Love was in the air – or rather, on the page – for one couple after a man popped the question through an advert in his local weekly.

Groom-to-be Peter Wickens took out the page six slot in Hitchin’s Comet series knowing his girlfriend Rachel Gort was a regular reader.

The eye-catching ad took out almost a quarter of a page of the Archant-owned title – but just to be sure Rachel spotted it, Peter told her his daughter was appearing in a story and asked her to look for it.

The 36-year-old said he wanted to do something special.

“At first, I couldn’t think how to do it. We’re going to New York for Valentine’s Day, but I thought that was a bit obvious,” he said.

“I wanted to do something a bit before that, something different.”

Rachel Gort and Peter Wickens got engaged after he bought an advert in his local paper, The Comet

The simple message, printed in a large font, told how he loved her “more every day”.

Rachel said she had looked through the paper for the non-existent article on Peter’s daughter – and was concentrating so hard on her task that she missed the proposal entirely the first time.

“He rang me and asked had I spotted it on page six. I looked again, then next thing I knew, he was round at my work with the ring,” said Rachel, who is 37.

Rachel’s 16-year-old daughter Amber, however, did spy the advert early.

“We weren’t going to tell her until she got home,” said Rachel.

“But a girl she knew tweeted a picture of the advert saying how lovely it was, and she looked at it and thought ‘oh my God, it’s my mum’.”

The happy couple hope to tie the knot next summer.