As a precaution, you might get scared or tearful along the way, you may even get shocked, but as with any good love story, it'll be worth it in the end.
It all started with three boys, bed bugs and a long trip to Thailand. Back in 2019, when Melvin was knee deep in Massaman curries on his trip to Thailand with his two friends Joost and Vincent, he decided to make an announcement that would change his upcoming year quite drastically. He had decided it was time for him to propose to Vale. The three of them would come up with a proposal plan that very same day.
The plan was simple: take a lot of pictures over the next year, each one containing a letter. The letter could be placed on an item or could be spelled out by either of Melvin or Vale. The final result should be a photo album filled with pictures that end up spelling WILL YOU MARRY ME?
The execution was a lot less simple: About three months after the plan was made, Dublin together with most of the world, went into lockdown. This meant there were very few opportunities to take any pictures of anything at all..Still, Melvin didn't give up, he took pictures at home, in the park, and when they went to Madeira and lockdowns were reduced he took every picture that he could. Right before the planned date 10.10.2020 the photoalbum was complete.
10 October 2020
According to all the forecasts, this was supposed to be yet another sunny day on the beautiful island of Madeira. The couple had planned a nice hike with friends Vincent and Cristina and the proposal would take place on the sunny mountain range of Madeira. About 10 minutes prior to the start of the hike, it became clear that weather forecasts are just that. They are forecasts, and the reality was entirely different. It was a cloudy, cold, windy and rainy day. Nevertheless, the hike went on as planned. The four of them fought their way to the top of the mountain and kept on hiking through almost hypothermic conditions.
Finally at the top, the group decided to stay in the restaurant, get changed and wait for the weather to get better. The photo album, the ring and a nice (and dry) suit, was waiting in the bathroom of that restaurant. The only thing Melvin needed was a bit of sun. After about 2 hours a moment of sunshine appeared and Melvin hurried himself to the bathroom to get changed. When he appeared in the restaurant again (in suit) the group decided to take a picture of the group with the view, but before they were able to do so Melvin pulled out the photobook and sat down with Vale to look through it. Confused, and a bit nervous, Valeria looked through the photos but didn't take much of them in. Only when they got to the final page and the letters were organised neatly, were here suspicions confirmed. Melvin got on his knee and asked "Will you marry me?"
...To be continued (click on the bubbles at the top)
(Continuation of the Proposal)
After the beautiful story of the proposal, you could say "And they lived happily ever after", but actually the story continues.
The romantic that Melvin is, he had arranged a 1950's Rolls Royce to come and collect Mel and Val off the mountain after the proposal(this saved them from taking a very wet hike back down). As everyone clapped, cheered and saluted the soon-to-be married couple down the mountain, it was like experiencing a fairy tale come to live. However, something that doesn't frequently happen in fairy tales is the bridal car *catching fire*. Yes, you read that correctly. The hunger games title became our reality when we were driving down the mountain on our way to the hotel where we would spend the weekend. It started with smoke but as we drove through a tunnel, we started to realise the severity of it all as other cars started to honk and flash their lights at us. We yelled at the driver to pull over and let us out, and as soon as we left the tunnel the car stopped, three Portuguese men ran towards us with fire extinguishers (we were lucky enough to stop right next to a car-tow station, which had plenty of fire extinguishers). Luckily enough, no major problems were caused and up until now, "they lived happily ever after".
