Romantic partner pops question using giant advert on M5
When hopeless romantic Stuart Whittle was deciding on the grandest way to propose to his partner of seven years his first thought was to pay for a television advert.
But after discovering the cost was a bit out of his price range, the gas engineer went for the next best thing – a message on a giant digital screen on the M5 by junction one.
The 36-year-old from Streetly had been out for a meal with his sweetheart Claire Jewhurst at Westfield Merry Hill before stopping his car on the hard shoulder of the motorway on the pretence it was breaking down.
He then got out and showed her the sign before dropping to one knee to pop the question.
"I drive past the digital screen every day," said Mr Whittle.
"Everyone was saying take her out for a meal and do it that way but I wanted to do something different, something that would be noticed." He said: "Her reaction was just shock really. Obviously she said 'yes'. There were a few tears in her eyes."
The couple, who met on a night out at nightclub WS1 in Walsall, were on the way to pick up their two-year-old daughter Summer from nursery following a meal earlier that day when Mr Whittle pretended there was a problem with his Vauxhall Astra.
The sign showed a picture of the trio and had the words 'Claire I love you. Marry Me'.
"She had a go at me at first, saying we were going to be late, and then she looked up and saw the sign," he said.
"It was shock really. I had made no gestures it would happen.
"I did not want her to expect it at all." Mr Whittle, who popped the question on February 14, had given Miss Jewhurst a Valentine's Card earlier in the day saying 'to my girlfriend'.
But after the successful proposal he instantly presented her with a new card saying 'to my fiancée'.
He said he was aware he could have potentially got into trouble with the police for stopping on the hard shoulder without good reason but said he was prepared to take the risk.
"I might have got three points but it would have been worth it," he said.
The couple, who live in Royal Meadow Way in Streetly, have not decided on a date yet but Miss Jewhurst, a 31-year-old personal assistant at Barr Beacon School in Aldridge, said she could not wait.
