‘Will you marry me?’: Man hides engagement ring in his wetsuit before proposing in a shark tank. Then his girlfriend is ‘completely in shock’

James Walsh had been planning a proposal for his girlfriend, Paige Cook. He wanted to do it somewhere a little different. Eventually, he settled on something far less ordinary: a tank full of sharks.

According to People, Walsh proposed to Cook inside the shark tank at Skegness Aquarium in Lincolnshire, England, on September 10. The couple wore wetsuits and full scuba gear for a swimming-with-sharks experience. Walsh had bought that experience for Cook as a Christmas gift. There was also a personal reason behind the choice. Sharks are Cook’s favorite animal.

“Sharks are her favorite animal. I knew that’s where I wanted to do it,” Walsh told BBC Radio Lincolnshire. “I thought, surrounded by her favorite animal, it would be a unique experience.”

The ring was probably the riskiest part

Walsh contacted the aquarium ahead of time to plan the proposal. Staff prepared a special sign for him. They also quietly separated the couple from the rest of their swim group.

He hid the engagement ring on a chain wrapped around his wrist beneath his wetsuit. Walsh later joked that he worried a shark might get to the ring first. Rings have caused trouble at underwater proposals before, so the extra precaution probably wasn’t a bad idea.

A video of the moment shows Walsh and Cook kneeling together on the sandy floor of the tank. Walsh held up a sign that read, “Will You Marry Me?” Cook covered her scuba mask with her hand, seemingly caught off guard. She answered with an ‘OK’ hand signal. The two then embraced.

Cook said she was ‘completely in shock’ once she realized what was happening. “My first thought was, ‘Am I going to run out of air from hyperventilating?’ ” she told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

Skegness Aquarium also shared the engagement on Facebook. “Congratulations to Paige & James who got engaged in our tank today! 👏💍🦈.”

Couples keep finding unusual ways to make proposals stand out. Some have even taken the idea vertical, staging proposals hundreds of feet above city streets instead of underwater.

Aquarium employee Jamie Elvidge spoke about the experience afterward. “It’s an adrenaline-fueled experience anyway, and then when you add the extra excitement of this, you feel like you’re there and part of it,” Elvidge said. “It is a really unique way of popping the big question,” he added.

Walsh certainly got the unusual proposal he was looking for. And, crucially, both Cook and the ring made it out of the shark tank.