We are so excited to share Emily's surprise proposal with you. We were snooping on Facebook and discovered her post! It read just like a modern fairy tale and we thank Emily for allowing us to post it here.
Tell us about yourselves -- where you're from, what you do, etc.?
We're both from Henry County, GA. We met there, in high school. Ian does IT work, and I work with Swanky Party Box! That's me dressed up as Max for Halloween at Swanky Party Box.
Where did your proposal take place?
Disneyland in Anaheim, California! Inside Magic Kingdom, there's a caricature artist there who helped Ian pull off his master plan.
Was this your first time visiting Disney
We'd been to Disney World in Florida before but this was both of our first time at Disneyland in California. I have trouble flying, so Ian getting me onto a plane was a challenge in itself.
Did Ian have any help in his planning and plotting?
Yes, he had a friend who's a Disney employee, she helped him plan the whole vacation from start to finish.
So set the scene for us.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies and in the fall months Disney changes the Haunted Mansion ride into a Nightmare Before Christmas themed ride which I had never been on. So on our three year anniversary, he gave me all the paperwork with our hotel reservations, plane tickets, and park tickets. I was so excited, and terrified about the plane. We arrived safely and went out on our first night to walk around Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is a walking area with shops and restaurants just outside of the park gates. Every time we go on vacation together, we have a caricature drawn of us as a keepsake, and as we walked I saw an artist and commented that we should come back and have ours done. He very coolly told me that he and his friend had taken care of it and that we had an appointment to have one drawn already. Cool!
Tell us about your surprise and how it all went down.
So on our second day of the trip, we got up and ready for our caricature appointment. I insisted we wear our matching Nightmare Before Christmas shirts I'd purchased for the trip. We arrived early and sat down for the artist to begin. The drawings take a bit of time, so we just talked and people watched. I began to notice towards the end of the session that a crowd was gathering behind the artist, but I didn't think much of it. The artist turned the photo around so we could see the picture for the first time. At first, I was too distracted by her rendering of me, specifically the little detail she put into my patterned leggings. I looked above the artists head and saw there was still a crowd gathered behind her looking at me?? Why?? Well, I finally looked over at Ian's side of the drawing and OH MY GOD I almost had a heart attack. Then, I looked to Ian, down on one knee, smiling up at me!
Well, did you say yes?
Of course I said yes, and the crowd burst into applause! You can see in some of the photos the people in the shop behind us went from doing their shopping to standing at the doorway to watch.
Emily & Ian got married in 2016.
