Tasha Dhanraj on a proposal with a ring of truth

At long, long last my cousin Sarah and her long, long term boyfriend, Jez, have finally got engaged. Thank goodness. I’m amazed he lasted five years before folding under the pressure of my Grandma to pop the question. In my family, if you’ve been dating over a month and your boyfriend isn’t shopping for a ring then he’s not serious enough. My Grandma is worse than Beyoncé.

The proposal took place at the most fashionable engagement spot. Kenya. After Will and Kate agreed to marry each other there, all the twentysomething women I know with boyfriends they had kept hold of for over a couple of years started showing me luxury resorts in East Africa on their iPhone and explained to me how they were going to lure their significant other to the destination.

While Sarah and Jez did get engaged there, they did have a deeper reason for being there than Sarah wanting to feel like a princess. My cousin had spent the last three months working in a poverty-stricken school in an area of Kenya affected by drought and famine. Jez then went out to meet her as her time with the school was coming to an end and swooped her away to a hotel for three weeks and proposed to her on a balcony overlooking the beach.

My Grandma is worse than Beyoncé

How disgustingly clichéd this all sounds would almost make me feel ashamed to know Jez; however, with the actual proposal he really did us proud. He had purchased her a beautiful, white gold diamond ring, but instead of proposing to her with that, he bent down on one knee and presented to her a £4 ring from Primark. He waited for her to say yes (which she said immediately after ten minutes of stunned silence) and then showed her the real ring. Cynics might think the reason for this was to make sure that she loved him regardless of how big the diamond was, but truthfully, he wanted to make her laugh.

In my opinion, Jez did the whole thing the right way. That’s what a proposal should be about. It should be a reflection of your relationship. Theirs is great because of the fun they have together, and that’s why they should get engaged and that’s why their engagement was as it was. Then again, my relationships are based on cider, ravioli and DVD box sets. I just hope my boyfriend doesn’t take this to mean I want him to propose by the checkout
at Tesco…