Proposal Stories: Lucy and Edward and Their Romantic, Literary Inspired Engagement

Readers – we launched this series of proposal stories recently to allow our lovely community of readers and members of our private Facebook group for brides to be and newlyweds to share their engagement stories. By thew way, if you’re not yet a member of our private Facebook group, you can apply to be one via the page itself – we’d absolutely love you to join us if you’re planning you’re own wedding right now.  Otherwise, if you’d like to share your own proposal story on Love My Dress, may I invite you to take a few moments to complete this form.

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Lucy (25) and Edward (25)

*Connect with Lucy on Instagram @lucyamelia8*

We met at University, in the theatre society, where Ed was a lighting designer and I was an actor. Ed was studying Dentistry and I, English Literature. I fancied him for a long time before we actually got together and always lost my nerve to ask him out at various house parties we were at.

After sharing several bottles of wine at a University ball, we finally shared our first kiss and from then on, were inseparable! Five years and several house moves later, we are settled in our first home and looking forward to getting married next year!

How He Asked…

‘Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart’, wrote poet William Wordsworth. That is exactly how my husband to be popped the question, in the garden of the man who originally penned those lines.

It was behind the bricks of Newcastle University where my love of the Romantic poets began and my love for my future husband blossomed.

I first visited Dove Cottage whilst studying the work of William Wordsworth as part of my dissertation and absolutely fell in love with the beauty of the cottage and gardens that looked out over Grasmere and the mountains of the Lake District. I took my fiancé, Ed, there several months later and we sat in the arbour taking in the sublime scenery.

Several years and several house moves later, in June 2015, we returned to the Lake District for a long weekend. We stayed in a lovely guesthouse by Lake Windermere and the weather was uncharacteristically glorious for a British Summer.

On the morning of the 11th June 2015, we sat down for breakfast at the guesthouse. I enjoyed a full English with copious amounts of tea and Ed opted for scrambled egg and salmon, normally his favourite. However, that particular morning he barely ate a thing and after the mouthful he did eat, he rushed back to our room to throw it up. Not an ideal start to the day! He was clearly nervous about something…

We stepped out into the basking sunshine and made our way to Dove Cottage. The garden behind the cottage is on a hill and at the top of the garden, a wooden arbour looks out across the fells and lakes of Grasmere. In order to get to the garden, visitors must take part in a guided tour of the cottage. I revelled in this, taking in every detail as I had done the previous two times I had been.

Once the tour had finished, our guide informed us that we were free to explore the cottage at our leisure, taking our time before we were free to go into the garden. So I did just that, having no idea that Ed was closely guarding the ring and desperate to get outside to pop the question!

When we did make our way outside, the garden was simply stunning, in full bloom and basking in the mid-summer sunshine. We made our way to the top of the garden and sat beneath the arbour, a little haven of tranquillity and cool on a hot June day. There, a notebook lay, in which visitors could write messages or pen their own poems in homage to Wordsworth. Ed suggested I write one, which got me deep in thought trying to think up rhymes in my mind – rhyming isn’t my strong point.

All the while, Ed was busy penning his own poem in the guestbook. While busy trying to think of something that rhymed with beauty, Ed handed me the notebook for me to read his offering. And what he wrote took my breath away. He wrote:

I am sitting in the most beautiful place with the most beautiful woman. Lucy Amelia Jones, will you marry me?

As I looked up, he was down on one knee with a beautiful pink sapphire and diamond ring in his hand. Without hesitation, I said yes and flung my arms around him to find that he was shaking with nerves!

Kisses, cuddles and photos followed (see the particularly hilarious one of me grinning like the happiest Cheshire cat anyone has ever seen). Before we left Dove Cottage for a picnic by the lake, I wrote an emphatic yes beneath Ed’s message.

I felt utterly happy, incredibly excited for our life together but most of all, I felt complete!

The Ring

My ring is a square cut pink sapphire, surrounded with diamonds and sitting on an 18 carat white gold and diamond band. We chose it together in Beaverbrooks Jewellers and it had to be specially made because of the size of my (tiny) fingers.

I knew Ed was going to propose, just didn’t know when. It took about 4 months for it to be made so for those 4 months, every time we went out for dinner I got all dolled up and really excited hoping that it would be the night he would ask!

A week before the real proposal we were on holiday in Gran Canaria and I was sure he would ask then, but no – he kept me hanging! When the real proposal came, it was so perfect, it was so worth the wait!

Wedding Plans

Our big day is planned for next summer and will take place in my family church where my parents and grandparents married. Our reception will take place at Gisborough Hall in North Yorkshire.

We want our wedding to have an English summertime feel and for everyone to have a fabulous time, eating, drinking, dancing and celebrating our marriage! We plan to go to Las Vegas, Nashville and New York for our honeymoon!