Love At First Site Yanita's A Block Bride!

The DIY darling was swept away on air

- Ashleigh McEnaney

Jordan Hall is a details man. When he recalls taking The Block NZ’s Yanita McLeay out for coffee on their first date five years ago, he remembers the table she was sitting at in the café, the way she was facing when he walked in and the colour of the book she was buried in.

But when the university graduate proposed to his love on national TV last week, Jordan’s grand gesture didn’t quite go to plan. “I’d ordered hundreds of high-quality Polaroids of Yanita from various holidays and special occasions, but they never arrived from America,” says the 30-year-old, who had roped his partner’s Block team-mate Stace Cottrill in to scatter the snaps around the house.

“The plan was for her to slowly discover them over the course of the show, but at the eleventh hour, Stace ended up getting them printed at the local stationery shop and dotting them around their finished home. I’d thought we’d blown the surprise for sure.”

Yet Yanita, 29, never twigged. While the post-graduate student was intrigued by the photos, she says she was preoccupied with the build and never for a second thought that her “definitely not romantic” beau was finally going to pop the question.