After meeting for the first time at Matt’s best friend’s 21st, he and Leah soon bonded when they discovered that not only were they both attending the same university – but they were studying in the very same field! Says Leah “We were actually friends for nearly a year before everything fell into place… we even helped to set up each other’s online dating profiles when tinder first came out!!”

And today, we get to join a very special moment, a secret squirrel proposal on their eighth anniversary that embraces all the city, black tie glam. A golden ballgown, the sparkling skyscrapers at dusk and even a string quartet Luckily for us, photographer Candid Chaser was also part of the plan – because we get to share the story in every beautiful detail.

And so, on their eighth anniversary, Matt hatched a plan.  Tells Leah “I had been invited interstate for a charity gala for work and it coincided with our 8-year anniversary weekend! So we decided Matt would come with me and we could make a weekend of it. Little did I know he had been scheming with my boss to plan an incredible proposal.

The day of the event my boss had told me to meet him a bit earlier so we could speak with an “investor” beforehand. So all dressed up in my ball gown I met him at the bar for a drink to wait for the “investor”. After a while, my boss looks down at his phone and says “Oh no, he’s gone to the wrong place he’s been waiting for us upstairs!” So I pile my ball gown into a ball to try and make it up the escalator to the “conference room” where the “investor” was “waiting for us”.

We walk into the room upstairs and there’s Matt. Standing there in his tux next to a string quartet and a very energetic cameraman (Ash) clicking away. When I walk in they start to play “can’t help falling in love with you”. The beautiful golden light from the sunset was streaming in through the massive windows, he got down on one knee, I cried (a lot) and eventually managed to say yes!!!”

“It sounds cheesy but I love how he makes me laugh” remarks Leah on her love for Matt. “He just gets me, he understands me without me having to say anything at all. But I think most of all it’s because he has such an incredibly kind heart, he sees all people as equal and would give anyone the shirt off his back if they needed it.”

And of Leah? Says Matt “Her eyes, her smile, her intelligence, how much she cares and invests in other people, she’s so selfless, her creativity. She makes me happier than I ever thought I could be.”