A NEWLY-ENGAGED man spent months carefully planning his proposal at the site where he and his partner plan to build their new home.
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But the plan was almost over before it began when David Blume realised there would be no "sold" sign on the land he and partner Ash Gardiner were buying.
So he and the land's developers hatched an elaborate bid to get Ms Gardiner and the couple's families to the empty lot.
The proposal went of without a hitch on Saturday in Birchgrove Property's Discover Marong estate.
That did not mean the build up was not stressful.
"The whole plan was to replace a 'sold' sticker with one that read 'will you marry me' and get the whole family down there," Mr Blume said.
"So when Birchgrove said they weren't doing 'for sale' signs I had to work a bit of magic in the background to get it to work."
Mr Blume had the sticker printed up and Birchgrove's Lisa Tangey had the sign made.
Still, it was not going to be easy to set up the big proposal, especially in a street full of other empty lots that had just been sold.
"None of them were going to have a 'sold' sign on their lots," Mr Blume said.
"That was the biggest problem I had. So Lisa offered to send Ash an email, pretending it was one for all of the people who had just bought land."
The email offered Ms Gardiner the chance to have a photo taken at the property as a memento of the day she and Mr Blume bought the land.
"It worked perfectly," Mr Blume said.
"She started crying though, so there was a moment where I was wondering whether the whole idea had been a good or bad one.
"But I felt like it was OK, and I made a little bit of a speech and she said 'yes'."
Ms Gardiner said it was a total surprise.
She said the couple are yet to set a date for their wedding.
"It will probably happen in 2022," Ms Gardiner said.
The couple is focusing on getting through the COVID-19 pandemic and seeing their first home built.
"It gets titled very soon and we will start after that," Mr Blume said.
"We are thinking that it might be our forever home. Obviously, you can never know the future but we would be happy with living there forever."
Mr Blume said all he really knew was that his part in the wedding's planning was over.
"The rest will be on Ash," he joked.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
