A COUPLE who first met on a dating website are celebrating after getting engaged.

Tom Murphy, 30, and Heather Boyles, 29, bonded over their love of Harry Potter, France and The Lake District on the Plenty of Fish website.

Now five years later they are busy researching venues, dresses and honeymoon destinations ahead of the big day.

Tom, a journalist, proposed on the lawn of the Belsfield Hotel overlooking Windermere after afternoon tea with Heather’s family.

“I was shocked,” said Heather, who works in Human Resources.

“I couldn’t believe it was actually happening especially as a few weeks before I had started to drop hints and Tom asked me very nicely ‘to stop’, saying he wasn’t ready yet.

“Little did I know at that point the ring had already been bought and was buried in Tom’s shorts drawer in our wardrobe.

“I did think it was strange that he panicked on the morning of the proposal. I was putting clothes away and had moved the ring without knowing, making it visible.”

Tom asked Heather’s father on the morning he proposed for permission so he managed to capture the touching moment on camera.

It was Tom who made the first move on the website before the couple struck it off.

Heather said: “I liked the fact he was taller than me, was easy to talk to and was good-looking.

“I soon realised we had lots in common but our main talking point early on was Harry Potter.”

Their first date was watching The Jungle Book at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal.

Other dates followed at the Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, Country Fest and a long walk on Scout’s Scar, where Tom asked Heather to be ‘official’.

Their first trip away together was to watch Harry Potter and The Cursed Child play in London where Tom first said: ‘I love you’ as they waited at Euston station for separate trains back North.

Over the years they have visited Nice, Strasbourg and had booked a trip to Florida before the pandemic.

Tom, who grew up in Barrow, and Heather, who grew up in Dent, now live together in Kendal after buying their first house and moving in January 2020.

They share a love of animals and have a pet hamster called Luna.

The couple are planning to tie the knot in 2023 in the Lake District.