By Victoria Stone-Meadows
It was the marriage proposal that had many in Casey buzzing.
In June this year, Adam Kondarios used handmade signs posted along Fisheries Road in Cranbourne South to ask his partner Loren Fuccio for her hand in marriage.
However, the Narre Warren couple behind the roadside proposal took a few days to track down as they had jetted off on a European adventure just days after Mr Kondarios popped the question.
Now that the couple are back in the country and back to their usual lives, they have agreed to tell the story of their love and of the very public proposal.
Mr Kondarios said he first toyed with the idea of proposing to Ms Fuccio while on holidays, but quickly decided against it.
“I thought to myself, ‘do I put it in our luggage bag and spring it on her by asking her to grab something from my bag’ but I thought that was a bit slack,” he said.
“I thought about doing it overseas, but you have to declare valuable things, and her finding out about it deterred me from doing it.”
“I also didn’t want the possibility of a proposal hanging over our heads; I wanted us to have a good time while over there.”
With an overseas proposal out of the question, Mr Kondarios had to do a bit of sneaking around to get his signs organised for Ms Fuccio’s drive home from work in Sommerville.
“On the Monday, I lied and I said I was going to see a mate, and she was going to dads for dinner, so I made the signs that night,” he said.
“On Tuesday, I spoke to her mum and dad and I said I was working late and she still had no idea.”
“I’m not a liar by any means, so to lie to her was something different.”
While Mr Kondarios said he really didn’t like sneaking around and lying to his partner, it was all worth it for the look on her face when she saw the signs.
Loren Fuccio, who is a teacher in Sommerville, didn’t suspect a thing when she turned onto Fisheries Road home after work on Wednesday 28 June.
“When I first saw the sign with my name on it, spelled my way, I was intrigued,” she said.
“When I got to the sign that said “Will”, and I realised this is real and this is happening.”
“My heart was racing even though I was doing about 40km/h, and I was looking around for him, but couldn’t see him at the end.”
When she came to the end of the signs and spotted Mr Kondarios’ car, she pulled over still in a state of disbelief.
“I kept saying, ‘What the f***?’ over and over again, and it took him actually prompting me for an answer before I said, ‘yes’,” she said.
“We were laughing, giggling and hugging, then it was noisy with all the cars, so we sat in his car and he had a bottle of champagne and glasses, so we could let it sink in.”
The couple then left for Europe on 1 July, but the signs remained in place, leaving the Casey community guessing who Loren was and if she said yes.
“It has caused a bit of a stir, but I didn’t think it was anything when I was banging in the signs,” Mr Kondarios said.
“We were lying in bed when my sister tagged me and it was so weird, we didn’t expect people to be so interested,” Ms Fuccio said.
“What really blows my mind is that there are other Lorens spelled my way.”
The couple were thrilled people had taken such an interest in their proposal, but are now looking forward to planning their wedding and getting back to their lives.
“We are just excited to start this new chapter of our lives.”
