Huge surprise at Plymouth visitor hotspot leaves woman in tears

Plymouth couple Nicola Morse and Chris Drynan at the National Marine Aquarium
-Credit: (Image: Ocean Conservation Trust)


A woman in Plymouth was left in floods of tears after her partner proposed to her at a popular visitor attraction. Her partner had carefully planned the exciting surprise at the National Marine Aquarium (NMA), where one of her “greatest obsessions” lives.

Puffy-eyed Nicola Morse, aged 38, was taken aback at the touching gesture and tearfully said “yes” to partner Chris Drynan on September 30.

The memorable day was made even more special because it was centred around a very cute creature - the resident green turtle called Friday.

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The couple met over 20 years ago at a nightclub and they’re also expecting their first child this month. However, they had “led separate lives” for a time due to work commitments, but had always kept in touch on Facebook.

Chris, aged 39, said: “Thankfully she said yes (to the marriage proposal). Nicola is a bit puffy eyed since crying so much (after the proposal). We met at a nightclub in Watford over twenty years ago, when I was 19, and she was 18. At the time I was in the submarine service and Nicola was on a girls night out in Watford with her friends.”

Newly engaged Nicola is also a horse lover and was working as a groom when the couple first met two decades ago. Their long distance relationship was “a barrier” back then as Nicola was working overseas in Dubai where she trained and rode show jumping horses, she then came back to the UK during the Covid pandemic.

Chris said: “I spent time at sea when Nicola was in Dubai and we had our lives separately. But we never lost touch and agreed to meet up two years ago. Last year she followed me to Plymouth and is now eight months pregnant with our first child.

“One of her greatest obsessions, other than horses, are turtles. She had been to the aquarium a few times, and last went a couple of weeks ago with her parents who were down to visit. By this time I was already planning out a proposal scenario, and the thought of incorporating an experience with Friday, the NMA's resident green turtle seemed like a really good idea.

“I contacted the aquarium, and outlined my plan, and booked a turtle feeding experience. NMA was very accommodating, and phoned to discuss how we would make it work. I had sourced a decorative bottle with a cork, and inside placed a message with my proposal.”

The plan was to have the bottle in with the turtle exhibit and picked up by Nicola, but there were a “few snags” with that idea as Friday - the turtle - attacked the bottle.

Chris was worried that the bottle could end up on the bottom of the second largest tank in the UK, but NMA had a suggestion.

Chris said: “I also had visions of my bottle not floating as well as I had planned, but Tom from NMA had the idea of placing it in the snorkel tank, within the main tank, to prevent it from floating away or sinking, and to prevent Friday the turtle from having the proposal for himself.”

Nicola went to NMA and initially thought the surprise Chris had planned was preparing lunch for Friday the turtle and feeding him. She hadn't seen the bottle slipped into the exhibit while the couple were given a tour.

Tom went into “full acting mode", drawing attention to what had fallen into the tank and shouldn't be there, and fished out the message in a bottle for Nicola to open

Through “floods of tears”, Nicola said “yes” to the unique proposal. The couple said they “can't thank the NMA enough for making the whole experience so memorable”.

A National Marine Aquarium spokesperson said: "This was the first proposal during our Feed the Turtle experience, but we've had many others across the aquarium.

"Many proposers favour our daily dive shows, where our divers pull out a sign which reads ‘will you marry me?’, which always gets an excited reaction from the audience. We’ve even had a proposal during our Snorkel at the Aquarium experience at the top of our Atlantic Ocean Exhibit.

"Thankfully this ring didn't go for a swim with the sharks and she said yes!"

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