A couple surprised each other by both proposing to each other at the exact same time. Kim Dakin, 36, and Richard McCarthy, 37, had been waiting to go to Glastonbury for two years after buying tickets for the postponed 2020 festival.
They both planned to pop the question at the festival, but kept it secret. Kim went first and proposed in the Cinemageddon field using a Haribo ring and vows she had written on her phone.
But she was left crying when Richard replied by asking "is it my turn now?" - and pulled a ring out of his back pocket. They had a joint stag and hen do the next day and in an incredible twist of fate met a wedding officiator who offered to ‘marry’ the pair at the festival.
They tied the knot in a non-legally binding humanist ceremony at the festival’s famous Stone Circle. Kim, a customer service advisor, from Belper, Derbyshire, said: "We have a right real life fairy tale story to tell.
“It was so nice. Everything just happened and we didn’t even plan it. I’ve never been so happy. I’ve just been crying all week.”
The couple previously went to the world-famous festival in 2019 and had managed to nab tickets for the 2020 festival. However, due to Covid regulations, the festival was cancelled for two years in a row meaning they were left waiting until 2022 for their next experience of Worthy Farm.
Richard had been planning to propose to her at the festival – and ended up waiting the extra two years to make sure he got the moment just right. Kim had her own ideas and got hold of a Haribo ring and wrote out her vows with her own plans to pop the question when the time felt right.
After arriving at the festival on the Thursday, the couple were enjoying exploring the site when Kim proposed - followed by Richard, an engineer. Both of them had confessed their plans to a friend who was at the festival and luckily the tight-lipped friend managed to keep the secret.
The met the wedding officiator the next day while watching a show. She told them to meet her back in the same place on the Sunday and arrived with a bouquet for Kim.
They held a humanist wedding ceremony inside the Stone Circle – with the officiator tying their hands together with a silk cloth. Kim said: “I wrote the vows about a week before – it took me ten minutes and was dead easy as I knew exactly what I wanted to say.
“I got him a ring as well, a Haribo one, which was fake so he could keep it. I just went for it and got down on one knee – I was so nervous but I didn’t know why, I didn’t think he was going to say no but I wanted to say my vows properly.
“He put his hand in his pocket and said ‘can I have my turn now?’ and he went down on one knee. I couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t believe it – I was hoping in the back of my head he would do it as well but never thought for one minute he actually would.
“He wanted to do it two years ago when the festival was supposed to happen but it was delayed for two years and he had been keeping it a secret all that time. He had asked my son's permission to marry me and my son knew I was going to ask Rich and he kept it a secret from us both."
