Howard & Jynn – Unexpected surprise marriage proposal in Rome

Most proposals are a surprise but this one was definitely unexpected. Impossible became possible and distance became a shortcut. And here is why:

Howard this courageous man from Singapore decided to propose his cute girlfriend Jynn on her incentive trip to Italy. His idea was to appear out of nowhere to surprise Jynn in one of the places she was going to visit with her group and the team leader. Organizing this proposal was also challenging because we didn’t have any time schedule only a revised itinerary that could be changed without notice. What I knew was a date Howard wanted to propose (Monday) and what places the group was about to visit that day. Looking at the itinerary (on Monday), the group was supposed to have free time for shopping at the Spanish Steps before going to dinner and so we thought this would be the best time.  My job was to find the best proposal spot to make it totally unforgettable and then create a storyboard to it.

As a proposal spot we chose a historical tea shop and tea room called Babington’s, established in 1893. Not only the atmosphere in this place was romantic but also a ‘secret’ room was just perfect in order to create this unexpected surprise proposal. The secret room had this elegant sliding door which I loved from the very beginning. The idea of hiding Howard behind the door was great and once I showed Howard the place he approved. Next step was to find a valid reason for bringing Jynn in the Babington’s with no suspension. The reason we invented was that I was acting a personal shopper of the Babington’s who was supposed to get some tea bags for Howard’s good friend. She couldn’t say no to his boyfriends request, could she? In this way I could meet her at some spot and bring her inside the shop to purchase some quality ‘tea bags’. And we did so.

Before the proposal Howard and I went to buy a beautiful bunch of flowers …

Once I met Jynn pretending to sell the tea bags for Mr. Alvin (Howard’s friend), I brought her and her friend inside the shop making them sit down at the table close to the sliding door. Little did she know that behind the door there was her boyfriend who came secretly all the way from Singapore to pop the question.

Our plan was to show her the video that Howard created himself capturing the moments when buying the engagement ring and also to give Jynn a surprise proposal box again created by Howard himself. (What a creative and romantic man!)

While showing the video to Jynn, she just couldn’t understand what was going on. We had arranged also for a singer singing the Marry You song by Bruno Mars and when I passed her the proposal box, he started to sing.

Jynn continued not to understand and she asked me: ‘Is he here?’ I took her hand and walked towards the sliding door to reveal the surprise. And her reaction was exactly what we wanted – an unexpected surprise to pop the question in an unforgettable way.

Howard & Jynn,

Congratulations on getting engaged!

May your love for each other endure always.

 I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Howard for contacting me and giving me the responsibility to arrange his marriage proposal.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you:

• Sig.ra Chiara who was so kind to provide us the space at the Babington’s to make this proposal happen
• Marco Burt, the singer
• Marco Pompili for the video
• Ingrid (Ingrid B. Photography) for capturing the moments