When it comes to wedding proposals, some people spare no expense – yachts, singers, dinners, flowers, decorations and champagne are the only way to go for certain men (and women).
But there are other ways of proposing which are equally impressive yet significantly cheaper – all it takes is some thought and planning.
One man who has proven just how incredible and romantic a proposal can be is Tim Chee.
A week after he began dating his now wife Candice, he started writing love letters to her.
Chee wrote Candice 14 letters over the course of three years, but she had no idea they contained a secret message – the first letters of each love note spelled out “Will you marry me?”
He whisked Candice away on a surprise holiday to Hamilton Island, Australia, and a picnic at Watsons Bay, where the couple had had their first date, before revealing the secret meaning in the letters.
“I woke up on the morning of December 16, 2015, with a letter next to me instructing me to get dressed and to only come out when I’m fully ready,” Candice told the Mail Online.
“As soon as I opened the door, I found rose petals and candles everywhere – my heart skipped a beat and I knew it was coming.
“He sat me down in the living room with all the letters that he had written to me on the table.
“We read them out one by one reliving the memories of our dating years.
“After we read all of them he carefully arranged the letters and asked me to look at them.”
She then saw the message: Will you marry me?
Candice was completely surprised and burst into tears, even though she says Tim has always been very romantic.
When the couple tied the knot a year later, Chee sang her a song he’d written just two months after they started dating.
Despite Chee’s love of grand, romantic gestures, he and Candice started off as friends.
“Even though it took a long time for our friendship to blossom into love we are so grateful that we got to become friends first,” Candice said.
“The fact that we knew each other so well made the relationship feel so secure. We always look back and say we made the right choice by being good friends first.”