A devoted boyfriend pulled out all the stops to ask his girlfriend to marry him with a unique sky-high proposal that left passersby in Newcastle wondering what was going on.
Gavin Moore, 28, took his partner, Lawren Rutherford, 27, to the 3SIXTY bar at the top of Hadrian's Tower on Saturday under the pretense that he had vouchers for half-price drinks. But in actual fact, the construction project manager from Prudhoe had planned an epic proposal that involved their entire family.
While the pair enjoyed cocktails at the top of the city's tallest building, 10 of their loved ones brought T-shirts spelling out 'Marry Me?' and arranged themselves at the bottom ready for the moment Gavin popped the question.
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Gavin, who came up with the idea after the weather derailed his initial plan to propose on Alnmouth Beach, said: "I had bought T-Shirts for everyone to wear that spelled out 'marry me?' and they were going to come behind us and be standing there. But I checked the tide times and the weather and both were against us, so I looked at other places to go and I thought of Hadrian's Tower.
"I was originally going to get everyone to stand on the multi-story car park with the T-Shirts on but you couldn't see from there. So I had a walk around Hadrian's Tower and found the best corner for it.
"We spaced the T-Shirts out on the grass below and you could see it really well."
After texting his sister a thumbs up to let her know the big moment was coming, Gavin told Lawren to look out of the window to see the message below - but after all that effort the final moment wasn't as straightforward as he had thought.
Gavin said: "When we were up in the tower I stood up and had a look out the window and said to Lawren, 'have you seen that down there? What are they are doing?' but she wasn't looking - she was taking photos of her cocktail!
"I sat down, but then I saw her pop her head over and she was looking and I thought, 'she must have read it by now,' so then I got up and proposed."
He added: "When I proposed I said, 'I don't know where the next few years are going to take us but I know it will be better together.'
"When she said yes, I got my phone light on and started waving it and then everybody down there started cheering because they could see the light."
The heartwarming moment was captured on video by Hadrian's Tower staff who presented the couple with a glass of champagne before their family came up to the bar to celebrate with them.
Gavin added: "Apparently everyone down below kept asking what was going on and [the family] was like, '[please] get out the way!'"
The pair who have been together for nine years after meeting as teenagers at Kingsmeadow Sixth Form in Dunston, now hope to get married abroad in the next three years. And Lawren who is just about to start a new job as a cabin crew member for Virgin Atlantic based in Heathrow is already planning her hen do to Las Vegas.
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