It was the biggest question he would ever ask. So Gareth Illidge decided to spell it out in letters two-feet high on a giant billboard.
There was no chance his girlfriend Becci Thourgood wouldn’t get the message – especially when he led her to the roadside sign and went down on bended knee.
‘I wanted to do something out of the ordinary,’ the 29-year-old graphic artist explained. ‘I think the main reason was because I’m quite a shy person and wanted to do something a little out of character.’
It was the biggest question he would ever ask. So Gareth Illidge decided to spell it out in letters two-feet high on a giant billboard
There was no chance his girlfriend Becci Thourgood wouldn’t get the message – especially when he led her to the roadside sign and went down on bended knee
He added a string of emojis – including a kiss, a ring and a church – and finished with a joke at the bottom saying #Don’t say no, this cost a fortune.
Fortunately Miss Thourgood, 27, said yes and the couple plan to marry in 2019.
On the day of the proposal Mr Illidge, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, took the day off work and drove his girlfriend to a cafe near the billboard. ‘I got out of the car and asked her to come with me.
‘Then she paused and saw it and I was behind her on one knee when she turned back around.’
‘Thankfully she said yes and we had builders honking their vans at us and people from the pub came out to cheer us on.
‘We’ve since had dozens of phone calls from people saying they’d seen the billboard and loved it.’ Miss Thourgood, a communications officer at a housing association, said she had ‘absolutely no idea’ of his plan.
She said: ‘He is usually a very reserved person so it is out of the ordinary for him to do something like this. The billboard is on a junction where cars often queue so people were beeping their horns after spotting what was going on.
‘It was such a lovely surprise.’
He added a string of emojis – including a kiss, a ring and a church – and finished with a joke at the bottom saying #Don’t say no, this cost a fortune
He said: ‘Thankfully she said yes and we had builders honking their vans at us and people from the pub came out to cheer us on’. Pictured: The ring