WHEN Melissa Moss was treated by her boyfriend to a helicopter ride, little did she know he had an ulterior motive.

But when she looked out the window after leaving Staverton airfield, near Cheltenham, on the 5pm flight, she got the perfect proposal.

Her boyfriend Liam Ireland, aged 31, who works as a nursery manager at Readyhedge in Pershore, had spelt out a very important question in box hedging.

He had even enlisted the help of some of his work colleagues and his dad to lay the two-and-half-metre high hedging along the road way in the nursery.

“I told Melissa my boss had paid for a flight over the nursery to see it from above,” he said. “As we were flying over she was looking down at the nursery and she saw ‘Will you marry me Melissa’ written in box hedging.

“As she turned round from looking out the window I was there with a ring. I couldn’t get down on one knee because I was strapped into the helicopter but I hope I was forgiven.

“I just thought what other way to do it than spell it out in box hedging and fly over. It’s a little bit different really.”

Lucky for Mr Ireland, his 26-year-old bride-to-be who works as a dental nurse in Evesham, said yes to his surprise proposal.

The couple, who live in Eckington, near Pershore, have been together just over four years after first meeting on a night out at Marilyn’s nightclub in Evesham.

“I was very nervous, I didn’t sleep too well on the Friday night,” he said. “It was all just through my head it wouldn’t work. What if she couldn’t read it or it wasn’t big enough but it all went fine. It was perfect.”