GAMING LIFE

How Hay Day helped us get hitched

The story of a proposal through a popular farming game.

Hay Day

Farm with Friends and Family

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Christina Shaw had just been through a break-up, and wasn’t really looking for a relationship.

She had just started a new job alongside new counterpart Christine, and together the duo travelled to and from training courses together in Boston, USA, striking up a friendship along the way.

And Christine was convinced she had the ideal suitor for her newly-single friend Christina.

“She said ‘you should meet my brother in law’ – and I was like ‘oh no, come on, I just broke up,’” Shaw tells us. “But she was not taking no for an answer!”

After a little more badgering from Christine, Shaw and her potential new love interest Shawn friended each other on Facebook and got talking. And Christine was right – they did get on. Really well.

Once he became part of my life he started playing Hay Day with me...we still play the game today.

Within six months they had moved in together, and like all couples, their routines started to intertwine.

“Once he became part of my life he started playing Hay Day with me,” continues Shaw. “And we still play the game today.”

The difference is, today they are married. And this charming, cartoony farming game is central to the story of their engagement.

“I had my legs across his lap on the couch, I open up Hay Day and I go” ‘oh the server went down, the mailman’s coming.‘”

To explain: if the game is updated or there’s some other technical issue, you get a little delivery of items from the mailman to thank you for your patience.

But this was not an ordinary letter. “So the mailman comes and the proposal comes in the game,” continues Shaw. “I froze when I saw what it was. And I couldn’t remember how to take a screenshot, I was trying to find my phone to take a picture of the iPad… and I didn’t even answer him!”

Shawn had spent weeks emailing Hay Day creator Supercell and together they had figured out a way of delivering the proposal within the game itself. It was such a surprise that Christina didn’t know what to say – for a slightly uncomfortable amount of time.

“I think it felt like ten minutes for him… it was probably ten seconds,” says Shaw. “And he was like, ‘are you going to answer me?’ And I was like, duh, yes of course!”

Just over a year later, on June 21st 2015, they were married. Of course, they still play Hay Day together every day – and the happy couple relish telling their unusual proposal story.

“Shawn wanted to figure out a creative way to propose to me because he wanted it to be special,” adds Shaw. “I love telling people how he did it! It shows that he really gets me.”