A Kiwi Instagrammer has shared the moment her boyfriend proposed on picturesque Queenstown lakeside - with a bucket of KFC wicked wings.
Ellie Haines has gathered a large following with her hilarious Instagram Loving Ellie's Belly, in which she shares posts around body positivity and documents life with her partner, Brett Fitzgerald.
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Haines has shared much of their love story with her followers over the past year.
The pair met on dating app Tinder, speaking for hours every night on the phone before meeting. "When we finally met it was 100 percent love at first sight," she told Newshub. They maintained a long-distance relationship between Christchurch and Queenstown, before Haines eventually moved down to Queenstown.
Haines has been honest in the past about a fraught dating history, including an emotionally and physically abusive relationship a few years back.
She says Fitzgerald "truly saved" her after a "horrible previous relationship".
"We were inseparable," she says.
However despite discussions over future plans, Haines said she had no idea the unorthodox proposal was coming.
"Obviously we spoke about being together forever but he's a little shit and planned the proposal," she says.
Fitzgerald told Haines he was going to Invercargill to drop off a car to a client. Instead, he was really meeting her mother to pick out a ring, a move that proved risky when one of Haines' followers saw them together, and messaged her.
"I was like 'what, that's not my mum silly that's a client'," Haines recalls now. "But it was my mum! She and Brett were crapping themselves."
On the day itself, Haines said it seemed like any other.
"He just asked if I wanted to go on a picnic and pick up some KFC on the way. I said 'heck yes'," Haines says. "I love KFC. And then he told me to look nice. At the time I was like, 'what a cheeky bugger, I look mint all the time'."
She says when they pulled up Ed Sheeran music was "cranking" from someone's car and Fitzgerald was particular about which rock she had to sit on.
"Just as I sat down he handed me a card and told me to read it," she says. "I didn't even get to start eating my KFC."
The card read 'how about this wicki ring?', a reference to the bucket of chicken on the rock beside them.
"Then he got his knee dustry and dropped down and asked me to marry him. I just started crying and couldn't believe it," she says.
Fitzgerald even commissioned friends to linger nearby and snap photos of the moment. "It just makes me laugh that the KFC in the photos" Haines says.
"It was absolutely perfect. The ring is so beautiful. We spent the day celebrating with friends and wine and we both couldn't stop calling each other fiancé!
"Of course I smashed the KFC straight after."
The post has so far garnered over 10,000 likes, with several other Kiwi Instagram influencers offering messages of support.
The blogger has gained a reputation for sharing all areas of her life - the good, bad, ugly and often hilarious - and says she will be sharing all the details of her wedding day with her followers.
"My following is a huge part of my life, they have gone through a lot with me so I felt it was important to share the news with them," Haines says.
"I would love to share this wedding journey with them, I share my whole life so why not?!
"A few people have asked me to go live on the day, but we will 100 percent have it filmed and share that with my amazing online following."
Judging by Haines' Instagram feed, wedding guests can mostly likely expect a little finger lickin' good at the reception.
Newshub.
