Hello! I’m Leona and Oh! Leona is my little piece of the internet. Aftab has started a wonderful series about succesful relationships and he asked me to write a piece about my relationship. Everyone’s relationships are different, each story is unique and I absolutely love sharing the story of mine and my fiancé Liam’s. It’s a bit of a funny beginning… We met on Myspace. I was your typical sixteen year old emo kid. I spent long hours on Myspace, choosing the perfect profile song, taking the perfect profile pictures and you’d better believe I spent many, many hours perfecting my profile layout. Apparently all of that hard work paid off because one day Liam added me as a friend. He found my profile through one of our mutual friends and was won over by my profile song, which was Paramore – All We Know Is Falling. A month later I was invited to a surprise birthday party for Liam and that evening we became a couple!
Liam was away at college in Guildford for the first two years so we spent a good part of those years in a ‘sort-of ‘ long distance relationship. I would visit him once a month and he would be home most weekends so we were really lucky that we could see each other as often as we did. We moved into our first flat together when he finished college. We were both 18 and it was the most exciting thing I’d ever done in my life! Living in a whole new city with my boy – crazy! In 2009 we moved into a new flat and at the end of the year we got engaged!
That’s what I’m here to tell you about! Proposals are always a really exciting thing and ours was just ridiculous (if you ask me! haha). Why was it ridiculous? because Liam proposed to me on Wembley Arena stage, with our favourite band Paramore!
Skipping back a little earlier that year, we’d bought tickets to see Paramore in Cardiff in December and we were pretty excited for it. As Christmas got closer and closer Liam told me to stay away from his phone because something about my Christmas present might come up. I just assumed he was ordering something from America and would receive an email or a notification to let him know it had been dispatched. The Cardiff gig came and went and I spent a couple of days after the gig with utter post-gig sadness. The show was awesome and I wanted to go back! We’d met Josh Farro (The guitarist and one of Liam’s idols) and it was just such an awesome show. I was talking to Liam about how I wish we could see them again and he told me I could open one of my Christmas presents to make me feel better. I told him that I didn’t want to because Christmas was two weeks away and I didn’t want to be one present down on Christmas day! He persuaded me to open it and it was two tickets to Paramore’s London show and hotel confirmation for the Hilton hotel next door to the arena! I got so freaking excited and then panicked at the thought of not getting time off of work with that short notice but it turns out Liam had thought of everything and had asked someone to swap days off with me. What a babe! I actually texted my friend Sophie and told her about my gift and she replied with “HE’S GOING TO PROPOSE!!” to which I replied “Don’t be such a twat.”…
The night of the gig arrived and we found a really good spot by the sound desk so we plonked our things down and waited for the fun to begin. Liam spotted Josh Farro in the sound desk again and said he was going to go over and talk to him. I decided to stay in our spot because I’d already met him earlier that week and I really hate losing a good spot at a gig! When he came back I asked Liam what he’d spoken to Josh about and he replied with “nothing much…” which I took to mean he’d made a fool of himself in front of his idol and he didn’t really want to talk about it, haha! We’ve all been there, right?
The time arrived and Paramore were on stage. Their set list so far was Brand New Eyes Tour Intro, Ignorance, I Caught Myself, That’s What You Get, Looking Up, crushcrushcrush, Turn It Off and then Hayley started to talk a little more… “So, we’ve come a long way from mean fiddler, And uh, where else? Underworld maybe? All those shows that we played when we first started out, Thankyou guys, I don’t even know how this happened!? So um, before the show we got a letter….” All I’m thinking at this point is “oh bless, a fan wrote them a letter!” Then Liam says ‘Do you want to know what I was talking to Josh about earlier!?”…I probably had the most confused face going on at this point. I was trying to listen to what Liam was saying but also trying to hear what Hayley was saying about this letter… she carried on with “Well actually Josh got a letter and well, would you like to call some people up onto the stage?” and then I hear… “Is Liam Wood in the house?… Liam Wood are you here?” and I just felt instantly sick and anxious. What the hell was going on? Why was Josh Farro saying my boyfriend’s name? Did they actually just call my boyfriend’s name? Liam Wood? Josh and Hayley are shouting Liam’s name? Is there another Liam wood in the crowd? Liam is a pretty common name and you hear the surname Wood all the time! Liam’s hand goes up. F*CK. Liam’s hand is up! Did he give them this letter? WHY DID HE GIVE THEM THIS LETTER? WHAT DOES THIS LETTER SAY?!
At this point Liam starts jumping and waving, so I start jumping and pointing at Liam. “Is that them back there? And Leona May?” SH*T THAT’S MY NAME!!! He’s pointing at us! I am now shaking like a mad person. I have no idea why they’re shouting my name. Paramore asking for me and liam! PARAMORE! Josh tells us to come up on stage so Liam looks at me and then grabs my hand and we start moving. We get half way up to the stage and I start to feel incredibly sick. I don’t know WHY they’re calling us up on stage! Are they going to get us to sing? Is Liam going to play guitar? If so, I don’t really want to be singing in front of 12,500 people!! I can’t get onstage and be like ‘No I don’t really feel like singing’ What if it’s just Liam who’s playing guitar and I’m doing nothing… I don’t want to just be stood there looking like a Lemon. F*ck.
I know what you’re thinking but the thought of a proposal hadn’t even crossed my mind at this moment in time. I spent the entire journey to the stage wondering what the hell was happening. I’m concentrating so hard on not being sick. I honestly thought I might have been sick on stage. I then started to feel incredibly shaky. I just held onto Liam’s hand and we ended up at the barriers to the stage. We got to the barriers and the guards asked us who we were, to which we replied “WE’RE THE PEOPLE THEY’RE ASKING FOR!” and they let us through. We walked along the side of the stage, up some stairs and then we were walking towards 12,500 people and Paramore. Paramore were just waiting there, looking towards us. Holy crap am I trying so hard not to throw up right now. Hayley walked towards us and asks “Liam, do you want to take the mic?” and I’m just thinking ‘What the hell are we doing on this stage? What is actually happening right now? Why have I not been sick yet?’ and Liam takes the mic. He says “I’m a little nervous now” and then he pulls a little box out of his pocket and that’s it. My mind has just gone. Liam Wood is proposing to me on stage at Wembley arena. 12,500 people are watching me and Paramore are here but I don’t see any of them, I just see Liam down on one knee with a cheeky little smile on his face and he says “Leona… will you marry me?”
The crowd went absolutely nuts. I’ve never heard anything so loud in all of my life. I ran over to Liam and wrapped my arms around him. I’m crying my damn eyes out at this point. I regain some composure and Liam puts the ring on my finger. I do a little ‘yay dance’ and WE’RE ENGAGED. I couldn’t even say the word “yes” because I’d just lost it. Hayley did it for me though, “I think that’s a yes!” she says and then tells us that they’re dedicating The Only Exception to us. We made our way to the back of the stage where we were greeted by Taylor York and Zac Farro who gave us hugs and congratulated us and then we watched Paramore for the rest of the show at the side of the stage. Their photographer came to take some super cute photos of us, he was such a lovely guy!
So that’s the best day of my entire life so far. It’s just crazy, right? I watch the video over and over and I just can’t believe it’s us! We’re so lucky that it happened to us and I still pinch myself that it did. I have so many emotions when watching that video. I watch us walk to the stage and I shout “You’re about to get engaged!”
You’re probably wondering whether we’re married yet. We got engaged in 2009 and no we’re not married yet. We’re in no rush, life is just lovely right now and we’re trying to save up for important life things like a wedding and a house. So right now we’re happy and content with the way things are and I think that’s what a succesful relationship is! Being happy in the here and now and getting excited about the plans you make together.
Leona ♥
