I met my future wife-to-be in the summer of 2012. I remember our first date like it was yesterday. I remember her walking towards me wearing a long skirt, a crop top and sandals. We met in Hyde Park and as we sat on the grass, conversing and getting to know each other, I thought to myself “wow, this girl is amazing. She’s smart, strong minded and beautiful”. I just knew this was the girl I had been waiting for. As the years have flown by, that initial thought has turned to reality. I feel so blessed as she has given me everything I have ever wanted from life and so much more. I honestly cannot put into words how much she means to me. When our first son Cole was born, I remember sitting there holding my new born son and looking at her in awe at how she could go through that pain with no pain relief for 15 hours and still be so composed. How she could go through that pain to give me a child - and at that moment I knew I would propose to her and make her my wife. Buying the engagement ring was easy, considering I had never bought anyone jewellery before. As soon as I saw the ring I knew she would love it. I remember calling my mum and sister just to make sure and as soon as they saw the ring they agreed with my choice. I was so happy with myself but this was quickly met with disappointment when I was asked for the ring size and I had no idea. I then remembered the many engagement hints she had left around and returned to the store with her ring size. I felt so proud and so excited.

The next step was where to propose, many ideas ran through my head but I couldn’t think of a better place to propose than where it all started for us all those years ago on our first date in Hyde Park. So now I have the perfect woman, the perfect ring and the perfect location. The final thing was when to propose. I decided to do it on her birthday in February 2016. I sought her mum’s permission to do this. On the day of her birthday, I was so nervous but excited at the same time. As the day went on she started to get upset with me that it was her birthday and it seemed as if we didn’t have a motive. She knows me so well she was expecting a birthday proposal but I just played it off like and I could feel her mood sink and I was nervous I had ruined the day. At this point she had lost all hope in a birthday proposal. We got In The car and started driving, as we got to into central London I parked up and said to her “let’s kill some time and walk through Hyde park”. I can’t remember her being too excited to do this. As we walked hand-in-hand through Hyde Park we spoke about our relationship, the very highs and the super lows. I could feel the ring in my pocket and I was so nervous as I didn’t want to mess up my lines or stumble on my words, but at the same time feeling this warmth in my stomach. A feeling I had been waiting to do for as long as I could remember. We arrived to the spot I had picked out and I remember she was looking the other way. I took a deep breath turned her around and bent down on one knee (I had just had knee surgery a few months prior so it was painful, but looking up at her on one knee the moment numbed the pain). I pulled out the ring and I told her some special words that I’d like to keep between the two of us and asked her if she’d marry me.. she told me to get up and then she said YES!! Present day:- we’re a wonderful family with our boys Cole and Zach and the imaginary dog we always speak about having but know, it’ll never happen.