Couple ‘shocked’ after proposal photos go viral in hunt on X

A couple from Salisbury have described their “shock” after photos of their proposal went viral on X, formerly Twitter, as a social media hunt ensued in order to find them.

X user Jen took a series of photos of Mac Sullivan, 24, proposing to his now fiancee Alicia Rockall, also 24, on Saturday afternoon at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.

In a bid to send the photos to the duo, she shared one of the images via an X post that same day asking for help to locate them, with the post having garnered over 4.2 million views since and the mystery pair being found within 24 hours.

“It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind,” Jen, who lives in Gloucester, but did not want to share any further details, told the PA news agency.

Speaking about capturing the now viral moment, she said : “(My husband and I) sat by the big Christmas tree (in Bourton-on-the-Water) and sat there people watching for a while and I looked to the left, where the little bridge is, where the actual photo was taken.

“There were lots of people walking across it and then I saw a couple walk onto the bridge and for some reason, I was quite captured by them and I could see that the man was sort of positioning himself and I said to my husband, ‘I think he’s going to propose’, so I thought I’d take some photos.”

X helped Jen to locate the couple she photographed (Jen/@JennJosie)

She said she aimed to share the photos with the couple, but lost sight of them, so turned to X.

By Saturday evening, one of the couple’s friends, Callum Haley, who Ms Rockall met at school in Sixth Form, reached out to Jen and by Sunday, Ms Rockall contacted Jen.

“She was really lovely,” Jen said about Ms Rockall.

A further post from Jen on X on December 17 announcing the couple have been “found” garnered close to 100k views.

Ms Rockall, an account manager at a marketing agency, said she and her fiance were “shocked” to discover and see the post go viral.

She added they were both “just enjoying the moment” and had no idea that it was going viral online.

“I think we probably had about 25 of our friends message us who had seen (the post),” she told PA.

Alicia Rockall said her fiancé Mac Sullivan has ‘created joy’ for people on social media with his proposal (Alicia Rockall/PA)

“I got a message from Callum and it said, ‘this is really random and a bit awkward if it’s not you, but is this you and Mac on Twitter?’,” followed by a link to Jen’s post on X.

“Immediately, I just went ‘oh my God’.

“I had a look, indeed it was us, and at that point it had about 5,000 likes.

“Both of us were just shocked.”

She said Jen was “absolutely lovely”.

“I’ll probably send her a photo when the wedding does roll around,” she added.

Alicia Rockall said she and her fiancé Mac Sullivan were ‘shocked’ at the viral post (Alicia Rockall/PA)

Ms Rockall added that not only had her fiance created “this moment of happiness for the two of us” but he had “created joy for a lot of other people” on social media, which she said was “really beautiful in itself”.

“People in the comments were reminiscing about their own engagements and their grandparents’ engagements, and that’s really lovely,” Ms Rockall said.

“Social media can be a dark place but I’m glad this story is wholesome and warms some people’s hearts which is brilliant to be a part of.”

The couple were on a trip to the area at the time, with Ms Rockall saying it was a place the pair had “discovered early on in (their) relationship”, adding that they “try to go back every year”.

“I was completely shocked, in the best way,” she said.

“I never thought he would do it in public and so to have a little bit of a crowd around us was really lovely.”