"I proposed to my girlfriend in front of a packed Sheffield arena and she had no idea it was going to happen"
The Canon Medical Arena exploded with applause as Dianelis Feria-Menes turned to see her partner on one-knee, ring in hand - but the pair couldn’t hear the crowd.
It was a truly special moment and one 25-year-old Dianelis, a nurse at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, was not expecting. Her now-fiance, Carlo Vidal Miranda, had secretly been planning the moment with the Sheffield Sharks for the last month.
“It was a very surreal experience,” Carlo told The Star. “You know in movies when they are about to win something and it all goes mute? It was like that. I couldn’t hear the arena.”
The crowd, who had turned up to watch the Sharks take on the Leicester Riders in a Superleague Basketball fixture, were in raptures - but Carlo and Dianelis were focussed on each other.
Carlo said: “It was a very special moment. I didn’t even know she said yes. I was going on emotions.
“She had no clue whatsoever. I made she had no indication. I would just play dumb. I don’t think she even knew I had got the ring yet.”
27-year-old Carlo, who works in property, had been planning this moment with the B. Braun Sheffield Sharks for about a month and on Sunday, November 17, they put the plan into action.
At half-time, Sharks gameday emcee Rich Hawke, started asking the crowd for couples to volunteer for a special ‘Grab-a-Grand’ game.
Shortly before the end of of the third quarter, Hawke scanned the arena north stand and settled on Carlo and Dianelis to take part.
“I was saying we could go on holiday,” Carlo explained. “She didn’t want to but in the end she said ‘okay, lets do it’.
“Rich did an amazing job. He was pretending he didn’t know me already. He kept acting like he was remembering my name.”
‘Grab-a-Grand’ required both Carlo and Dianelis to shoot from centre-court in hopes of winning £1,000.
Carlo went first, coming close to winning the faux-prize, before stepping back and letting Dianelis have a go.
When she did, with her back to her boyfriend of two-years, he dipped his hand into his jacket pocket, pulled out the ring box and got down on one-knee. Dianelis turned back to see Carlo looking up at her, asking her to marry him.
“I am very, very grateful to the Sharks,” he told us. “I would like to thank all the people in attendance too because you all helped us make that moment feel special.”
Now, the couple must start wedding planning - but, Carlo said, not before buying a house together - as they look forward to a lifetime of happy marriage.