Filming of “Sleeping Beauty.'' A photo book hidden in a bookstore. Proposal after 3 minutes of fighting.
There are many stories behind the question “Will you marry me?”
As love stories continue to fill the pages of the New York Times wedding section in 2024, there was no shortage of creativity in the way the questions were asked. Many of the couples who got married this year got engaged during a supermoon or while hiking in a scenic national park or mountain range. Some people have rented an arena, ballroom, or event space to surprise their sweetheart with a personalized engagement party.
Here are 10 thoughtful and memorable proposals from couples featured in 2024.
99 stones and one big surprise
After dinner at Melting Pot Restaurant in Albuquerque on October 1, 2013, Spencer Hatcher handed Crystal Carmichael a glass jar containing 99 clear stones.
Mr. Carmichael pulled out some books and read them aloud. Each stone shared memories from their time together, including their first “fancy date” at a steakhouse, taking their kids to a pumpkin patch, and buying a new house.
Then he took it out of his pocket and handed it to her. It said, “We're engaged.” He pulled out a white gold and diamond ring, got down on one knee and proposed.
The two got married on January 2nd at a chapel in Las Vegas.
The most effective “boo” in his life
In August 2023, Tiffany Langrine and Michael Graves watched the blue supermoon glistening over the water on a beach in Door County, Wisconsin.
To their surprise, a large group of people nearby disrupted the peace by smashing sticks against a huge piece of driftwood. “In my head, I was like, I don't want this to be background music for a proposal,” Graves said. So he let out a nice, loud “boo!”
A trip to your favorite bookstore
In March 2023, Zach Miller spoke to Jill Rafson after stopping by her favorite bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn Heights. Watch the 12-year-old goddaughter perform in 'Aladdin Jr.'
When they entered the store, Mr. Rafson asked them what kind of books they were looking for. He said, “It's fiction.”
Just as she was about to make fun of him for giving such a wide range of answers, she spotted a book that was different from the rest, placed among works of fiction. Their faces were on it.
Mr. Miller created a photo book based on their relationship and asked that it be displayed in bookstores. He picked it up and proposed to her with a ring made from the stone from her grandmother's engagement ring. Rafson remembers the rest just nodding absentmindedly and enthusiastically. Although they couldn't appear in “Aladdin Jr.,” they video-called Rafson's goddaughter, and Rafson was understanding and happy.
An empty party that was a curve ball
Tina Servilla Lindell and Cesar Kuriyama have a friend named Nick Gray who often hosts themed parties. Lindell received a newsletter email from Gray about a July 2023 party at Cavito, a speakeasy-style bar and event space on Manhattan's Lower East Side. (The two met on X (formerly known as Twitter) in March 2020 after Kuriyama saw a post Lindell shared about Caveat.)
She begged Mr. Kuriyama to go with her. After some persuasion and rescheduling, he agreed.
When the couple arrived in Cavito, she was shocked and disappointed to find the venue empty. “When I turned around to make a sarcastic comment to Cesar, he was down on one knee,” Lindell said. “The surprise was so shocking that I was momentarily disoriented, followed immediately by maddening joy.”
Then friends and family came out from every corner of Kavit where they had been hiding during the proposal. Two friends also showed up with 100 Burger King sandwiches.
Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty
In June 2022, Matthew Michrzak worked with Emily McCormick's photographer friend to arrange a “Sleeping Beauty” photo shoot for her in the woods outside of Philadelphia. Content creator McCormick wore a velvet princess dress and tiara and closed her eyes for long periods of time, giving Mike Kurzak a chance to surprise her with a kiss and a ring.
“I whispered in her ear, 'Honey, I'm going to kiss you now,'” Meiszulzak said. He had to walk about a mile through the woods wearing about 60 pounds of full plate armor to get to the filming location, which was far from his Airbnb.
When McCormick opened his eyes, it took him a moment to realize that Mike Kurzak was standing there, not the prince taking part in the photo shoot. “I was really overjoyed,” McCormick said.
On November 2nd, the couple tied the knot in a historic mansion that perfectly matched the medieval aesthetic they wanted for their celebration.
At 5:57 a.m., they were fighting. By 6am, they were engaged.
On January 1, 2023, Anthony Berderame and Julie Moro agreed to become engaged by the end of the year. Verderame's plan was to propose at midnight on New Year's Eve.
On December 30th, Moro was woken up by his dog at 5am and was unable to go back to sleep. Mr. Verderame asked her why. “I'm mad at you,” she recalled telling him. “You promised to get engaged, didn't you?”
“She told me, 'You don't even have a plan,'” Verderame said. “And I said, 'Oh, I don't have a plan. Is this how you want it to be? ”
He took the ring from the nightstand, got down on one knee and proposed. “We fought at 5:57 a.m. and engaged at 6 a.m.,” Verderame said. “I drank champagne and went back to sleep.''
They were married on October 2nd at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau.
Heart necklace that symbolizes More
In October 2022, Gabriel Grand began hugging Norah O'Neal while hiking at an overlook along a remote trail near Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts. She could feel his heart beating and he knelt down on one knee on the golden leaves on the ground.
“I remember thinking, Wow, he picked out a ring without me,” O'Neill said. The couple planned to buy an engagement ring together.
O'Neal has been wearing a heart charm on her necklace ever since her parents gave her one for her 16th birthday. Mr. Grand gave her a second heart for a necklace and asked, “Would you please join your heart with mine?” Afterwards, the two bought a ring together.
They married on May 11th.
13 days after the meeting, he proposed.
Tessa Tookes and Joey Kirchner met on the reality show Bachelor in Paradise Canada after a producer told them individually that he was the perfect match for them. Just 13 days after they met, she proposed to him, surrounded by cameramen, producers, showrunners, and sound team, “Will you go to a disco with me for the rest of your life?''
Mr. Kirchner also cried as he got down on one knee and proposed. He said he knew it was a bit far-fetched, but surrendered to the moment.
The couple were married on September 21 at Brighthouse Farm in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
She had to wait until savasana
Rachel Palm and Carolyn Warhaftig met at a yoga studio in 2019. In September 2023, Palm was scheduled to take a photo shoot with members of his studio on the shores of a lake in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Palm tried several times to leave the photo shoot early, but the studio owner told him he had to wait until after the final group photo session, when everyone was lying in Savasana (a final resting position).
As the group got into position for the final shot and lay on the mat with their eyes closed, the studio owner began reading a poem. It was Mary Oliver's “The Journey,” which coincidentally was one of the first poems the couple shared in their love letter in 2019. Mr. Palm smiled to himself as he remembered.
When the poem ended, she felt someone grab her hand. When she opened her eyes, Mr. Warhaftig was there, getting down on one knee and telling her how much he loved her. Friends and family were hiding in the bushes on the resort grounds.
The couple married on November 22nd.
A new start in an empty construction area
Lewis Lin's dream was to open his own restaurant in Portland, Oregon, serving what he called “first generation American cuisine” – American cuisine with influences from around the world. did. Initially, his partner Jolin Cheng was only going to do the interior design for the restaurant, but it was eventually decided that she should become the restaurant's general manager, a position she still holds today. I am.
In December 2022, Lin took her to the demolished space where the restaurant was being constructed and showed her the construction progress. To her surprise, she saw the space cleared out and a path to a rickety folding table lit by candlelight, a bouquet of flowers, a handwritten card, and a local Pips Original Donut & It was 12 chai donuts and chai.
They opened Xiaoye (meaning “night snack” in Mandarin) in Portland's Hollywood neighborhood in September 2023, and it ranked on some of the city's best restaurant lists in its first year.
They married on October 6th.
