Beauty and the street artist: 50 foot Disney graffiti used in proposal to PhD student

A romantic street artist proposed to his PhD student girlfriend with a 50ft piece of graffiti saying ‘Stacey Smith Will You Marry Me’ in the style of Beauty and the Beast.

Henry Barnes, 28, took two days and 30 cans of paint to pop the question to girlfriend of three years Stacey, 26.

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Meningitis Research Foundation worker Henry then took fiancee Stacey for a coffee and walked past the mural featuring characters from her favourite Disney film Beauty and the Beast.

Stacey, a PhD student at Bristol University, burst into tears after seeing the artwork before saying “yes”.

“Everyone has a favourite Disney film and Beauty and the Beast was mine growing up”

She said: “Henry didn’t tell me what he was doing. I knew he was painting but I didn’t know what.

“It took him two days to finish the thing but he managed to keep it a secret from me.

“He rang me and asked if I wanted to meet up for a drink in Stokes Croft after work and I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“Henry didn’t even say anything to me – I walked around the corner and just saw the piece, it was so unexpected I just burst into tears.

“It did all feel a bit unreal and then Henry got down on one knee. It was incredibly romantic and it also felt very strange because there were a lot of people around who started clapping and cheering.

“The whole thing happened so quickly, it was a bit of a whirlwind and we have no plans in place yet but we will probably get married next spring.

“I really didn’t see all this coming but it will certainly be one of those things I always remember.

“Everyone has a favourite Disney film and Beauty and the Beast was mine growing up. Henry knew it was my favourite and that’s why he used Belle and the Beast.”

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The couple first met three years ago when they were working together in a call centre.

They recently took part in a 140km hike across the Peak District to raise funds for the Meningitis Research Foundation.

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Henry, who lives with Stacey in Montpelier, Bristol, joked that after putting up with each other for the duration of the challenge they could get through anything.

Henry, who creates graffiti under the street name Fiver, said: “It was a tough slog but we managed to get through the whole thing without falling out with each other.

“I decided that if we could do that without a major row we must have something pretty special going.

“I knew I was going to propose but I didn’t want to do anything that was too cliche so I came up with this idea about three weeks ago.

“I have never done anything as big as this before. I spent the first day painting the wall over and the second day I spent all day painting.

“It took me eight hours but I managed to catch Stacey completely by surprise. When she saw what I had done she just burst into tears, she was so thrilled.”