Pictures: Emily Chalk.
Having performed everywhere from cruise liners and All Blacks games to stages all over the world, not much fazes singer and More FM host Sophie Morris.
But when her partner of two years, Brad Finch, dropped to one knee at a secluded Auckland beach in January, Sophie was lost for words.
“We’d vaguely talked about marriage and had just celebrated our second anniversary. But it still came as a lovely surprise,” admits the bubbly 31-year-old.
Friends predicted that Brad would pop the question while on a skiing holiday in Japan a year earlier or during the Christmas holidays. “But when he didn’t, I didn’t feel too bothered,” says Sophie.
Instead, IT manager Brad was busy planning a romantic proposal on golden shores.
Recalls Sophie, “It was the day after our second anniversary. Brad suggested we go for an evening walk on our favourite beach in Mahurangi Regional Park. I said to him, ‘We don’t have to go tonight, do we?’ But he insisted it had to be that night.”
What Sophie didn’t know was that Brad – who moved to New Zealand from South Africa when he was 12 – had stashed a picnic basket complete with Champagne and flowers at the beach.
“He’d driven down earlier and hidden it behind some trees,” she smiles.
While walking, Brad dropped to one knee.
“It was all quite dramatic,” she says. “But he said he loved doing life with me and asked if I would marry him. Then he pulled out a gold band engraved with the words ‘marry me’.”
While Brad set up the picnic, Sophie sent selfies to both their families.
She laughs, “Brad’s mother messaged back with, ‘Is that what we think it is?’ I said, ‘Yes, sorry, you’re stuck with me now!’”
The happy couple has since had celebrations in Auckland with Brad’s family and with Sophie’s whānau in Dunedin.
“We haven’t had a big engagement party yet because we haven’t announced it publicly until now!”
It’s been an eventful few years for the couple, who met via a dating app.
“The previous year, I’d moved to Auckland from Dunedin and was still trying to meet people,” says Sophie, who did a degree in music at the University of Otago.
“When Brad’s photo popped up on the app, I thought he was cute. He liked travel and snow sports, which I do too, so I knew we’d have something in common.”
Their first date at a city café went well, but then Sophie had to travel to China and Australia to perform in several shows, including Cats.
“Five months after our first date, I messaged Brad. He took me to visit a few beaches around Auckland that I’d never been to,” she says. “We both love surfing, so we bonded over that and our relationship grew from there.”
While Sophie’s busy settling into her new job as a Saturday host at More FM Rodney, she’s also finding the time to plan her wedding sometime next year, most likely at a venue above the beach where Brad proposed.
What’s proving a little more difficult is picking a wedding dress she loves.
“I’m so used to wearing beaded and embellished dresses on stage that I want something really simple,” she laughs. “I definitely don’t need sequins because I wear those all the time for work!”
It’s not only her own wedding that Sophie’s been thinking about – she recently became a marriage celebrant.
“I’ve sung at lots of weddings and have been an event manager. My friends said becoming a celebrant would suit me perfectly,” she tells.
“I’ve already booked my first wedding!”
When she’s not organising her own nuptials, helping others to get hitched or belting out songs on stage, Sophie’s donning a hard hat and steel-capped boots.
“I’m managing the build of our dream home on a two-hectare lifestyle block in Puhoi,” she explains. “We’ve been living in a tiny house that Brad’s sister rents out as an Airbnb while we designed our house. But now we’ve got the walls up and roof on, we’re hoping to move in soon.”
The couple has enjoyed the process so much, they’re planning to build a bigger house nearby and rent this.
“I was a real townie. But I’d often take myself off for the weekend to a small cabin in the woods,” she says. “So to actually be living in the country is a dream come true. It has taken a while, but we’re finally able to put down roots and make a home with our adorable cat Leonani, whose name means ‘beautiful voice’ in Hawaiian!”
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