According to new data, the marriage rates are cheerfully going up, while divorces are finally going down. Most likely, it has to do with how people have started to choose their life partners. According to Ian Keran, a licensed marriage and family therapist, there’s a gradual shift from the ‘romantic marriage’ to the ‘companionate marriage’ where people are choosing more best friends than passion-partners. It means that people now prefer to be bonded with someone who’s a consistent, safe and secure home base and will be there for you no matter any challenges or adversities.
Tom Heal from Somerset, England found a very sincere and creative way to propose and make a lifetime bond with his long-term girlfriend Chloe.
On the 17th of May, Tom Heal decided to propose to his girlfriend Chloe Morley by mowing ‘marry me’ into his field
Tom Heal was already 4 years into his relationship with Chloe Morley when he decided to take a further step towards their future. The farmer came up with the unusual idea of carving the huge letters ‘marry me’ into his field near Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The heartwarming surprise happened right before the golden hour. Tom pretended that he had left his dinner at home, so Chloe was rushing to the field to meet him.
“I was doing what I’d normally do, just didn’t think anything of it,” Chloe recalled the memories of that evening. “I met him halfway down the track and he took me out to the field. I was just chatting away, telling him about my day, and then he stopped on the edge of the field.”
Chloe said that even though the couple had already discussed getting married several times, this particular timing came as a complete surprise. “A proposal has been on the cards for a little while but I haven’t known when, where, how, or anything. I completely was not expecting it at all.”
Tom asked Chloe to get out of the car, which the woman thought was a little bit strange yet she still didn’t suspect anything.
“Then I looked behind him and saw the ‘marry me’ in the field, then it all clicked,” said Chloe.
“I was in complete shock. I was shaking, I couldn’t even open the door,” remembered the woman. Overwhelmed with the creative and unexpected surprise from her boyfriend, she was left speechless while looking at the huge words carved into the grass, yet it didn’t take her very long to say ‘yes’. “I was in complete shock, but once it had settled after a few minutes, there were lots of tears.”
The couple’s families were super happy about Tom’s genuine gesture. The farmer’s aunt was truly proud of her nephew and couldn’t hold back her joy about the proposal:
“We’ve all been hoping and waiting. And he did it in his true fashion. I don’t think he could have done it in a better way. I’m thrilled and excited. It’s great to officially be able to welcome Chloe to our family, she’s been so wonderful.”
Chloe Morley didn’t expect such a life-changing and beautiful surprise
Image credits: Chloe Morley
While the couple is planning to have their big day next September, it seems that proposing by carving giant letters into a field has been quite popular between farmers over the years.
In 2015, Rick Davies wrote the message ‘Di will you marry me?’ at Newton Lodge farm in north Buckinghamshire. He did this by spraying pesticide from the back of a quad bike he drove through his wheat field and later showed this message by flying with his girlfriend Diana Cull over the 20-acre field in a flight that he won at a charity auction for £50.
“I was totally overwhelmed, I started crying, it was like something you see in films. We kept circling over it to look again and he leaned over to me and said ‘so what do you say?’ It was a massive yes, there was no hesitation,” shared Diana.
Another similar example could be Australian farmer Ben Kemp of Roseworthy, who used hay bales which survived a massive bushfire north of Adelaide for his proposal to Jadine Mold.
“I’m not normally very artistic, I drive a tractor every day but I had a picture in my head of what I wanted it to look like and it turned out better than I thought it would,” said Ben.
In 2013, Clifton Smith from Clarksville used bed sheets to spell out ‘Will You Marry Me?’ in 15-foot-tall letters in a field on his girlfriend Rachel Weakly’s family farm in Tennessee.
“I originally thought about getting paint or something, but I wanted it to be more unique. So I thought about the idea to use thrift store bed sheets. I went around and collected 42 sheets and cut those into uniformed strips and built the letters from there, using staples and wood to piece them together,” Clifton recalled the memories.
“If you told me ten years ago I would be proposed to in a plane, I would have never believed it,” added Rachel.
Image credits: Farmers Weekly
Image credits: Jadine Mold
Image credits: Clifton Smith
The tradition of proposing with a ring dates back to the ancient Egyptians, where circles were symbols of eternity. Married couples had rings made of braided reeds and they were worn on the left hand ring finger because it had a vein directly connected to the heart, later named vena amoris. Now most brides get diamond engagement rings, and one of the first recorded was in 1477 when Archduke Maximilian of Austria in the imperial court of Vienna proposed to Mary of Burgundy.
Interestingly enough, nowadays, Europe is the most popular continent for proposals, with Paris, Rome and Santorini on top as the most trendy destinations.
Proposal ideas vary from simple to extremely extravagant, yet I think the most important is when it truly comes from the heart and has a deeper meaning within. Tom Heal definitely chose the right way, since farming means the world to him and Chloe.
People on the internet couldn’t hold back their joy for the couple
