Student pops the Question on Graduation!
Megan Garrad and Ben Litchfield’s relationship has blossomed through three years at UoN. Meeting in their first year, Ben proposed to Megan at their shared graduation day!
Not only did you both graduate on the same day, but you got engaged! A triple congratulations is in order. Let’s start at the beginning of this love story; give us some background about the two of you.
Well I’m 26 and originally from Dunstable, which is a little town just outside of Luton. My fiancé, Ben, is 22 and he comes from Loughborough. We’ve come closer together though, since we now live together in Dunstable! We both love video games and indie music, so it’s no wonder we bonded. We have both just graduated from UoN, Ben in BA History, and myself in BA Creative Writing.
We know you met at UoN, but tell us about the first time you saw each other.
We first met in late autumn 2014, when we were both first years. One of my flatmates invited him over to halls to hang out, and I was sat in the kitchen when they both entered. The first conversation we had was about his course, and I asked him who his favourite historical figure was. It must have impressed him because he said no-one had ever asked him that before.
We started properly dating in January of the following year, so we have been together now for two and a half years. We even lived together for most of that, as we spent the whole of third year just the two of us in our own flat.
Did you have any idea Ben was going to propose to you on graduation?
I had no idea Ben was going to ask me to marry him! I always joked with our friends and family that he was going to propose at graduation. I always made a big fuss of it! It even got to the point where Ben and I had to sit down and discuss it as a possibility.
He always insisted that he hated the idea of it, and didn’t want a bunch of strangers seeing a personal moment that he felt should be private. He said it would be much more romantic just the two of us. I argued that a proposal at graduation would be perfect because we would have all of our friends and family right there to witness a special moment.
Each time we talked about it, Ben always convinced me that he wasn’t going to propose at graduation. I constantly believed him! I didn’t have any idea, even in the days leading up to our graduation, when he ordered me a mysterious birthday present (which isn’t for another month), which turned out to be the engagement ring!
There was even a second time where I should have guessed what he was planning. Ben wanted to talk to my dad about something, in private without me. I still thought nothing of it! I was certain he wasn’t going to propose at graduation. He likes to joke that he “pulled a Chandler” from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. There’s a scene where Chandler convinces his girlfriend, Monica, that he has no intentions of proposing to her but then surprises her.
So tell us about the proposal. Did it happen the way he planned it?
Ben wanted to do it when we were taking our graduation photos, so that our family could capture the special moment as it was happening. On the day, he set us up in front of the giant deck chair outside Holdenby, and after a few normal photographs of our graduation celebrations, he got down on one knee.
How did you feel!? It’s such an exciting moment for you both, what with your graduation as well.
I was in complete shock, after all I wasn’t expecting it. I was shaking for hours after and we had to take a break from taking photos, I needed to sit down I was so surprised. Ben told me that he was nervous all day, and had barely eaten properly the week leading up to it. Although he knew I’d say yes, he wasn’t sure how he would get it all out.
