Meet the latest couple in The Chupi Engagement Series: Sinead and Niall. When his original plans to propose in London on Sinead’s birthday got cancelled due to Covid-19, Niall had thought about waiting until after the social distance and isolation regulations were lifted to propose, but changed his mind when he decided to make this time in their home joyful and proposed with Sinead’s dream Aquamarine ring .
I’m from Dublin, and Niall is from just outside Skibbereen in West Cork. My Dad is from nearby and I’ve spent a good third of my life down there on holidays so I’m lucky to be treated like a local in his village! Niall and my good friend from the area, Louise, were school buddies, so she introduced us in our early teens hanging around the village in Ballydehob.
There were always sparks between us, but with the distance during our teens and early 20’s, nothing ever really materialised, but we became good friends.
Something changed in our mid-20’s then. It’s hard to put my finger on but all of a sudden, we were completely ‘all-in’. We made long distance work from Dublin to Cork for about 4 years, and then I went travelling with my friends for 6 months and moved to Cork when I came home, which is 3 years ago now. Niall and I both love travel, so we’ve been really lucky to be able to take amazing trips together over the last 7 years, and he came to meet me for a month to take in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Since then, we’ve both progressed in our careers here in Cork, and we bought a house together last year – but we still have lots of more travel plans on the horizon!
Niall had thought about waiting until after the social distance and isolation regulations were lifted to propose, but then thought that we all needed a bit of good news, so he decided to go ahead with it, but in our home.
Niall is known for his amazing surprises. I’m ‘the organiser’ in most of my friend groups, so I am generally tricky to surprise – which means that Niall gets great fun out of shocking me. When we were doing long distance, he was known to show up at many an event I was at when I thought he was supposed to be working. So for our engagement, he wanted to make sure that above all, I was surprised.
He had planned to propose before he did as we were planning a trip to London for my birthday in March. Our trip had to be cancelled because of Covid-19, but we went to the beautiful Cliff House in Waterford instead. He had again planned to propose there, but became unwell (NOT Coronavirus, just sayin’!) So once again his plans were pulled to a halt.
Niall asked me to put on the kettle for tea after dinner and once I was sitting again, he got down on one knee and produced the Chupi ring of my dreams!
He had thought about waiting until after the social distance and isolation regulations were lifted but then thought that we all needed a bit of good news, so he decided to go ahead with it, but in our home. I came into the kitchen one Sunday to a beautiful dinner that he’d made – we’re big foodies, so this was right up my street.
He asked me to put on the kettle for tea afterwards and once I was sitting again, he got down on one knee and produced the Chupi ring of my dreams ! Although the proposal wasn’t what he had planned, it was private, and personal and absolutely perfect. I said ‘YES!’ straight away, but he maintains that he didn’t hear it because of the sobs of joy from the ugly crying I was doing (it lasted for about 20 minutes).
We’re in a little bubble of joy and love at the moment, and we just cannot wait to be able to celebrate with our family and friends.
Once I’d gathered myself and we took a moment, I rushed upstairs to paint the nails and fix my makeup and we video called our Moms together. The surprise and joy of that call was just wonderful and so emotional. We called our families and close friends that night and drank champagne and danced in our kitchen to our favourite songs. I could barely sleep that night with the excitement, and when I woke up early the next morning, I had to look on my finger to check it wasn’t all a dream.
We’re in a little bubble of joy and love at the moment, and we just cannot wait to be able to celebrate with our family and friends. I keep (half) joking and saying that we’ll be having an engagement party for every day we were in isolation once this is lifted!
I’ve always loved Chupi . From my early 20s, Chupi was always a firm favourite in my friend group and we loved buying Chupi gifts for each other to mark special birthdays or promotions or life events. Through work then, I got to meet and work with the wonderful team at Chupi for the Cork City pop-up events they hold in The River Lee and I think it was then that I fell even more love with the brand and especially, one ring in particular…
I knew the One in a Trillion Aquamarine and Diamond ring was the one for me. Aquamarine is my birthstone and I absolutely love colourful things. Blue has actually been a significant colour in my relationship with Niall – the first gift he ever bought me was a little blue ornament- an in-joke of ours.
At the first pop-up event in Cork, I got to try a few of the rings on and at that stage, I knew the One in a Trillion Aquamarine and Diamond ring was the one for me. Aquamarine is my birthstone and I absolutely love colourful things. Blue has actually been a significant colour in my relationship with Niall – the first gift he ever bought me was a little blue ornament- an in-joke of ours. When I moved to Cork first, I had just passed my driving test and he welcomed me to my new home with a little blue car. It felt only right that the ring was to be blue too- so I definitely dropped a few hints to him of what I wanted over the years (!). Luckily, he picked up on them.
Niall sneakily had gotten in touch with the wonderful team at Chup i unbeknownst to me. He had gauged my ring size from another ring I own and had tracked down the one I loved, so he was well-armed before making contact. He told them exactly what he wanted and then it was all managed through email and phone calls. Niall told me when we got engaged that the process was made so special and seamless because of the amazing team which I was just chuffed to hear – but of course, not surprised at all! It’s funny, because I had been in Chupi HQ while my ring was being made meeting with the team on the next pop-up event, and I didn’t have a clue what was happening!
I feel so special and so lucky. It’s the perfect ring to be engaged to Niall with. It’s celestial and unique and a little bit vintage too. I love the water and sea, as does Niall, so I cannot imagine a more perfect ring.
At first, before I had seen the One In A Trillion Aquamarine ring , I wasn’t sure, but I definitely knew I wanted my Engagement Ring to be from Chupi. And then once I tried it on, I was deeply in love.
Ugh, I’m obsessed! Or, ‘I’m weak’ as they say here in Cork! I feel so special and so lucky. It’s the perfect ring to be engaged to Niall with. It’s celestial and unique and a little bit vintage too. I love the water and sea, as does Niall, so I cannot imagine a more perfect ring . I can’t stop staring at it… and I’m consciously trying not to walk into every room in the house left-hand-first (!) The isolation has us all a bit loopy 😀
Yes, with plenty of time on our hands right now, we’ve made plans to be married in July 2021 in West Cork, where we met, for a big ‘Wild Atlantic Wedding’. We really want a good knees-up with all our friends and family. It’s so lovely to have something to plan right now, and it give us something else to talk about with our Mums on video calls while we’re all in isolation!
Read more of The Chupi Engagement Series here.
