dress”, Botha “would be my fairy godmother”. She added that the dress reminded her of “the beauty of rain that purifies the earth”. Botha was also tagged for the wedding dresses in the credits on Le Roux’s post. The credits list La Paris Estate as the venue and Nicolette Weddings as the planner. The ivory satin ball gown features a strapless draped sweetheart bust and a sheer embroidered illusion corset with a pointed basque waist. It also has fitted off-the-shoulder lace sleeves and a voluminous pleated satin skirt. She completed the look with lace gloves, a simple veil, a sleek updo and minimal makeup, while her groom opted for a classic black suit. Who is Anel Botha? Botha is the founder of Anel Botha Couture and is known for her red carpet designs. Her bridal work has been in the spotlight recently. Briefly News reported that she also created the ceremony gown worn by Vasti Spiller at Dricus du Plessis’s wedding on 10 October. A long history with Miss SA Botha’s connection to the pageant goes back years. In 2017, she designed several outfits for Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters’s Miss Universe campaign, including the finale gown. Two years later, she was one of only two female designers selected to dress that year’s Miss SA finalists, alongside Palesa Mokubung. In 2020, she dressed finalists Jordan van der Vyver and Lebogang Mahlangu. Unable to meet them, she researched their social media pages so her gowns could reflect their “shining personalities”. The following year, she created evening gowns for Thato Mosehle for the Miss Supranational pageant in Poland. By 2024, the year Le Roux won the crown, Botha was celebrating her tenth year as an official evening wear sponsor of the Miss South Africa Organisation. At the time, she said she had dreamed of becoming an official Miss SA designer since her student days. She promised that the newly crowned queen would be introduced in a gown with “a subtle African twist”. Botha has also dressed other titleholders, including Natasha Vermaak (formerly Joubert). Her bond with Le Roux runs deep. In Le Roux’s farewell message when her reign ended in October 2025, she thanked Botha for bringing her visions to life. She said Botha knows how to “tell the story of the woman behind the dress”. Botha has since left the Miss SA designer line-up, with Business Report noting she was not returning for the 2025 pageant. Luke always believed in her When Le Roux made history in August 2024 as the first Miss SA with a hearing impairment, her family spoke to News24 Life about what the moment meant. Speaking alongside her parents (mother, Liesel and father, Schalk), her then boyfriend of almost two years, Luke ten Oever, said the win was no surprise. He told the publication he “knew” from the moment she stepped on stage. He described her as “the strongest person I’ve ever met”, and said she would bring a rare perspective to the title. From engagement to “Mr and Mrs ten Oever” Le Roux announced the engagement in July 2025 with photos in an emerald-green diamond ring. She wrote about the patience and calm Ten Oever had shown her, and joked that he inspects his cricket kit for an hour before making her coffee. Botha was credited for the gown in the first and last photos of that post. Fifteen months later, she captioned her wedding video “Mr and Mrs ten Oever”, with a line from Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet XVII.