LOVE was certainly in the air when a man proposed to his girlfriend during a ride on the i360.

Ben Edwards set up a message on the beach which he hoped his partner Abi Muggeridge would spot during their ascent to the top of the 162m observation tower in Brighton.

The 35-year-old roped in both his and Abi’s parents to lay out the letters, “ABI WILL YOU MARRY ME,” on the beach as the couple boarded the attraction on Sunday.

Ben told The Argus: “Our mums cut all the letters out of fabric and arranged for some flowers to be behind the bar on the pod. They hid behind the Al Fresco restaurant and laid the letters out five minutes before the flight.

“I just kept Abi around the other side of the pod until it lifted off. Our families were worried people on the beach wouldn’t move but having lived in Brighton I thought they would get on-board with it and they really did.

“Our families had a crowd cheering on the beach.”

The couple, who lived in Brighton for two years but are currently in Campbell Crescent, East Grinstead, came to the coast under the ruse of a day out.

Ben said: “I was nervous about making a scene, really. I watched the tower go up when we lived in Brighton but hadn’t realised it could fit 200 people on it. Then I got nervous.”

Once the pod lifted off, a passenger saw the message and started talking about it and asking “where Abi was”.

Ben said: “Then Abi went over to see what was happening. It took her a little while to take it all in but then she recognised her family on the beach with the message and realised.

“I did the whole down-on-one-knee thing. The ring didn’t fit though. She is due to give birth in the first week of October and she’s got swollen fingers and feet. Can’t win them all, I guess.

“Originally I had planned the same kind of thing but from a helicopter, but Abi is pregnant so this seemed the better option.”

Ben said he had already accidentally told her his “best overblown proposal ideas” during a “drunken conversation” so he had to come up with something different.

The couple celebrated afterwards by swimming in the sea in their underwear.

They hope to move back to Brighton soon.

The i360 tweeted afterwards: “Our congratulations to the happy couple.”