Tide and groom!
When Ian Moore decided to secretly propose to partner of a decade Amanda Davison he decided ‘That’s the way to do it.’
The Washington couple had talked about planning their wedding for a while before he came up with a plan to spring the proposal as a surprise.
It involved a story they were off to see a Punch and Judy show on Roker Beach, with a supporting cast of friends and family secretly on hand to help make it a reality.
When the ‘show’ was cancelled, they ended up walking on the sand with daughter Mila, three, as Ian handed his partner a pebble engraved with the message: “So Miss D...How do you fancy becoming Mrs M? Will you marry me?” as he got down on one knee.
It happened as Amanda’s daughter Jada Nesbitt, 21, her sister Andrea Davison, 44, and her partner, the actor Craig Conway, Andrea’s daughter Ellie Short, 19, and Amanda’s best friend Vicki Halse, 39, and her husband Phil Halse, 43, watched from a distance.
It was captured on camera by photographer Vicki Steele, of The Shutter Chronicles, and by a drone thanks to NTR Sounds in Washington.
Amanda, 39, who works in healthcare, said: “We got onto the beach and were looking down, because we were collecting stones.
"He was kneeling and I got close to him and he handed me this pebble and it said ‘Miss D..How about becoming Mrs M’ and he got a ring out.
"I just said ‘Oh my God’, it was a total shock and just cried, I was just so overwhelmed, but it was also so beautiful.
"My family and friends came running onto the beach, my daughter, my sister, loads of them, they had been in a car hiding in the car park, it was just amazing.
"I can't believe it still.” Ian, a joinery lecturer at Middlesbrough College, is also dad to Alfie Douglas, 10, who alongside Amanda’s parents Alwyn, 74, and Barrie, 75, are delighted by the news, with Ian asking for Amanda’s hand in marriage from Barrie before the surprise proposal plans.
The couple met while on a night out at the River Bar in their home town and are looking to a 2023 wedding date.