Nicola Bulley had plans to marry her partner before she vanished, but their plans were delayed by the pandemic.
The couple had been together for more than a decade and wanted to tie the knot with their daughters as bridesmaids.
Her partner, Paul Ansell, told Channel 5: “We talked about it again seriously at the beginning of 2020. And that was when we really started to actually look at getting something sort of in the calendar.”
Nicola went missing in January 2023 while walking her dog along the River Wyre in St Michael’s, Lincolnshire.
Her disappearance started a media circus, spurring unofficial searches and attracting amateur sleuths.
The mother-of-two’s body was found a mile down-river more than three weeks later, with an inquest into her death confirming she had accidentally fallen in and drowned.
Paul described Nicola as fun, loving and an “exceptional mum”.
He said: “She’s just a pillar of strength to our family and without her, the hole is bigger than you can possibly imagine.
“If you’re friends with her, she’s the most loyal friend that you could ever have. With Nikki, what you see is what you get. There’s no hidden… nothing’s hidden.
“She is an exceptional mum and she absolutely adores our girls. And goes above and beyond.”
Nicola’s father Ernest described his daughter as a “great daughter, sister and mother, we couldn’t ask for any more from her.”
