Assault course proposal goes with a swing (From Daily Echo)

Boyfriend gets down on one knee at Go-Ape attraction

11:30am Saturday 9th March 2013 in News Exclusive By Emma Streatfield, Senior Reporter

A HAMPSHIRE man proved he wasn't monkeying around when he proposed to his girlfriend at a treetop assault course.

Lee Guerrier got down on one knee as he popped the question to Sonia Bell at the Go-Ape attraction in West End's Itchen Valley Country Park.

And luckily the 38-year-old got the answer he was looking for when she replied: “I do-oo-oo!”

Staff and customers cheered when Sonia answered “yes”, and the couple toasted their engagement with champagne.

Now they are hoping their wedding goes with a swing.

Lee and Sonia were at the adventure course for what Sonia thought was her son’s tenth birthday celebration.

Even when family members turned up and Lee asked Sonia if she would go last on the course, Sonia did not suspect a thing. But as she unhooked herself from the final zip wire, Sonia turned around to see family members and friends holding picture frames spelling out the words “Will you marry me?”

Then Lee got down on one knee holding the question mark. Even Sonia’s son Aaron Willson-Bell and Lee’s son Ethan, 2, were involved.

Lee, a building project estimator, said: “I wanted to do something different that was not standard, tacky and been done a million times before.

“I figured of all the places she’s not going to expect me to propose is when she’s been dragged through the trees and bushes.”

Sonia, 39, who burst into tears at the gesture, said: “It was totally unglamorous, but it was totally fantastic because it was unglamorous, which made it even more shocking. It certainly makes it a memorable engagement. I think it’s quite nice to think outside the box.”

The couple, who live in Fareham, met in August 2011 on Lee-on-the-Solent beach. They have no fixed plans for the wedding, but retail worker Sonia said they would be looking to do something out of the ordinary