A boyfriend has finally popped the question – after secretly taking nearly 150 selfies with his girlfriend which all displayed the secret message “Will You Marry Me?”.
Claire Bramley had no idea romantic Ray Smith had been asking for her hand in marriage every day for five months.
Ray told her he was documenting her pregnancy each day – but it was really part of his scheme to walk her down the aisle.
She posed for dozens of selfies with him – unaware that in all of them the words ‘will you marry me’ was written in the background on signs, notes – and even on TV.
But Ray has now asked for real – and Claire said yes.
Teacher Claire, 33, who is eight months pregnant, said: “I had no clue, I was totally oblivious to it all.
“He told me he was taking the pictures to create memories for the baby so I just let him get on with it.”
His amazing scheme created a fantastic gallery of photos – in which you can see Claire has no idea what is going on.
Ray even thought to take several versions of each snap – some without the secret message, so if Claire asked to see the picture he could avoid her foiling his plan.
There is one picture of them posing with their baby’s scan picture and another at the zoo.
Another hilarious snap saw Claire posing with her baby bump with a big: “Will you marry me?” notice pictured on the TV behind her.
Ray finally let the cat out of the bag on Christmas Day when he revealed his pictures and got down on one knee.
The 38-year-old fish delivery driver said: “I have been planning to propose for a while and I knew I wanted to do something romantic, so I originally thought about popping the question in a hot air balloon.
“But then in June we received some great news that Claire was expecting a baby, which put a stop to that plan. So I had to have a rethink.
“I searched online for unusual proposals and I saw ideas like flash mobs and that sort of thing. So I decided to come up with my own idea to take a picture every day for five months.”
He had originally planned to propose at a minute to midnight on New Year’s Eve at a specially-planned family party, which was cancelled just before Christmas as Claire was worried she wouldn’t feel up to it.
“I told her I was taking the pictures to track the progress of the baby, which was a little bit of a ruse,” he added.
“Sometimes she wanted to see the pictures so I had to take more than one – one with the card and one without.
“It was all a bit chaotic on Christmas Day morning so I took her away and set it all up on the laptop. I got down on one knee and gave her a bit of spiel, and then popped the question.
“It was really stressful putting it all together, it took a lot of hard work. She nearly caught me a couple of times but I just had to pray it worked.
“I actually started teasing her saying 2016 is a leap year, and she should actually propose to me. I just wanted to prove how much I love her.”
Ray and Clairehave been together since August 2014 and the scheme started on July 31.
Claire said: “I was totally surprised, but in hindsight it’s exactly the kind of thing he does. He likes to do romantic things.
“I said yes straight away, I didn’t need to think about it. I got a bit emotional but I am pregnant after all.”
The happy couple revealed they are looking at spring 2017 as a possible date for their wedding.
