Engaged in the Big Apple
ONE moment Shivani Govender was taking in the sights of New York’s Times Square, the next a flash mob broke out in dance and the words “I Love You, Mrs G, Will you marry me?” popped up on a big screen.
While still gathering her thoughts, her boyfriend of nine months, Tevin Govender, took off the mask he was wearing, got down on one knee and proposed.
“It was like a scene out of a movie,” said 25-year-old Shivani of Johannesburg, a project manager at First National Bank.
“I fell to my knees in shock,” she added.
“I spent the week in New York with my work team and Tevin was in Atlanta. On the night of our engagement, he told me he had to attend an important event in Atlanta and wanted me to accompany him.”
Shivani, who owns the dance school Desi Motion, said she had been on her way to dinner with colleagues when they stopped at Times Square.
A photographer, she said, approached her group and asked to photograph them and load the pictures onto one of big screens the city is famed for.
She was unaware that Tevin had hired the photographer as part of his master plan.
Soon thereafter, the flash mob broke out in dance to “their song”, John Legend’s A Good Night.
“The dancers wore masks and being interested in dance, I was really excited about learning a few moves from them. Then I saw this guy in the centre of the group, who had made a few dance errors. Little did I know it was Tevin. He then removed his mask, turned me around to look at his proposal on screen and dropped to his knees. It was a beautiful moment and I said yes.”
They were flooded by congratulatory messages and the engagement featured in the New York Times.
The couple, who have not yet decided when to tie the knot, spent the weekend sightseeing the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building, before returning home last week.