Ashley Wilson liked a local Kingston eatery, the food was good, the atmosphere pleasant and restaurant employee Dean Moready certainly caught her attention.
However, waiting for Dean to pluck up the courage to ask her out was costing Ashley in cocktails the equivalent of a small deposit on a house.
“But I told him they all tasted amazing,” Ashley said.
One night after Dean finished his shift, the pair went for a walk together on Kingston Beach.
They sat on a swing and Dean finally asked Ashley to go out with him.
Fast forward a few months to a phone call from Dean to best friend Tom.
“Tommy, I need your help.”
Mystified but interested, Tom replied, “Of course Dean, but what are you talking about?”
Dean explained how he wanted to recreate that magical night on the swing, same time, same beach.
Only this time, Dean was going to pop the question.
Throughout the call, Dean went into quite a lot of detail as to what the re-creation was going to look like.
With the help of another mate Steve, ‘We can do that,” was Tom’s reply.
Organising the midnight set up were Dean and Ashley’s closest friends and family, all the while, keeping the whole thing a secret.
The night finally arrived with the main problem being the hiding of 10 excited people on a Kingston Beach in the pitch dark.
This achieved, everything was set, champagne and glasses placed, everyone on time, lights and cameras in position.
Even the weather behaved itself, despite the dire forecast.
Shortly after this was achieved two little voices were heard approaching.
Dean being the suave man that he is, guided his hopefully soon to be fiancé along the beach towards the romantic lights ahead of them.
He sat her down on the swing, looked in her eyes and popped the question.
At this point there were 10 people trying to sneak a peak, crawling along with sand in their hair and seaweed in their shoes.
Then, right on cue, Dean gave the signal.
Everyone jumped up, ran towards them and it was official… she said yes.
