The most over-the-top marriage proposals ever

BY DANIELA USLAN

Romantic movies are the best. My favorite part is when the guy realizes he's madly in love with the girl and does some huge romantic gesture to sweep her off her feet. But you know what's even better? When a guy makes a truly thoughtful, creative, and loving romantic gesture in real life. That's what these men did when they proposed to the women they loved. Each of these over the top proposals took a lot of time, energy, and care. And watching them is like getting to see the end of a romantic movie that actually happened.

Over 60 people lip synched to her

Youtube

Isaac Lamb proposed to his girlfriend, Amy Frankel, while she sat in the back of a moving Honda CRV. As she sat there, over 60 people, including her parents, friends, and other family members, came by to "serenade" her. In the beginning of the video, Lamb explained that he asked Frankel to meet him at his parents' house, wherehis brother told her he wanted her to listen to a song in the back of the car. As he sat her down, he told her, "This song really exemplifies you and Isaac's relationship to me." As the car rolled slowly down the street, different people appeared in front of Frankel to "lip dub" the song "Marry You" by Bruno Mars.

As more people joined in, Frankel held her hands to her heart and stared wide-eyed at their goofy dance. At the end of the show, the crowd parted and Lamb walked through. He got down on one knee and said, "You have already given me a lifetime of happiness. Will you let me spend the rest of my life trying to give you the same?"

Of course Frankel said yes. She told Oregon Live, "One of reasons I love him, he's such a fun-loving guy. He has such a big heart. He loves celebrating life and the friendships that we have. Our lives are going to be like this."

A helicopter and a fake photo shoot

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Kornelius Bascombe, a television producer in Los Angeles, planned his proposal for months. His girlfriend, model Rachel Jordan, thought they were going up to the rooftop of a bank for a photo shoot. Little did she know it was actually a marriage proposal. In the beginning of the video, he told the audience all about the setup—how he contacted a photographer who then reached out to Jordan to set up the fake photoshoot for the proposal. "Today's the day, we about to get real, we about to pop that question!" he told the audience.

When he brought Jordan up to the rooftop, there was a helicopter setup for the "photo shoot." The two sat in it together, and then Jordan stood in front of Bascombe, holding red rose petals in both hands. As she spun and opened her hands, for what she thought was the photo shoot, the rose petals whirled into the sky, and she found Bascombe kneeling with an engagement ring. She gasped with emotion. After a heartfelt proposal, she said yes.

"I didn't sleep at all," Bascombe told ABC News. "She had no idea why I was stressing out the night before. I was just telling her it's because of work." Jordan was super impressed and told ABC News, "What he pulled off for the proposal amazes me and I think I'm still in shock. But the great thing about him is [that] he shows me that level of love everyday. He makes me a very lucky woman."

He had his helicopter pilot girlfriend pick a landing spot for "yes" or "no"

Youtube

Robin, an airport firefighter, proposed to his girlfriend Klara Rizell, a helicopter pilot, in the place they first met—a landing strip. As Klara approached the landing strip, thinking she was there to pick up a customer, Robin got on the radio to talk to her. "I have a question," he told her. "You're not allowed to answer on the radio. But where you choose to land will be your final answer." Then he kneeled and asked, "Klara Rizell, will you marry me?"

The two firetrucks that had been covering the spots for "yes" and "no" rolled away, revealing a large red heart for yes and a smaller black rectangle for no. Rizell landed right on top of the "yes" heart. Then she walked out of the helicopter and embraced Robin. "I'm trembling all over!" she told him.

When the videographer asked her what she had to say about the proposal, she responded, "Well, what can I say? I'm still a little shocked. I said yes, that's all I needed to say."

He proposed with a flash mob in Times Square

Youtube

Dave's flash mob proposal required a film team, dancers, and actors. In the description to the video on YouTube, Crisanto, the proposal "producer," shared that over 100 phone calls and emails were sent to make the proposal a reality. They even stationed "undercover members made from Dave's supportive networks" throughout the area to participate in the lead up to the proposal, including a couple who mentioned that they lived in Dave and his girlfriend's favorite vacation spot and a club promoter who encouraged the couple to go to Times Square to dance.

The flash mob kicked off with Dave breakdancing in the middle of the circle. He was then joined by a large group of dancers. His girlfriend looked on, smiling, but looking a bit confused. After a few minutes, someone handed her an earpiece. Dave said, "Don't freak out. It's me. Give a thumbs up if you can hear me." After she gave him the go ahead, he went on to tell her how much he loved the three years they had been together.

He finished by saying, "Three years, and we haven't gotten sick of each other. I hope you're ready to grow that number, because I have a big question for you." Right then, the dancers held up letters reading "Will you marry me?" Then Dave got down on one knee and asked, "Do you want to be with me forever?" She answered,"Yes I do!" 

He proposed to her in the news room

Youtube

Jacey Birch thought that she was going to be filming a segment about holiday gifts for pets when her boyfriend, meteorologist Trent Aric, showed up on her screen, instead. "I thought you had an interview right now," he said. "I do," she told him. "Do you want to ask me a few questions?" he asked her.

They bantered for a bit, then he said, "Do you have any questions for me?" To which she replied, "Uh, why are you here?" He prompted her to look behind her, where the screens read "Will you marry me?" Then he played her a "news segment" he had made about their relationship. The video included an interview with Tory, the woman who had set them up, and this great voice over: "It didn't take a meteorologist to figure out love was in the air." It ended with the couple's parents' and nephews telling Birch to say yes to the proposal.

When the video ended, Aric came into the newsroom and kneeled in front of Birch. "I love you. Will you marry me?" he asked. "Yes," she said. "I can't even get over it. That was so beautiful. Thank you so much." When asked if she knew that he was going to propose, Birch told ABC News, "I had no clue. Not even an idea. I'm still in shock."

After a traumatizing event, she got an unforgettable proposal

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When Melissa Dohme told her high school boyfriend that she was leaving him to attend college, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her 32 times. One of the first responders, firefighter EMT Cameron Hill, told Inside Edition, "Nobody lives that gets stabbed that many times." Dohme thought she would never date again. She told People,  "I didn't even want to open my heart up to anything. I was afraid, but then I met Cameron."

The two reconnected ten months later at a luncheon in Dohme's honor. They began dating and fell in love. Four years after that, Hill planned an unforgettable proposal for Dohme. He told her she had been chosen to throw the first pitch at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game because of her story, but it was really a setup for a marriage proposal.

Hill wrote "Will you marry me" on the baseball and jogged out to give it to her so she could throw the first pitch. When Dohme looked down at the baseball, she gasped. He knelt in front of her, and to the roar of the crowd, asked, "Melissa, will you marry me?" Her answer was,"Oh my god, yes!" As they hugged, the announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Melissa and Cameron!"

The best movie preview ever

Youtube

Ginny Joiner thought she was going to the movies to watch Fast 5 with her brother Charlie. She told Ellen on The Ellen Show that it was just like her brother to take her to a guy movie, and she wasn't too thrilled about it. Her mood completely changed when the previews came on.

The preview began with a shot of two men's hands as they talked. "I know how much she means to you. I know how much you love her," the voiceover said. "I know she is your heart." Her boyfriend Matt Still had rigged the theater with a video camera so you could see Joiner's reaction, and it was clear that she recognized his voice as her eyes grew wide. Still continued, "I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She is my heart, my friend, my everything." Then the camera panned out, and Joiner covered her face as a shot of Still and her father hugging appeared on the screen.

The preview continued with a video of Still rushing to the movie theater and then casually waiting in line for popcorn. Joiner wiped her eyes as she laughed. Still then ran down the aisle, pulled Joiner out of her seat, and proposed. "I had no idea that I was getting engaged that day, but it's not out of the box for him to do a crazy surprise for me," Joiner told Ellen.

The 365 day proposal

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It took Dean Smith an entire year to make his video proposal for his girlfriend, Jennifer Kessel. Every single day of that year, he recorded himself with various signs bearing the date and messages like "I love you so much!" "Marry me, Jennifer?" and "Make me the happiest man on earth!"

"I knew that Jennifer was a fan of proposal videos on YouTube and would tear up at the sincerity and thoughtfulness of each proposal," Smith told The Huffington Post. "She showed several of them to me, and I decided that I wanted to make her tear up to her own proposal." When the couple was in Aruba with Kessel's family for her birthday, Smith arranged for her family members to lead her down to the beach, where she watched the video on a phone, facing away from the ocean. The video ended with the words  "Turn around." When Kessel faced the water, she saw Smith there, waiting to propose in person.

"The thoughtfulness that went into making this video is truly beyond any words that I have," Kessel told The Huffington Post. "When I turned around and saw Dean standing in front of me, we both broke down in tears."

His son and a flash mob helped him propose

Youtube

Mike took the flash mob idea a step further by making his son the highlight of his proposal. He and his girlfriend Elizabeth were walking in Bryant Park in Manhattan, when a flash mob began dancing to the Grease song, "We Go Together." Elizabeth questioned why they were watching the dance, but Mike convinced her to stay and watch.

At the end of the dance, the Jason Mraz song "A World With You" played, the dancers parted, and Mike's adorable son came through carrying a big whiteboard, bearing the question, "Will you marry my daddy?" Elizabeth cried as Mike got down on one knee to propose. Jason Mraz later congratulated the couple. He said, "Mike and Elizabeth, it's Jason here, sending love and congratulations on your engagement." 

Mike told Inside Edition, "Planning the proposal wasn't difficult at all. I believe when you're doing something out of love it really comes easy. That doesn't mean that it wasn't hard work, it just means I really enjoyed the whole process from start to finish. Having a vision and seeing it unfold right before your eyes is definitely rewarding."

She unwittingly planned her own proposal

Youtube

Tyson Henderson, a videographer who has made hundreds of proposal videos, wanted to do something special for his proposal to his girlfriend, Hayley. He decided to sing "Hey Pretty Girl" by Kip Moore and taught himself how to play it by watching YouTube videos. But he didn't know when he would sing it to her. Then he got a brilliant idea. He asked mom to suggest that Hayley set up a surprise birthday party for him. Unbeknownst to her, she was actually planning her own surprise engagement!

At the party, Tyson and his mom told Hayley that they were going to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey and then they blindfolded her. With her blindfold still on, Tyson began singing. She pulled it off, sank down into a chair, and watched him sing, her eyes tearing up.

Tyson then got down on one knee and proposed. Afterward, he revealed that all the people she had invited to his "surprise" party knew what the real surprise was. Luckily, she was so happy she didn't mind being tricked.

He serenaded her onstage

Youtube

According to How He Asked, Anna and Alex met at USC and were good friends for seven years after college before they started dating. Alex knew Anna loved it when he sang to her, so he reached out to an a cappella group at USC and met with a member of one of the groups. The singer was so excited about his proposal idea that he ended up with over 100 singers of different groups who wanted to be in on it. At the end of a campus wide a cappella concert, Alex pulled Anna onstage with him.

Anna sat in a chair as one of the college students sang to her, then handed the microphone off to Alex, who lovingly serenaded her. It all ended with him getting down on one knee as the crowd offstage and the a cappella singers onstage cheered and threw confetti.

Alex wrote on How He Asked, "When I got down on that knee, and that crowd erupted, it all made sense to me... love is the answer. Love is what we are all looking for, in one form or another. It is what carries us through this life, and a chance to celebrate it in such an overt way was what I believe drew everyone into this."

He asked the singer of their favorite song to play it for her

Youtube

Jeremy wanted to propose to his girlfriend Kelli in a way that she would love. Because he knew that she loved Christmas, he chose to propose at an outdoor mall in Provo, Utah, which was beautifully lit up for Christmas. He reached out to Hema Jr., the singer of Kelli's favorite song, "Hey, Brown Eyes" and asked if he would serenade Kelli. Hema said, "It was so gutsy of him to just ask that I was like, 'Yeah, for sure, let's do it.'"

Jeremy told Kelli they were meeting at a restaurant to have dinner with a few other couples. When Kelli got to the mall, she told her friends she wanted to get in out of the cold, but they convinced her to stay and listen to the music. When Hema Jr. said, "This song goes out to all of the brown eyed people out there," she realized who he was. "My heart just dropped, and it was pounding," she said. "I've been listening to that song since I was 15 and I found it from some guy on YouTube, so nobody plays that song."

Jeremy came out with roses, then brought Kelli up to the stage, where he proposed. Kelli wrote in How He Asked, "I pretty much just fell into his arms being completely overwhelmed with how happy, surprised, and excited I was to be in that moment."

True romance does exist



For us hopeless romantics, it's good to know that there are romantic men out there who will go to great lengths to show how much they love their partners. Whether they proposed with helicopters or flash mobs, one thing is clear—these men wanted to sweep their girlfriends off their feet when they proposed. And in every case, they succeeded at making their future fiancée feel truly loved.

SOURCE: THE LIST