Erica Bassett was one of our lovely passengers this year who said ‘yes!’ to other half Ben Wyatt when he proposed to her up in the air. They first met through their friends through a number of ‘accidental meetings’ and eventually got together this time last year. Erica recalled,
On Christmas day, I opened my present from Ben and he had booked two tickets for a flight. I was so surprised as I’d only mentioned it once and also I felt slightly awkward as I hadn't bought him anything as we'd only had one date!
Ben chose Virgin because its a well established company and has sites nationwide which gave us lots of choice in terms of both the sites and available dates. Romantic from the offset, Erica and Ben managed to arrange their flight during a short-stay in Yorkshire. So on 13th September, they met at York Racecourse for a beautiful sunset flight. Although neither of them are from York, they still enjoyed beautiful sights below the basket such as York Minister and the sea on the horizon. They said,
The pilot and crew were great, they were really informative and good fun too! The pilot also arranged to get everyone's attention so that I could propose to Erica about half way through the flight. He shouted ‘someone in the corner of the balloon has something to say to his girlfriend’.
Erica remembered,
I was completely oblivious until the pilot shouted and I didn't really have time to take it all. The other people in the basket all gave a big "aaaahhhh" and that was that!
Of course the proposal cannot be beaten but we asked how they enjoyed the balloon ride itself,
I’m scared of heights and Ben is scared of flying so we weren't sure if either of us would enjoy the experience. However, afterwards we both said that we would definitely like to do it again. We enjoyed everything about it from helping to set things up, drifting along and the bump-free landing – it wasn’t at all scary! We would like to do another flight from Bakewell because then we would be flying over an area we both know well - hopefully we can have a post-wedding balloon flight!
Erica and Ben will be spending their first Christmas as an engaged couple split between both of their families. (Ben is panicking this year as he doesn’t know what to get Erica given the success of last year's present!) So it seems a Virgin Balloon Flight really is the perfect gift to show a loved one how much you care. Their wedding is set for 25th May 2013 at their local church in Sheen, Derbyshire – from everyone here at Virgin Balloon Flights we wish you all the best for the future.
