The question 'Will you marry me?' has been put by prospective bridegrooms to future brides at many unusual locations, but Paul Hines's idea must be one of the strangest. He proposed to his then girlfriend Lucy as part of a skydive.

The 24-year-old, who wanted to stage something different for his wedding proposal, and his 26-year-old girlfriend, both jumped from the same plane, but he made the leap first.

As he did so, he showed his prospective bride a banner saying 'I have a question to ask you'.

But before she had time to take this in, he was out of the window and on his way down to earth.

As soon as he landed, he put another banner on the ground saying 'Will you marry me', which he knew she would see on her way down.

When she landed, he got down on one knee, put an engagement ring on her finger, and they hugged in front of some happy faces.

The couple are now married and live in St Leonard's Road, Norwich.

Mr Hines said: 'We know friends who got engaged and it was a bit boring the way they did it. You only do it once.

'Lucy had always wanted to do a skydive, but I always said No, as I hated the thought of it; I'm scared of heights.

'Lucy had no idea that I was going to propose. I had only told her the night before that I had booked a skydive for our 'going out together' second anniversary.

'With some help from my friends Cooper and Jodie, I had a big banner made for the ground and a smaller one for the plane. She said she could see the banner a few thousand feet up. When she got down to earth, she couldn't talk. She nodded and then she kept saying yes.'

He said he had not thought of the possibility that she might say 'no'.

'I really thought that when she saw how much effort had gone into it, and all the trouble, she could not say no.'

His wife said the proposal was a complete surprise.

She said: 'I had always wanted to do a skydive, but Paul was scared to do it.

'While we both went up together in the plane, Paul jumped first. Before he did he showed me the banner about having a question to ask. I was left wondering what the question was.

'And then as I came down to the ground, I saw the banner on the ground. I just thought 'Wow, he's organised this well'. I was really pleased. It's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.'

The couple met when Mr Hines, who owns his own IT development company, worked for her father, who runs AWG windscreens in Lenwade. Mrs Hines works at a children's nursery in Taverham.

The couple made the skydive from Beccles airfield, and were married at St Edmunds church in Taverham.

• Did you propose at a better location than this? Email david.bale2@archant.co.uk