Boyfriend stages
fireworks and fairy lights on Farncombe Estate. Could this be the world’s most romantic
wedding proposal?
Harvey Appleton, a 20-year-old student from Long Marston,
wanted to stage a wedding proposal that would sweep girlfriend Jess off her unsuspecting
feet. So he spent months planning the day,
the setting, the fireworks, the subterfuge cameraman… and his parents hiding in
the bushes. It was all to take place at
sunset on the 400-acre Farncombe Estate near Broadway.
“She said yes, no
hesitation!” said Harvey, a first-year Media Technology student at Oxford
Brookes University. “It’s amazing – we
are so happy.
Harvey’s proposal began months before with an email to staff
at the private Farncombe Estate, home to Farncombe Conference Centre and the
wedding/party venue Foxhill Manor. He sent
over detailed diagrams of his imagined Proposal Platform, complete with red
carpet and fairy lights, and carefully marked the spot where he planned to pop
the question. Kerry Jones, assistant estates
manager, took up the top-secret project.
On Friday 9th May, Harvey took Jess up to the
beauty spot which overlooks Broadway, the Vale of Evesham and the Malvern hills
beyond.
“Jess thought we’d just come up to see the sunset,” said
Harvey. “We even ‘bumped into’ my
photographer, who pretended he was working on a project about couples in
love! Jess and I had talked about
getting married, but she didn’t know this was the moment until I blindfolded
her and led her to the little garden on the estate.
“She just loved it. With
all the lights it was magical. We walked through the archway to the garden and I
went down on one knee at the pagoda by the pond. She said yes immediately.”
Harvey had thought of everything. His mother Vanessa was camouflaged in bushes
nearby with a flask of tea, a set of binoculars and a flashlight. On her son’s signal, she shone her torch to
John, Harvey’s dad, who was stationed higher up the Estate on firework duty. After a couple of attempts, the fireworks
were finally lit – a signal that all staff on Farncombe Estate had been waiting
for with baited breath. Jess had said
yes.
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