Using social media to share your proposal isn’t a new concept. Using social media to plan your proposal and capture it in the most beautiful way? Now there’s a first.
One clever New York fellow named Joseph used meetup.com – a site that helps groups of people with shared interests plan get togethers and form offline clubs – to give his now fiance, Nicole, the proposal of a lifetime! He rounded up 250 NYC photographers to snap photos of the proposal in Washington Square Patk, then he compiled all the photos into one beautiful proposal video:
how they asked, from the bride’s perspective: Joe’s (soon to be) best man was moving in with his girlfriend at the end of the summer and he asked Joe and I to help plan a surprise housewarming party for her. He wanted to make it special and explained that there was a tradition in her culture where guests bring a red balloon to the housewarming to symbolize love and prosperity in the new home. So we set a date for the party, worked through the details and made sure that we brought a red balloon with us.
On the morning of the party, after we had picked up our red balloon, Joe suggested that we go the park near their apartment to play chess while we waited for the call that we can start setting up for the housewarming. Joe had been teaching me how to play chess for a few months and when I started to get better, we got an outdoor set so we could play in the park. We spent a lot of time that summer in the park watching street performers, listening to music and playing chess so this seemed like a totally normal suggestion for a Saturday afternoon.
We walked to the park, found an open table, set up the chess pieces and started playing. We finished playing two games (one was a draw, the other Joe won) but didn’t think we would have time for a third so we decided to hang out by the fountain in the center of the park while we waited for the call. We walked through the park, red balloon in tow, and settled into a spot on the edge of the fountain. We were just hanging out, talking and taking pictures of each other when all of a sudden I hear “snip” behind me and I see the red balloon fly up into the sky. I watch the balloon for a second and then see hundreds of people crowding around us as Joe gets down on his knee and asks me to marry him.
Unbeknownst to me, Joe had organized a photographic flash mob in the park and the red balloon that we were toting around wasn’t for a housewarming party at all – it was for the people involved in the flash mob to be able to identify us as “the couple.” Since we had the balloon with us the whole time we were in the park, we have pictures of us playing chess, walking through the park and hanging out at the fountain without me even knowing! When Joe cut the string of the balloon, it was a signal for everyone involved in the flash mob to gather around us and for our friends and family to come out of hiding.
As soon as I said “yes”, he started to point out all of our friends and family that were in the crowd. This is when I COMPLETELY LOST IT. I was already so surprised and emotional with the proposal, but when I started seeing all the important people in our lives there with us, I just couldn’t control it, I was a total mess. On top of it, when Joe asked my Dad for permission to propose, he mentioned that he wanted to fly my sister in from out of state but just couldn’t afford it, but when he started pointing out people in the crowd, he saw my sister standing there with a huge smile on her face. It makes me so happy that even though he orchestrated this huge amazing event, there was a surprise in there for him too.
Joe’s sister was the point person for everything that day and in between organizing everyone, she even convinced a couple of musicians to play a song for us right after the proposal. As Joe took my hand and we danced cheek to cheek, we got the chance to share a quiet moment together and take it all in.
It was an unbelievable afternoon made possible by some very amazing strangers, friends and family. Thank you to all who were able to be a part of it!
