Proposing on The London Eye

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I know this isn’t exactly a travel blog as such as I’m from London but if everything goes to plan I will not be living in London forever so I’m allowed to write this blog!

This is how I proposed to my soon to be wife (we’re getting married 21st Feb 2011), I had already done the gentlemanly thing and asked her father for his daughters hand in marriage (read my Goa blog) and I had already bought the engagement ring (read my New York blog) and Nikki knew I had done both.

I told her that I wanted to surprise her when I asked her and so she would have to wait at least 3 months until I asked her but that it would probably be longer as she would be expecting it, with that in mind I knew she wouldn’t be expecting me to ask a month after I had spoken to her dad so that is when I planned to do it.

I had booked a private pod on The London Eye with champagne and truffles, well almost private we had to have a member of staff in with us, I didn’t just want to ask her in the pod I wanted it to be really romantic, I bought the biggest pieces of card I could find and asked my mum, my nan and some friends to help. I wrote the words ‘Marry Me’ in big red letters on the card and my plan was to get my friends and family to hold up the boards once I got to the top so that I could point down and then get on one knee.

Nikki and I do not go out a lot so I knew she would get suspicious if I suggested a night out for no good reason, especially on mid week night, so I suggested celebrating our “month-aversary”. Let me explain what that is, when we first got together we would celebrate every month together with a month-aversary until we reached one year, I made up some story about how we should start celebrating our month-aversary again and she bought it.

I met her from work, the board was written on, my family and friends were in position and then just as I was waiting outside Nikki’s office for her to finish work my phone rang, it was my mum she had been approached by security around the base of The London Eye as they had seen her with large boards, they told her that she could not stand at the bottom with the boards for ‘security reasons’, there is a large section of grass just to the side of the base so I asked her to stand there instead, thank god that phone call came before Nikki had left work!

I had to wear a baggy jumper as I had the ring box in my pocket of my jeans, I couldn’t put it in the pocket of my jumper as I knew Nikki would want to hold my hand and put her hand in my pocket as it was a little cold out plus the baggy jumper covered up the bulge in my jeans pocket. It’s a good job I wore the baggy jumper because Nikki began to look at my pockets to see if she could see the ring, I turned to her and said “Why are you looking at my crotch, are you horny or something” lol she just laughed it off and continued walking.

Nikki didn’t know we were going to The London Eye, I told her I had booked to go to a restaurant on the South Bank of the Thames, as we got close to the London Eye Nikki looked at it, we had gone on it many years before, she turned to me and said “It’s so big, I can’t believe I went on that I could never go on it again”......not a good sign. As we walked past the wheel I pulled her into the ticket office and we were met by someone with a picnic basket, “surprise” I said “we’re going on The London Eye” she laughed and commented about just mentioning how she could never go on it again. We jumped the queue and got onto our pod, my heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack, my hands were clammy and I wasn’t really saying much, Nikki asked what was wrong and I made an excuse about how rubbish my surprise was because she said she could never go on it again.

As we neared the top I got her to look out towards The Houses of Parliament, I got my phone out and pressed call on my phone, that was the signal for them to get into position, Nikki saw the phone in my hand and asked what I was doing “I thought I had a text message, I haven’t” I said. I looked down and could see them getting into position, my nan had her card upside down and I could see my mum shouting at her to move it around, they still weren’t in position and Nikki said “Oh look over there” walking in the direction of everyone, “no don’t” I said “why” Nikki asked, I couldn’t think of an excuse I just pointed at The Houses of Parliament and told her to look, “what am I looking at” she said, just as she said that they were in position. I took her over to the edge of the pod and pointed down “Look down there” I said as she did I took a step back and got down on one knee as she turned around she had tears in her eyes. “Well are you going to ask me then” she said, “that’s what the boards are for” I said, she burst into tears saying yes and I shed a tear too as I placed the ring on her finger. I looked around and could see people in the other pods taking pictures of us, we finished our champagne and truffles and when we got off everyone was there taking pictures, my mum and nan ran over and gave us a cuddle “so, what did she say then” my mum said “what do you think” I replied.

A few people came over to us after they got off their pods to congratulate us too, I had done it without making it too obvious what I was doing and she said YES!!! My plan was a success.

Now we had to plan the wedding......well I had to plan the wedding seeing as I’m the soppy romantic type.

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