Five unforgettable marriage proposals
The best ways people popped the question in 2022 — two of the couples were from Virginia
Couples who married in 2022 had some of their most formative years during the pandemic, and many said they developed a strong bond during lockdowns. The past year saw the return of larger gatherings, including weddings. But many of these couples’ proposals happened in 2020 and 2021 — the two most socially distanced years. This didn’t stop people from getting creative and extra thoughtful when popping the big question.
A Richmond psychology professor embedded his proposal in an escape room clue. A strategy director presented a symbolic painting to his partner, while one man’s proposal at a Northern Virginia winery almost didn’t happen.
Here are five — two from Virginia — of the best proposals featured in The New York Times Weddings pages in 2022.
She cracked the code with six minutes to spare
Shawn Jones and Zainep Mahmoud have been breaking out of escape rooms since their second date at Insomnia Escape Room DC in September 2018.
“We literally have an undefeated streak going,” Jones, 36, said. “When it was time to propose, I just knew that it would make so much sense for it to be connected to an escape room.”
He coordinated with Breakout Games, an escape room in Richmond, and there the couple participated in a heist-themed game in September 2021. Inside the room, with ultraviolet light in hand, Mahmoud, 36, uncovered a message:
“Ah Few Tour Why Eff Uh.”
The message revisited a game show clue from a March 2016 episode of “Wheel of Fortune,” during which Jones, a contestant, solved the puzzle, despite few letters on the board, in less than one second into his allotted time: “FUTURE WIFE!”
When Mahmoud deciphered the message, Jones proposed.
“In particular I remember him saying that he knows we can navigate any and everything together, and I deeply believed the same,” she said.
She said “yes,” and the two escaped the room, with six minutes to spare.
They wed on Sept. 17, 2022.
They vogued their way to engagement
Yuming Chiu started his career as a professional violist, so he mentioned to Dr. Shilpen Patel one day that he would love to have a “simple engagement” that incorporated music.
But Patel, a pop culture lover, said he wanted the engagement to be “fun” and something they “remember for the rest of our lives.”
On Dec. 17, 2021, the couple attended the San Francisco Symphony for the Holiday Gaiety performance, which included classical renditions of pop songs. In the middle of the show, they were selected to vogue onstage while the symphony played Madonna’s “Vogue.” Peaches Christ, the drag queen hosting the show, then pulled the couple to the center of the stage and handed Chiu, who now goes by the name Patel, the mic.
“You know, we’ve had a lot of adventures these past few years,” Patel started saying, and Chiu, 37, covered his face with his hands in shock, knowing what would follow. Patel, 46, got down on one knee in front of an audience of more than 2,500 people.
On May 7, 2022, the two were married.
Two art lovers and a symbolic painting
Everett Long Jr. and Fred Smith Jr. met in October 2015 while they were each getting a haircut at Brown’s Barber Shop in Athens, Georgia.
Five years later, in November 2020, Long commissioned a painting of the barbershop, which was meant to be a birthday gift for Smith. But by the time it was completed in April 2021, Long said he “just had this feeling that this is no longer a birthday present,” adding, “It’s much deeper than that.”
That May the couple shared dinner on Long’s balcony before heading to the airport to celebrate Smith’s birthday in Puerto Rico.
“Before we left, I said, ‘Hey, I want to give you your present before we leave because it’s too big to go on the airplane,’ ” Long, 40, recalled.
Smith, also 40, opened the package, and as he was admiring the painting, Long got down on one knee.
“We had talked about getting engaged and we talked about a specific way of maybe going about it,” Smith said. “But he was describing how he just couldn’t hold it in anymore, and that he’d never been more certain about almost anything in his life.”
The piece is meaningful to the couple for many reasons, Long said, which include a shared love of collecting art. Smith grew up in Athens, the location of the barbershop, and Long, who grew up in Philadelphia, called Athens “a formative place” in his life. The barbershop’s address on “Hot Corner,” a section in Athens bustling with Black businesses, is also historically significant.
“But most of all, the fact that we met each other at, of all places, a barbershop felt ironic,” said Long, who called the space “one of the Blackest, most masculine and most beloved institutions of the Black community.”
On Sept. 10, 2022, the couple wed at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, where they showcased 25 pieces from their art collection, including the barbershop painting.
He proposed at his father’s grave
On Father’s Day in 2021, William Browns Jr. made Kimberly Harris breakfast in bed before giving her a note that sent her on a scavenger hunt around the house. Each clue related to a different memory in their relationship, and in the end, she was rewarded with an Edible Arrangements bouquet delivery.
They then headed to a family event, but on the way, the couple stopped by Oakridge-Glen Oak Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, to visit the grave of his father, who died in 2016. On Father’s Day in 2020, he had taken her to the site and said that was the moment he knew she was “the one.”
Browns, 28, got down on one knee and proposed. Right at that moment, there was a torrential downpour, but that didn’t stop Harris, 35, from saying “yes” and hugging Browns.
“It was so surreal and divine, as all of our most beautiful relationship moments have been in the pouring rain,” including their first date, Browns said.
“Then we held hands on the way back to the car, barely able to see where we were going and laughed at what we knew would be a moment we would never forget,” he added.
The couple married on July 29, 2022.
He stalled, and he stalled some more
Robert Flaherty’s plan was to propose to Carla Frank on Sept. 18, 2021, when her best friend, Ellie Cohen, would be in town with her husband. He figured it would be a good time for their close friends and family members to fly into Washington, D.C., unbeknownst to Frank, and be present for the proposal at Willowcroft Farm Vineyards in Leesburg.
After he made the plan, Kate Berner, a friend, invited them to her wedding, which would also take place on Sept.
18. Flaherty, 31, decided to use that wedding as a cover-up: Frank, also 31, thought they would be attending.
But on the day of the proposal, his mother’s flight got delayed, and Flaherty had to devise numerous stalling tactics. He texted Berner to ask if she could send a BCC’d email to them that her wedding would be delayed by an hour. Ten minutes later, while getting her hair done, Berner sent the email.
Although this bought Flaherty some time, he needed to come up with more excuses that night.
“Ellie and I were making up reason after reason after reason to stall,” he said. “Carla was getting increasingly frustrated.”
Finally, after his mother arrived at the vineyard, Flaherty orchestrated a surprise wine tour and proposed.
“The very first thing she says is, ‘My parents are here, right?’ ” Flaherty said. They had a celebration with their family and friends, who had been hiding in an upstairs loft, followed by a dinner at their house with a private chef.
They wed on Nov. 19, 2022.