Photographer tries to trace Broadstairs beach proposal couple

The message in the sand reads: "Rosalyn will you marry me?"

A photographer is trying to trace a couple he captured in a seaside wedding proposal nearly 35 years ago.

Leo Morelli was visiting Broadstairs in Kent when he took the photo while trying out a new camera and lens.

A message in the sand in Viking Bay reads: "Rosalyn will you marry me?"

Mr Morelli, who thinks he captured the image in March or April 1985, said: "I kept the photo because it was a lovely image and a great moment in time."

The appeal comes only a few days after a similar - and successful - bid by another photographer to trace a different happy couple.

Mr Morelli said he was walking along the promenade with his new wife when he saw the couple on the beach.

"We stood there and I was thinking 'don't go away', while I got my new camera out of my bag.

"My wife and I were in our 20s and all loved up and it struck me as a lovely thing," he told the BBC.

'Young and in love'

He said if the couple had not been so far away he would have asked them if they wanted a copy of the photograph.

"The photo is evocative of when I was that young and in love."

A social media appeal has attracted interest but generated no leads so far.

Mr Morelli said he had kept the photo in a box and periodically looked at it, wondering who the couple were and what had happened to them.

"I'd love to find them and I'd be thrilled if they were still together.

"It would really please me if there was a happy ending."

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