Austin proposed to Charming after arranging a stop and search on the road.
As she looked downcast, he urged her to
look up where a billboard was showing her photos, her family and friends
from Lagos emerged, a table was set up outside where he dropped down on
one knee, a 5 man orchestra appeared … the rest – history!
The moments were beautifully captured by 7th April Photography.
more beautiful pics after the cut
The Stop & Search…
Charming Getting Frustrated
The Billboard of Pictures…
The Shock!
The Orchestra
Surprised to see her family and friends!
The Speech
The Moment
Happy Couple!
How We Met
from the bride to be, Charming
It all started at the beginning of the year 2014. A mutual friend of Austin and I gave my number to him. He tried calling but I never picked up because the number was strange, my line was new, only known to my close friends. So I wasn’t expecting any anonymous number. Our friend called to inform me that Austin has been calling. I decided to pick this ‘strange number’ … and he introduced himself and how he got my number and all. We had a friendly short chat on that day which lasted about two minutes. He went further to ask for my BB pin and if I was on What’s App, I said I would send him that once I ended the call but there was a little silence from my part for some days after he added me up on BBM (I didn’t want to ping first… and I wasn’t interested at all).
We soon started chatting little by
little and he made it clear that he was a busy person and doesn’t really
do the BBM and What’s App chatting but he would try to keep in touch
via phone calls… at this point I was indifferent. So we communicated via
phone calls (he did all the calling). He was very friendly on the
phone.
Fast forward some weeks, Austin informed
me that he was going to be in Lagos for some business trip (he is based
in PHC) and that he would love to see me. I said to him “till then, if I’m chanced I’ll see you” (normal
girls fronting). So he came to Lag and I decided to see him (this time I
actually wanted to see the person I had been talking to and chatting
with for some weeks).
I can remember everything that happened on that day…
Our first meeting was a bit awkward. Some day in February …so we planned
to see at 3pm after his day’s schedule at the hotel he was lodging and
at 3pm I was still at home. This man didn’t even bother to call to ask
why I was running late or if I was still coming. To me, I was like what kinda man is this, very nonchalant and uncaring. I had to call him to notify him that I was on my way and he was like: “Ok fine, see you soon, call me when you get here”.
I was already pissed and felt like going back home …I got there and he
kept me waiting in the lobby for a while, instead of him to be awaiting
my arrival, he was busy giving me directions on how to locate him. After
roaming to and fro the lobby , he finally appeared. At this time I
thought ‘What a man! What a date!’ We were together and Austin was forming all busy with his laptop and I was glued to my phone, chatting (I cared less, as he didn’t have my time).
Austin finally noticed me. We got
talking and we had lunch together and he even did a drawing of me while I
was sitting (my boo is a very good artist – FIRST thing I love
about him). We spent some time together and it was time to go home.
At this point I was indifferent about
him. The next day he asked to see me and I was reluctant, due to the
previous day’s meeting, my sister, Vanessa, persuaded me to go and I
finally did (I’m glad I did..). When he got back to PH after his Lagos
business trip, Austin became resilient and persistent. “All time busy Austin”
wasn’t busy anymore. This time he became so busy pursuing fine girl
..lool. Austin would call morning,afternoon , night, midnight…every
time. He finally made his intentions known and according to him, he said
he fell in love with me on our second meeting. As we got talking,
I grew to know him better, grew fond of him and grew to like him and I
decided to give him a try … and the rest they say is history. But Austin
is a lucky guy oo..He didn’t even stress much and I just fell for him
like that. I didn’t mention that he has a “magic tongue” that makes
every phone call feel like you just spoke to Denzel Washington...lol!!! He just came in to my heart and chanced all the other guys on the queue before him..lol
The Proposal
From the groom to be, Austin
It started with a joint planning session with 4 friends (Ifeanyi, Tosin, Dominic & Mega) with everyone bringing in their beautiful ideas, some were on point and some were far from it. But all I needed was an idea that was out of this world. The first thing that came to my mind was a “Road Show”, but Charming being a shy person, I wondered, how will this work?
From the groom to be, Austin
It started with a joint planning session with 4 friends (Ifeanyi, Tosin, Dominic & Mega) with everyone bringing in their beautiful ideas, some were on point and some were far from it. But all I needed was an idea that was out of this world. The first thing that came to my mind was a “Road Show”, but Charming being a shy person, I wondered, how will this work?
So back to the drawing board with team
members having one mindset, the planning started. That same day, I
received delivery of her engagement ring I ordered from ‘Blue Nile’.
Everyone seeing the engagement ring got gingered and decided to help. A
team of 5 grew to 36 people interested and dishing out evil and cool
ideas all to make Charming tensed and surprised respectively.
First, someone thought of an advert
screen, another thought of fireworks, NDLEA, TIMA-RIV, Mobile police
…the ideas kept on coming. Someone in the team even mentioned that we
could use a Helicopter.
Lol!!! I told them that we are going to bring all this crazy ideas together and put them in sequence.
Lol!!! I told them that we are going to bring all this crazy ideas together and put them in sequence.
I still love the traditional way of
proposing to a lady in the restaurant, so what we had to do was to bring
the restaurant setting outdoor on a major road in PHC.
From the way things were going, we
decided to involve her colleagues at work and her family members with a
notion that no one will let her know. That task was delegated to Ifeanyi
who was dedicated in doing all flight bookings from Lagos to PHC,
airport pick-ups and hotel accommodations.
My surprise for everyone was the
Orchestra, I believe that having a 5 man band play a love tune to the
lady I love at the point when I would say those beautiful words to her,
would make the words sink in forever.
Dominic was in charge of the venue
(Aztech Arcum), photography (7th April photography.) and video coverage.
Tosin was in charge of the TIMA-RIV, NDLEA and Mobile Police men. Mega
was in charge of the audio-visual, Seyi was in charge of logistics and
arranging the dinner (Sparklyn Hotels). We rehearsed the sequence with
every team member a couple of times before Saturday all to make sure
that it goes as planned. The plan was to have the surprises come one
after the other until she is completely slept off her feet.
In all, my fear was that Charming may
have clue, being that several people were involved from her end and
mine. At the end, she was totally clueless and astonished.
We had a party at my GRA residence to
say thank you to everyone that was a part of the Set-up. That same
night, my friends put together an after party at the Sky Bar. Why they
were dancing and dining, I was only thanking God for a successful
proposal and the beautiful lady he brought into my life.
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