It was love at first sight as they took their first photographs together during a sunset on the Gold Coast.

So it seems only fitting that, seven years later, Dale Sharpe would propose to girlfriend Karlie Russell in front of a stunning display of the Northern Lights.

It was the perfect proposal for this landscape photography couple, who naturally first bonded over their love for taking pictures.

Dale, 34, has known for five years that he wanted to get down on one knee and pop the question in front of the Aurora Borealis.

‘I hadn’t heard or seen anyone do it before, and I wanted to do something different from everybody else,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

There was the symbolic significance as well, as Dale and Karlie, 29, had visited the Northern Lights together up to 30 times total.

‘We both love chasing the Northern Lights and photographing them together,’ he said. ‘So it seemed pretty fitting.’

Dale had been planning to pop the question during a trip to the Arctic Circle nine months ago, only for his plan to be accidentally foiled.

Before a trip to Iceland, Dale hid the ring inside a moisturizer bottle that he told Karlie was expensive and belonged to his mother.

But on a flight from the Faroe Islands to Iceland, the couple found out their luggages were overweight.

Karlie decided the moisturiser bottle had to go and chucked it – and the $4,000 ring hidden inside – into a trash can.

‘I didn’t know until a week weeks after, when we were in Iceland and I was looking everywhere for the ring,’ Dale said.

‘I asked her where the moisturiser was and she told me she threw it out in the airport.’

Dale worked hard to save up money for a new ring as a couple planned a two-month work trip through Iceland, Norway and Finland for work.

He had hoped to finally pop the question seven years to the day they first began to date, but on Monday the Northern Lights looked too beautiful to resist.

‘It was the most amazing display of colour in the Aurora that we’ve ever seen,’ he said.

‘I wanted to take full opportunity and make it happen at its absolute best. The moment was right, it felt good, so why not.’

As the sky behind them swirled in breathtaking greens and blues, Dale insisted that the couple take a selfie.

It was a request easier said than done, as Karlie pushed for no people to be in the shot.

‘I was actually saying to Dale, “Why are you taking this selfie? It’s so good we need to go somewhere else,’ Karlie told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I was not expecting it at all at that point in time.’

 But Dale persisted, setting up a head torch behind the couple to light them up against the lights and putting the camera on a timer.

When the Aurora started glowing, he got down on one knee and pulled out the ring he had safely tucked away this time in the couple’s medical pack.

Karlie said she was completely shocked by the proposal.

‘I kept talking over him, saying what are you doing, what are you doing,’ she recalled with a laugh.

‘He was trying to get the words out but, because I was in complete shock, I tried to talk over him.’

Karlie found the words to say yes, and now the couple are enjoying a few more weeks in the Arctic Circle before their return home.

Meanwhile their gorgeous engagement photo is already taking off all over the globe, racking up thousands of likes on Facebook and bringing the couple even more work.

But when it came to their proposal picture, Dale said it was never about beefing up their portfolio.

‘It’s been huge, this response, but we never expected it,’ he said. ‘We just shot this photo for ourselves.’

The couple are now hoping to continue traveling and, despite their incredible engagement backdrop, plan on having a simple wedding.

But they will always have that moment in front of the Northern Lights.

‘The most ironic thing is that we’re both landscape photographers, but have zero photos hanging up on our walls of our images,’ Dale said.

‘But this is one image that we want to keep for ourselves, and hang up on the wall.’

 

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