The 18th December 2010 was our four year anniversary. I wanted the day to be extra special, unique, but entirely personal so decided London would be the perfect location as there are many parts we still haven’t explored. I booked a two night stay at the four star Kingsley Hotel in Bloomsbury, very near to Covent Garden where we had dinner that night. I asked for a room on the top floor, which the hotel were happy to provide. I had chocolates, champagne and fresh flowers in the room ready and waiting for our arrival. Of course, I had hoped that because it was our anniversary, Gemma wouldn’t suspect that I had much grander plans the following day.

When we arrived on Friday there was a small amount of snow still on the ground from the ‘big freeze’ a few days previous. Gemma thinks snow is incredibly romantic so I was happy with even a small amount still on the ground.

On Saturday we got up nice and early to a bright and sunny day which meant most of the snow had now melted but nevertheless I was determined to follow my plan. We took the underground from Holborn and went  just five stops to Lancaster Gate to find passengers huddling in the entrance to the underground. We couldn’t believe our eyes, I must have done something extra special in a previous life because the heavens had opened. I had hoped for snow, this was a blizzard!

I took Gemma across the road to Hyde Park where I had planned a romantic stroll to Knightsbridge. My heart was racing, I had made it this far without Gemma noticing the ring box sticking out of my pocket, even though we had been crammed in on the underground like sardines! We made our way towards Knightsbridge and in the middle of Hyde Park, in the middle of a blizzard, this was it, the time was right, I stopped, got down on one knee, took the ring from my pocket and asked Gemma to marry me…

She said yes!

Everything had gone exactly to plan, I couldn’t have asked for more. We walked out of Hyde Park and into Knightsbridge to Harrods, one of the many places in London that Gemma had always wanted to go. We stopped for drinks, cake and ice cream, we were on cloud nine, we both couldn’t stop smiling and to be honest the rest of the day seems like a blur, I guess this probably had something to do with the champagne!