She said 'Yes!'

THERE was love in the air yesterday as Ballina man Luke Fahey proposed to girlfriend Chrissy Rudowski over Shelly Beach.

The midair proposal came at the end of a one-hour flight and was a complete surprise to Miss Rudowski.

Pilot Andy Trease flew low over the beach just after 8am where Mr Fahey’s friends and family stood with a giant banner reading ‘Chrissy will u marry me?’

“I didn’t know if she was laughing or crying,” said Mr Fahey of his girlfriend’s reaction.

Miss Rudowski said she ‘did a bit of both’, and then said ‘yes’.

Mr Fahey designed the banner, which took two days to sew together, with the help of his mum and the rest of the family.

He also designed a ring and had it custom made by a Lennox Head jeweller for the special event.

He recruited friends and family, including his best man-to-be, to arrive at the beach early yesterday morning and hold up the banner as the couple flew past.

Miss Rudowski said she had no idea that Mr Fahey had planned to propose.

She said he had spent a lot of time at work over Christmas and thought the flight was a way of making it up to her. 

After landing at Ballina airport, the newly engaged couple were ecstatic.

Miss Rudowski said she was ‘speechless’.

“He’s definitely a romantic, but nothing has ever come close to this,” she said.

Mr Fahey said he wanted to make it a memorable occasion.

“I wanted to do somethingsignificant that would stand out,” he said.

“I wanted to do something I could tell the grandkids about.”

Mr Fahey and Miss Rudowski met at the River City Church in Ballina five years ago and have been together for two years.

Both live in the Ballina area.

Pilot Andy Trease said he had a few marriage proposals in the back of his plane, ‘but none as
spectacular as this one’.