A UK man hoping to surprise his girlfriend with a romantic underwater proposal in the Maldives got so nervous he forgot to write his "will you marry me?" message on his dive slate.

The elaborate video, filmed in January this year on a dive in South Atto, shows Simon surprise his girlfriend Marnie in an epic proposal while they were doing a scuba dive.

Writes filmer and friend Richard Stevens: "The plan was to do it during the last dive of the day, but closer to the time of the dive, the more nervous Simon got and he forgot to write the proposal message on the dive slate before the dive!

"Just before we entered the water he slipped me the blank slate and asked me to write the message - I didn't see Simon the whole dive - right until we were close to the end in fact. I slipped him the slate and gave him a nod of encouragement.

"We lured Marnie away with a sighting of a bogus turtle while Simon got into position, and the rest is history!"

Ironically, moments after the proposal a real turtle appears in the video and photobombs the proposal

"We all had quite a laugh back on the boat! The day couldn't have been better as we'd seen plenty of manta rays in the water earlier that day, so everyone was in a great mood!"

Our good friend Simon Plank planned to propose to this partner Marnie Starr while we were on a dive trip in the Maldives with Blue O Two aboard the Blue Voyager dive safari boat.
It's something that he'd been planning for a while and shared his plans with us a few months before we travelled, as he wanted us to capture the moment as a keepsake.
The day couldn't have been better as we'd seen plenty of Manta Rays in the water earlier that day, so everyone was in a great mood!
The plan was to do it during the last dive of the day, but closer to the time of the dive, the more nervous Simon got and he forgot to write the proposal message on the dive slate before the dive!!
Just before we entered the water he slipped me the blank slate and asked me to write the message - I didn't see Simon the whole dive - right until we were close to the end in fact. I slipped him the slate and gave him a nod of encouragement.
We lured Marnie away with a sighting of a bogus turtle while Simon got into position, and the rest is history!
Ironically, moments after the proposal a real turtle appears in the background along with a completely oblivious diver from our group who is overzealously pointing out the turtle - we all had quite a laugh back on the boat! See if you can point him out trying to get our attention!

Very honoured to have witnessed the occasion and been a part of Simon's plans - looking forward to the wedding now!!