Haribo jelly ring for Southern Railway couple as they get engaged ahead of Brighton Pride

The rail operator’s employees will be joining Pride’s digital festival, ‘We are Fabuloso,’ featuring performances, archive footage, comedy and cabaret, streaming live from Friday July 31 to Sunday August 2,

And Station Operations Manager Stephanie Sauvarin, will have lots to celebrate during this year’s Pride having recently asked her partner and joint LGBT+ Network co-chair Nicola Baillie, to marry her.

The couple met through work early last year and hit it off straight away. After a couple of months dating, Nicola asked Stephanie to be her official girlfriend accompanied by a romantic delivery of a dozen red roses.

“I knew I had to do one better than that this year as it approached our one-year anniversary,” says Stephanie.

“We had already decided to get engaged and were in the process of having our rings designed but like everywhere, the jewellers had to shut during lockdown.

“I was heading home from work on the day of our anniversary and I just knew that I wanted to propose that evening – engagement ring or not. I stopped at our local corner shop and picked up a bag of Haribo so that I could use the jelly ring to propose! This year’s been horrible and really unexpected, but it’s made me realise that I wouldn’t want to spend it with anyone else.”

Nicola Baillie, who is a Health and Safety Manager for Southern and Gatwick Express, accepted the surprise ring - shortly before eating it herself - but still owes her new fiancé a holiday.

“I’d organised a trip and knew exactly where I was going to propose to Steph, so the fact she decided to just go for it and get down on one knee really surprised me – it was a lovely gesture. She hasn’t dropped the holiday thing yet though, so I think we will still be going on one when we finally get our hands on the actual engagement rings!”

The railway operator is determined to provide support to its LGBT+ colleagues and has signed up professional drag queen Annabelle Lectar to host a virtual event on Friday night to kick off proceedings.

Organised by LGBT+ Network co-chairs Stephanie Sauvarin and Nicola Baillie, the team can look forward to a night of ‘Show Us Your Pride’ activities after a week of online events, including an alternative Pride photo competition, quiz night and cabaret from drag queen Natasha Von Spirit, before joining the official ‘We are Fabuloso’ digital festival over the weekend.