Melanie Yates was taking a leaf out of her mother's book when she took advantage of the leap year and proposed to her man yesterday - but it wasn't on bended knee.
The 31-year-old, an arts teacher and event coordinator at Solihull College, packed her partner Luke Smith off to work with a gift box and told him not to open it until he was alone.
The box contained a solid silver heart and on the back she had a message engraved that simply said: Marry Me.
Melanie, who shares her home in Douglas Road, Acocks Green, with her five-year-old son Jake Reeve-Yates, spent the next six hours pacing the floor waiting for Luke, a 30-year-old engineer for Alstom Transport, to call.
I was physically shaking. I thought he must think its a silly idea, said Melanie, whose 56-year-old mother Jenny Yates, of Alderley Green Road, Olton, proposed to her father Alan, also 56, 34 years ago.
When he called and said: You silly thing, of course I will, I was so relieved I was over the moon.
As mum had proposed to dad I didnt think anything of following in her footsteps and taking over the traditional mans role, and Jake had given me the go ahead too, so I knew it was the right move.
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The couple met through DatingDirect.com and hit it off straight away on a date to a fair in Wolverhampton in June.
Less than a year on, they already describe themselves as the best of buddies.
Luke, of Devon Road, Wolverhampton, said: Wed talked about marriage but I kept joking to Melanie as it was a leap year she should take the chance to snare me or shed have to wait another four years.
