Laura Coombs: Building up the courage to propose

They say to expect the unexpected when it comes to love.

As you read this, Laura Coombs, who works in Jaguar Land Rover’s Global Franchise Standards team, will be sunning herself with wife Amy on their honeymoon. The pair were married on, coincidentally, the same weekend as Lesbian Visibility Day.

If you had told Laura six years ago that she would be a happily married woman in 2019, she would have laughed it off.

Smiling, she admits the idea of marriage seemed a distant possibility before she met bubbly Amy. Little did she know at the time that she had met her life partner.

“At one point I was a bit out of sorts,” she says. “Then when I met Amy everything started to fall into place.”

Laura, the Chair of the PRIDE network at Jaguar Land Rover, planned to take things slowly. But before she knew it they had bought their own family home – and with all the pieces in place – the next step was marriage.

Amy jokingly suggested that Laura propose to her, because asking her out had been stressful enough. 

“Amy’s been talking about getting married since we met, so I knew there was no way she was going to say no,” said Laura. “The main questions buzzing around my head were when and where.”

Another wedding was the perfect opportunity to pop the question, as Laura explains:

“Amy and I were going to a friend’s wedding in New Zealand, and we decided to make a holiday of it by visiting Australia. While we were in Queensland the perfect opportunity to propose arose.”

She managed to disguise her intentions by convincing the unsuspecting Amy that the snorkelling trip around the Great Barrier Reef was a belated birthday present.

With the plan set, and Amy’s answer seemingly in the bag, Laura still couldn’t help being nervous. 

“Even now I have no idea why I was so nervous. I was shaking like a leaf, and even had the ring box upside down when I popped the question.”

Yet Amy had her own proposal planned, as Laura found out the next day.  

“It just took me completely by surprise,” she says smiling. “But it all fell into place, because my mum knew about Amy’s plans so when I told her about mine, she urged me to propose sooner in the holiday. We are both so happy, and have our own engagement rings.” 

As soon as they were home, thoughts turned to the wedding. Laura says: “We’re having a personal and intimate ceremony. We have written our own vows and organised a day everyone can enjoy while spending some quality time with us.” 

But what’s next for the happily married couple? Laura says they will look into starting a family. With all the pieces falling nicely into place, there seems like no better time for this married couple to start thinking about expanding their family.

We wish Laura and Amy all the happiness in the world. Congratulations!

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