A FAIRY tale proposal has turned into a nightmare for a bride-to-be, after she lost her £1,000 engagement ring less than two months before her big day – and she is hoping a sharp-eyed Gazette reader might be able to find it.

Tash Drage, of Chippenham, was delighted when her boyfriend, Simon Messenger, proposed on a magical weekend away in a Welsh castle on Valentine’s Day 2015, and gave her a diamond-encrusted ring.

But with the big day looming disaster struck, when the 27-year-old found she had lost the ring last Wednesday. It slipped off her finger because she has lost 13 stone in weight in the last two years, following an operation to repair a hiatal hernia.

Miss Drage, who works at CMD Recruitment in Devizes and is a former pupil at Sheldon School in Chippenham, said: “I left work last Wednesday and quite simply it slipped off somewhere. Words can’t describe how bad I feel. I’m really gutted and we actually had plans to get it re-sized and re-plated.

“I’m normally a bit of a tomboy but Simon knows I like sparkly things and he basically chose the sparkliest ring he could find.

“If someone found it I would probably break down in tears and hug them, it’s just so special to me, Simon put a lot of thought into it.”

The couple, who live in Woodroffe Square, Calne, have searched Miss Drage’s work in Market Place, Devizes, the route to the car park on Station Hill where she had parked as well as Sainsbury’s in The Pippin, Calne, where she drew out cash before returning home, as well as their house and car.

With no luck Mr Messenger has now taken out a £1,000 loan to buy his fiancée a replacement ring.

The big day is on June 1 at the Museum of Naval Firepower in Gosport. Miss Drage is still hopeful that a miracle can happen and her original ring can be found.

“Simon secretly took a loan out for another ring, he was unhappy because he could see I was unhappy and I was just resigned to the fact I wasn’t going to see it again,” said Miss Drage.

“It doesn’t feel the same, I know I sound really ungrateful but it’s because of everything the other ring represented.

“I had put a big post on Facebook which had quite a few shares and we went around the jewellers in Devizes and Calne to make people aware.

“There’s no markings but it was the last one of that kind in the country to be sold and it’s quite distinctive.”

Anyone who finds the ring can return it via Wiltshire Police.