If you’re wondering why I proposed to my husband, you’re like everyone else that was a part of this surprise plan.
Let’s rewind. At the age of 29, in 2017, I had been in the ‘arranged marriage’ circuit for almost 6 years. I had given up on getting married. But the romantic in me always knew I would find my person. It was my faith in the universe and my presence on dating apps that was still encouraging me to meet prospective boys.
In September 2017, something strange happened. I stopped seeing clearly. Everything was a blur. In the wait for my vision to return to normal, and boredom to do anything else, I went online on one of the dating apps. I couldn’t hold a texting conversation and I was apprehensive to give out my number. That’s when I connected with Pratiik.
It was 12th September 2017. We chatted and I liked him enough to talk to him but had been burnt enough times before so I hesitated to give him my phone number. I gave him my landline number and asked for a time I could call. He joked about it the minute he picked up our conversation lasted for 3 hours until I fell asleep on the phone and started snoring. I was just tired, not bored by him.
Fortunately, some tests and a visit to the eye doctor later, I found out my eye power had drastically changed. I just needed a new pair of glasses.
Pratiik and I decided to meet the day I would have to get my pupils dilated. We liked each other enough for me to put myself in an Uber and show up at the cafe with blurry vision. We just clicked and spent every day together since.
On 21st September 2017, just to be really sure that he liked me as much as I did, I kinda threatened him to kiss me. He thought I was crazy. I was. In love.
I introduced him to my parents on 23rd September 2017. We spoke about getting married and what our expectations were of each other.
And then on Friday, 29th September 2017, we decided we would go to Lonavala. Someone had offered me to stay at their property and review it on my blog. I thought it was the perfect opportunity.
By the time we left Bombay, it was 11:30pm. We reached at 3:30am and I was exhausted. I changed into my night suit and turned around to find Pratiik down on one knee and he said, “Dhruvi Hasmukh Shah, will you marry me?”
I was surprised, overwhelmed, overjoyed, and in a second, I said “yes” amidst tears. I woke up on 30th September 2017, feeling absolutely beautiful.
Fast forward to 2021, Pratiik is now my husband. We have had a roka, a ring ceremony, a wedding, a honeymoon, celebrated festivals, been on holidays, mourned deaths, welcomed new family members, cherished friendships old and new, been through a pandemic, and watched the F.R.I.E.N.D.S tv show almost every day!
There are a few things Pratiik is obsessed with. Parathas (he can eat them all day), watching reruns of Friends while doing absolutely anything, flowers (roses in particular), acting (his passion), and making me laugh with his jokes (he is a Chandler in real life).
When I mess up, I make up with grand gestures. Every year, it’s a toss up for us whether we should celebrate 13th September (the day we met) or 21st September (the day we knew the other was ‘the one’ for us!). And then, of course, we celebrate our birthdays, our wedding anniversary, etc.
For 2 years, I have been promising him gifts for our 21st September anniversary; 2020 and 2021. To my bad luck, the gifts I ordered never reached!
And every time I would log on to Instagram, I would be reminded that he hadn’t got them. Also, I would keep seeing the perfect ‘proposal videos’. So I had an idea.
I decided to surprise him with a proposal, Monica style, Friends themed. I messaged him on 29th September night when I was awake and hence, in the living room, while he was trying to sleep in the bedroom. I just texted, “A special occasion is coming up”.
I put my thinking cap on. Put together a WhatsApp group of our family and friends. And asked them to send photos pretending they were holding a placard.
I coordinated with his best friend and planned how I would get him out of the house for a few hours on the day of the proposal and lead him back home clueless.
I booked a decorator who would light up our place with balloons, candles and rose petals. I booked the photographer and videographer. I decided on the menu with my cook and invited the guests.
Everything was flowing well and it was D day! While Pratiik was recording for his podcast on the afternoon of 30th September 2021 and I was coordinating the final details. He sent me two photos on WhatsApp from our visit to Lonavla in 2017. So, he had a clue! I casually asked him, “Isn’t that the day you proposed?” He replied, “Yes, it was.”
He left when his best friend called again. And I started with the preparation. My cousin was making the sign, “Will you grow old with me?” I was editing the photos everyone had sent. Pratiik’s best friend’s wife was brainstorming with me.
And then the first card fell out of the stack.
The decorator was untraceable.
Everything had been booked and we just couldn’t get through him. He was supposed to arrive at 6pm. At 7pm, we couldn’t even get through to him. I lost my cool and started panicking. We finally caught a hold of him half an hour later and waited for his arrival. The photographer and videographer arrived and went about capturing everything with their cameras.
My cook arrived and the number of invited guests had increased, so my mom was coordinating with her and ordering the additional supplies. It was Central stress Perk at home.
I even set up a Zoom meeting, so everyone in the group could watch.
There was no time for me to do hair and makeup. I decided to go with an all-natural look. My cousin helped fix my hair extensions. She then got back to making the clues and instructions.
Pratiik kept calling me. At first, I answered, he needed help in deciding the legs for the sofa we had ordered for our place. As the time passed, I stopped answering his calls. It was all part of the script. He kept calling. His best friend was messaging me on the side updating me on Pratiik’s status.
Everyone was getting antsy. I finally answered Pratiik’s call and pretended I was in no network. I texted him saying, “I’m stuck somewhere.” He was really irritated. At least, this part of the plan was working. I was expecting Pratiik and his friend Rohan at 7:45pm and until 7:30pm, the decorator hadn’t arrived! We had to improvise. I asked Rohan to stall him.
I set up the tarot cards he was supposed to pull before entering our home. I even invited a very special guest for Pratiik—my cousin’s golden labrador. He was wearing a t-shirt for the special occasion and sitting quietly amidst the balloons.
The decorator sent Shital (Rohan’s wife) a screenshot of Google Maps, and he was scheduled to arrive in 3 mins by 7:45pm. The doorbell rang and I hurriedly opened expecting him. But it was just my mom and sister. He came 2 minutes after that! And got straight to work. And my sister fixed the keys in the key ring he would receive to open the door.
The photos hadn’t been edited. I was receiving them from people until 7:30pm! There were 38 of them. I had to wing this too.
Pratiik and Rohan arrived at 8:05pm.
My sister and Shital welcomed him and Rohan. At this point, the zoom call was on and I was yelling at everyone, including Pratiik (through the zoom call). It was hilarious!
I had kept 3 options, a t-shirt, a shirt and sweatshirt for Pratiik to choose from. The shirt was the one he wore when he met my parents for the first time. The t-shirt was what he wore in Lonavala when he proposed. And the sweatshirt was a F.R.I.E.N.D.S themed one which I had bought for him from one of my solo trips. The clue said, “What would you wear if you were meeting one of the friends?” He picked the right one and started climbing up the stairs to our place.
That’s it! It was happening. I was nervous. Pratiik was blanking out. He picked up the tarot cards and instead of looking at the imagery, he read out the names. It was too funny.
We have this thing where if one of us rings the bell, we don’t open the door. We open the grill and ask for the password. Pratiik was so spaced out, he just didn’t remember that he needed a password. I made him wait outside the door until he gave the right password.
I finally let him in and the first word out of his mouth was, “Wow!” I asked him to wait on one side of the heart of rose petals.
On the other side of the heart, I went down on my knees, and proposed.
I then stood with the sign and asked, “Will you grow old with me?”
When he said yes, there were two champagne flutes waiting for us, one red, one white and there was his engagement ring and the bottom of the flute. He didn’t expect it.
I then put the ring on his finger back again. And everyone cheered! That was the proposal. It was perfect and sweet.
We played with the dog, clicked lots of photos, everyone ate dinner, but it wasn’t the end of the night.
We cut a cake with “You’re my lobster” written in icing.
Eventually, everyone left and it was just Pratiik, Rohan, Shital and myself. That’s when I gave him his other surprise. I had arranged a guitarist to play our songs for us on video call.
And finally, when it was just the two of us, I showed him the video of the photos everyone had sent. But it was still not the end.
The next day, the gift arrived. The one that had started it all. The reason for the grand gesture. It was a friends themed book box. And Pratiik loved all of it.
With that, I can finally say, I gave my husband the best F.R.I.E.N.D.S themed proposal any wife could!
What do you think of this Friends themed proposal? Let us know in the comments below.
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