Drumaness man’s big screen wedding proposal

Drumaness man’s big screen wedding proposal

22 August 2018

LOVE knew no bounds when Paul Carville decided to pop the big question to his partner. The self-confessed unromantic man pulled out the stops in proposing to Lauren McMullan.

He turned movie star and action hero to stage an elaborate stunt at Downpatrick Omniplex recently.

With the help of his friends and Lauren’s dad, Rory, the 32 year-old from Drumaness created a film trailer which showed him fighting for her hand against a huge ‘champion’, Big Stuff — aka local tug-of-war expert Paul McCullough.

Once he ‘slayed’ the giant, he and his two right-hand men — Simon Walsh and Stephen McCullough — donned balaclavas in a bid to get a diamond ring.

As Lauren (32), from Clanvaraghan, watched on with her sister and Paul’s sister, the trailer showed Paul walking into the Omniplex suited and booted to ask the question.

A carefully hidden cameraman recorded Lauren’s reaction as Paul actually walked into the movie theatre, got down on one knee, produced a ring and asked her to be his wife.

After such a major effort, Lauren thankfully said yes to Paul, although the wedding will not be held for a year or too as they are building a new home in Drumaness.

The YouTube video has since been viewed more than 4,000 times. It will be a great memento for the couple to show their 13 week-old son, Felix, and Eoin, Lauren’s son from a previous relationship, in future years.

“It was good old craic but it took a while to plan as I had to sit and the whole thing out, and get people involved and to get the cinema involved and the local GAA club,” explained Paul.

“I had been thinking about doing something special to propose to Lauren since about January and saw a YouTube video about a guy who did something similar so I thought I would give it a go.”

The video shows Lauren looking shocked and seemingly wiping away a few tears.

She said: “I was pretty much shocked that Paul had got it all organised he usually doesn’t usually do anything like this. I was totally unprepared and never suspected anything at any point, especially since Paul had been playing down the notion of getting married for a long time now.”

With the help of cameraman and editor Ross Magee, from Downpatrick, Paul had planned 

the video since March, enlisting help and vows of secrecy of those involved along the way.

He tipped off his sister and Lauren’s sister and got them to take her out for a night — the first she had got out after having baby Felix. Then he booked seats for them to see Mamma Mia 2, as well as a seat across the isle for Ross to secretly film her reaction.

“As far as Lauren knew, I was staying at home to mind the baby but after leaving the girls off to get a bite to eat first, I went home, got changed, got my mother and father to mind the child and then I headed to the cinema to set it all up,” Paul said afterwards.

Paul’s organisational ability went as far as sneaking one of Lauren’s rings out of their home in order to make sure that he had the correct ring size when he presented her with a diamond ring.

“The reaction has been great but some people have been shocked that I actually did it as I’m not known for being very romantic,” he added.

“Downpatrick Ominplex were absolutely brilliant and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Michael McLoughlin and Ross Magee.”

Readers can view the YouTube proposal video from Paul at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AA3mFZxy-Y&t=41s.