Our Proposal Story
There comes a time in a relationship where those conversations about life, marriage, baby names and places you want to live become serious! So, I sucked up my immaturity, fear and bad habits and set out to make proposing to my girlfriend a possibility.
Throughout the many conversations about life, marriage, baby names and places we want to live, I noticed 4 trends in relation to a proposal. They were: Her hair must be nice, she would like to wear something pretty, that the proposal must be private (away from crowds. e.g. Restaurant, church etc.) and the ring must be a princess cut.
With that in mind, I sat and brain stormed. My two options were an ‘obvious’ proposal or a ‘surprise’ proposal. We all know that the moment you start doing things you don’t normally do together in excessive succession, she is sussed on a proposal. I knew my girl was intuitive, so I wisely chose the surprise proposal.
Surprise proposals have 3 elements, The cover, the surprise & the ring. I had to come up with a fool proof plan which incorporated all 3.
After much thinking, my final idea was to create a competition for a ‘make over weekend’ in Bondi Beach, Sydney. — Win a Toni&Guy cut and colour, shopping voucher, accommodation and return flights for 2 people. This covered 2 of the my girlfriends proposal requirements and I knew it could easily include the final 2.
I chose Bondi Beach because it was iconic, we both loved it, it was full of possibilities, it was beautiful and it was a great cover. I contacted Kelly from Toni&Guy Bondi Beach, explained my story and asked her to be a part of it, she happily accepted. I then designed a Toni&Guy ‘Win a Weekend Away’ Competition campaign with a tagline of “Tell us in 50 words or less, why you deserve to win this competition.”
I used my position in an advertising company as a cover to where I found out about the competition, saying it was a campaign put on by their promotions manager. I emailed my girlfriend the competition poster design and told her I that I had entered her.
I then left it for 2 months and occasionally mentioned “I bet you will win that competition” or “what would you do if you won that competition?” — Over time she began to bring it up and we would joke that she would win it.
Months earlier I had begun meeting with a local jeweller to discuss diamonds and ring designs. I had taken many mental notes as to the style of ring she wanted. So, I commissioned him to design an elegant white gold ring which made a humble statement with a Belgium sourced princess cut diamond and showed elegance with a fine split mill-grained band set with 40 diamonds.
She had desperately been wanting to get her hair cut and coloured and, without me knowing had booked to get it done within the fortnight. I found out and had to act fast! I created a convincing “You are the winner!!” email and sent it from my work email to my personal email and then forwarded it onto her. I called her to tell her she had won and told her to check her email. She took it hook line and sinker and cancelled her appointment.
By default, I entered a serious world of deception. But in moments like this, you do what you have to.
The winning email stated she had a just over 1 month to pick a weekend away and that she could take a friend. She chose a date and good friend. This gave me 3 weeks to book the hair appointment, return flights and accommodation and come up with a romantic proposal plan and itinerary. I immediately ordered the gift voucher from Westfield and had it delivered to her house with a special note from the team at Tony&Guy Bondi Beach Congratulating her. I also had Kelly email her to congratulate and confirm her booking.
Needing someone on-site and on the inside to help coach my girlfriend into places and scenarios, I told the friend she has chosen to take with her, my plans to fly down on a following flight, spend the day scouting the area, setting up and orchestrating the proposal and that I needed her help to play along. She was all ears.
I told a few close friends; of whom all were excited, about my plans. A good friend to both of us offered to fly down and help me set up and be a part of our special day.
To my happiness, my girlfriend posted the competition promo on Facebook and declared she had won and was going to Bondi beach for a girl’s weekend away. This helped with my plan as it gave room for people to talk about it without sounding suspicious. It gave close friends room to enquire about the competition and help me fill any showing cracks.
1 week out I started to stress because I wasn’t set on the actual proposal idea. I hadn’t been to the area I had chosen, I was worried about my set up time frame the amount of resources at my disposal.
Randomly, I received a text from an old-school friend asking if I was married yet? I replied no, but I was proposing this weekend in Bondi beach. To my extreme joy, she replied, “no way, I live there, do you want help?”
This started a mass chain of emails between myself, my school friend, and the two other friends helping about the execution of the proposal. Having someone who was a local interior designer on side helped immensely with resource, creativity and local knowledge.
The day arrived, 6am I drove the girls to Brisbane Airport. Because I was on the following flight, I had to hide my bag. I placed it in a large box and covered it in children’s toys. I used the cover that I was visiting my sister in Brisbane after dropping them off and she needed the toys for her boys. After dropping them, I grabbed a quick breakfast, returned to the airport, parked in long term parking and caught my plane to Sydney. I met up with with one of the girls who had taken an earlier flight and headed to Bondi to catch up with the other friend while my girlfriend was getting her hair done.
The ‘spot’ I decided on for the proposal was a lookout which looked out over the water, rocks, Bondi Beach and the surrounding area. It was beautiful by day, and even more stunning at dusk. It sat at the end of a cul-de-sac street and had minimal traffic other than a few sunset walkers.
My plan to get the two girls to the ‘spot’ was to create a gift voucher for free cocktails and tapas at a local restaurant which conveniently was the ‘spot’ in which I planned to propose. oblivious to my girlfriend, the restaurant never existed. I had asked a stranger to drop the voucher in the store earlier that day and organised for Kelly to give her the voucher and talk it up. Kelly went over and above in her effort to play along.
As a savvy uni student who wouldn’t say no to a good deal, my girlfriend fell again for my second tier of deceit. The gift voucher stated that the deal was only available between 5pm & 6pm on Saturdays. This allowed me get her to the place I wanted her, at the time I wanted her there.
I met with my school friend and began setting up the ‘spot.’ Just off the street was a flat open area which then led down some stairs to nice lookout area hidden away behind a big rock. I had planned for the girls to arrive in a taxi at 6pm. I had written out a letter to my girlfriend on a shabby chic chalk board which we placed on the flat area a few meters before the stairs and placed a few candles around it to draw attention. I signed it off “Walk down the stairs, I want to ask you a question, Reuben”
We laced the stairs with candles and at the base of the stairs I placed several lanterns in a semi-circle strung together with white ribbon, off to the left we created a big white/cream day bed with lots of pillows, flowers, candles and champagne. I had created a play list of favourite songs and rehearsed in my mind a hundred times how the moment would play out and what I would say. The view by night was that of any night view overlooking a city. Relaxing and beautiful.
I was messaging both my girlfriend and her friend next to her as they drove in a taxi to the ‘spot’, to her friend I was discussing how long till they arrived, to my girlfriend I was messaging how I missed her, asking what Bondi was like, if she was having a good time and that I wish I was there.
My two other helpers were now hiding in surrounding bushes and signalled to me that they had arrived.
The last 6 months of planning had culminated for this moment. She arrived at the lookout still oblivious to what awaited, she got out of the taxi and in confusion asked her friend “where is the restaurant?” She found the blackboard, still confused, began to read and then realised what was happening. She put her hand to her mouth began to cry and asked “Where are the stairs?”
She slowly walked down the stairs as I awaited her surrounded by candles and lanterns. Her favourite song played in the background. She arrived at the base of the stairs, smiled through teary eyes and said, “you are so sneaky!” I smiled and hugged her.
We both knew what was about to happen, so I asked, “are you ready for this?” she nodded and with that I got on one knee presented her with the ring and asked her to marry me.
She said with strong excitement, Yes!!
I put the ring on her finger, we kissed and then the 3 amigos’ in the background, all began to cheer. We then sat in total bliss on the day bed, talked and drank champagne while the girls watched from above waiting for a signal to come down and celebrate. My now fiancée asked them if they wanted to come down, to which she received a unanimous YES!! and they rushed down and we all celebrated before parting ways to enjoy a beautiful dinner at Icebergs, an iconic restaurant on the other side of Bondi Beach.
We finished the night with a walk along the beach and called our families to celebrate.
As a final surprise to the weekend, I had organised for both our families to meet us at the airport as we entered the terminal and then go to dinner together. Liv had no idea.
