Chris and Ariel: The world's shortest engagement (and my 100th surprise proposal!)

From partners, to fiancés, to spouses in under an hour.

Chris surprises Ariel with a wedding proposal…and a wedding!

I’ve done some pretty rad surprise proposals over the years: a magician making a secret message appear on a card, a surprise chorus girl dance performance, a brass band popping up outside of a restaurant to usher a couple to the surprise… but my 100th proposal was definitely the most epic of all.

It wasn’t just a surprise proposal. It was a surprise ELOPEMENT.

Yes, you read that right. Chris surprised Ariel with an elopement in New Orleans City Park!

Are you sure?

Alright, let me rewind. Because I know what you’re thinking- what if she didn’t want to get married right away? Well, this was a second marriage for both of them and they had already discussed a courthouse marriage over the summer and throwing a big wedding next year. But Ariel was never super keen on the idea of getting hitched in a courthouse. And Chris is not the type to let an opportunity for an epic surprise pass him by.

He sounded unsure that I’d want to be a part of this during our first consult call. But I was like “are you kidding me? I’m SO down!”. I didn’t know at the time that it would be my 100th Surprise Proposal. But that made it even better.

Planning the Surprise(s)

Together we planned not just a Surprise Proposal but the Elopement ceremony that would follow. After proposing to Ariel at Langles Bridge, I’d lead them on an “engagement session” that was actually walking them to the ceremony where their closest friends would be waiting and Ariel’s sister, Miranda, would be ready to officiate (she sneakily got ordained just for this event!).

Chris picked out sunflowers for Ariel’s bouquet (her favorite flower!) and we ordered rose petals in a color scheme to match. I rented a dozen chairs to set up so it would look even more wedding-like. And I hooked Chris up with a local harpist for that extra sweet final touch. We had people lined up to have a change of clothes for Chris (so he wouldn’t be too dressy during the proposal and tip Ariel off!) and touch-up makeup for Ariel.

I spent the day before arranging flowers (I made my first bridal bouquet and boutonniere! I normally leave that to the pros but when we’re on a budget, we do what we can. I think it turned out beautifully!) and I even made cute little custom tags to put on the hand fans I donated to the cause. It tends to be hot in late May so I wanted to be sure the guests were comfortable while they waited on our arrival.

Pulling off Two Surprises at Once

I felt like a kid on Christmas morning the day of Chris’ big surprise! I was so pumped to decorate for an elopement. By some stroke of luck, absolutely everything went off without a hitch. Miranda arrived on time as did the harpist. He sound-checked and all of his gear was working perfectly. The weather was warm but dry and we got everything set up on time. I was anticipating at least one thing going haywire but literally nothing did! The fates were looking out for us that day.

Langles bridge was crowded when Chris went in for the proposal but I was able to successfully shoo people away without Ariel noticing. You can tell by the photos that she was completely blindsided. She really had no idea the proposal was coming! They’d talked about getting married so informally that she didn’t expect a big proposal.

After they climbed down from the bridge we started an engagement session for the world’s shortest engagement (seriously, they went from dating to engaged to married in under an hour!). I hit it off with the couple immediately- there was NOTHING boring about these two. They were quick, funny, and irreverent- just my type of couple. Chris was clearly still nervous since there was one more surprise left. Ariel kept asking him why he was so twitchy! He blamed it on residual proposal nerves. But when we rounded the side of the fountain and she saw all of her friends seated in white wedding chairs with an aisle of rose petals in between, she knew exactly what he’d been hiding.

Ariel said hi to her friends and her sister before we hid the couple to get ready for the ceremony. I pinned a boutonniere on Chris (he didn’t know he was getting one!) and he handed a pen and paper to Ariel so she could write her own vows. Ariel’s sister gave her something borrowed, something blue, something old, and something new and they high-fived, wiped joyful tears, and geared up to make a wedding happen!

Y’all. It was perfect. Everything about it. Absolutely, amazingly, beautifully perfect. Ariel was over the moon, Chris was all smiles, the harpist interjected at just the right moments, and Miranda officated spectacularly (even though she wore sunglasses the whole time to hide her tears!)

A First and a Milestone

It wasn’t until after the ceremony that I realized it was even my 100th proposal! I thought it was only the 99th but just to be sure went back through my archives- and sure enough, I’d forgotten to count Lawrence’s proposal to Kat in 2018! I’m not gonna lie, I was a bit bummed out when I thought it was only number 99. It was far too epic to not be a career milestone. As it turns out, it absolutely was! And then the next day I did 101 and 102. :)