We’ve all seen wedding proposals that last a year. Most of them involve handmade signs and an iPhone video professing love 365 times. While the sentiment behind those proposals are sweet, it is certainly not something anyone else particularly needs to watch. But THIS year long proposal is something that will leave you in tears and longing for more. This proposal involved, hidden cameras, people wearing glasses rigged with cameras, fake Uber drivers, 3 engagement rings, and much more.
Mohan contacted The Heart Bandits in January of last year to plan his proposal. I knew from the first time I spoke with him that he was no ordinary guy and that no ordinary proposal was going to be good enough for him and his girlfriend Vanessa. He was visiting New York City from Melbourne, Australia and wanted to do something really unique and that would catch her off guard. While Mohan is a jokester and a laid back guy, he wanted to prove to Vanessa that he could also be romantic! He was open to the proposal idea, but his only non-negotiable criteria was that his entire trip AND the proposal would need to be filmed by a secret crew and she could never suspect a thing. His plan was to capture the trip and proposal on camera but not reveal it to her until her wedding day. That is quite a challenge to follow a couple around for multiple days without being seen so I knew that Michael Justin Studios was the perfect cinematographer for this project.
For the proposal itself, he floated around the idea of having it take place inside Harry Winston’s salon since he was purchasing the engagement ring from them. But there were too many security issues around that as you can imagine. We presented some romantic concepts like filling the room with flowers but that was just too regular for Mohan. He kept pushing us to get creative and do something that had never been done before. Since Mohan and Vanessa are foodies, we came up with the proposal idea to rent out a private room at Eleven Madison, a Michelin rated restaurant. We would rig the entire room with hidden cameras but there was the issue of Vanessa seeing them. So we brought in top event design and production company Martin Jobes Design to rig the room with screens and flowers that looked like they actually were just part of the restaurant. Then Michael and his team hid the cameras behind those screens.
Mohan had already worked with Harry Winston’s to select 3 engagement rings that he thought Vanessa would love. He wanted to make sure she got to choose one that she absolutely loved- what a guy! Together, Mohan and I came up with the idea of presenting Vanessa a starter menu that posed the question, “if you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Each of the 3 options secretly corresponded with one engagement ring.
When Mohan and Vanessa arrived for dinner, the waiter brought the fake starter menu in and Vanessa made her choice. She wanted to eat Lobster for the rest of her life! She placed her order and then the “restaurant manager” came in to serve her the order. The “manager” was really a Harry Winston representative. He told her that the chef asked for her to remove the cloche herself and when she did, she was blown away. There was no lobster at all, but there was a beautiful engagement ring! Mohan proposed and of course, Vanessa said yes!
As if all of that was not elaborate enough, Mohan and Vanessa boarded their plane back to Australia and about a year later, on Vanessa’s wedding day she learned the whole truth. That Mohan hadn’t just proposed to her in the most amazing way possible. He had hired fake Uber drivers wearing camera glasses to drive them around the city, he staged cameramen around SOHO to capture their shopping trip, and best of all, he had the entire restaurant rigged to capture his ultra-romantic marriage proposal. Then, he kept it a secret for over a year so that he could prove to Vanessa that he could be romantic after all! Check out the video and share it with everyone you know. Use the #TheLongCon to let us know what you think.
If you want to plan a one-of-a-kind marriage proposal you need a one-of-a-kind Proposal Planner. Contact The Heart Bandits today!
Proposal Planning: The Heart Bandits
Film: Michael Justin Studios
Engagement Ring: Harry Winston
Hotel: The New York EDITION
Restaurant: Eleven Madison Park
Floral: Martin Jobes Design
Wedding Reception Reaction: Soda Films
Driver: Mike Giardino
News Reporter: Taylor Barker
Cinematographer: Michael Porco
Cinematographer: Edison Koo
Cinematographer: Donnell Culver
