kimchi39

*Please understand my limited level of English.


I was in New York in July and on 100 days road trip all around US.

So, my girl friend had to be alone for 100 days and I always felt sorry about that. We've been almost 2 years and I was thinking about a marriage. During 3 days in New York, I prepared a small project for a marriage proposal. At the first time of the project, there was lack of ideas. I don't want to do a tipical proposal such as making a heart with candles or having dinner in a special restaurants.

I know they are good examples of proposal, but I really wanted to do something special from my heart.

My girl friend likes to be quite places and doesn't like be surrounded by lots of people in busy places like Times Square. Then I remembered that I saw a post about getting 100 messages from new-york for his friend's marriage on the internet. It was Dailyeyes's idea. I thought it was really great idea and can be used for my proposal. So, I started my own "100 messages for a marriage proposal."


The first place I went was staples because I had to buy a dry-erase board, markers and eraser. Fortunately, there was a staples near my hotel. There were many size of dry-erase boards..

and I bought 11x17 inch dry-erase board. This board seems to be good to hold by one hand and proper to be hold in the picture with message. also bought markers and eraser. This was the first step and it was hard. I just needed to buy some items. Only spent $25 and it was quite cheap for my proposal project.


My concept was "100 messages from 100 people.", but people were not alone. They were with their friends, family, wife, husband and so on. So, I changed my concept to "100 messages from New York.". I've met a lot of people like couples, dilivery guy from domino pizza, hotel concierge, street stall seller, NYPD, performers.

When I started it, it wasn't easy. Asking people to write any message was quite hard job to do and I was too shy. I was doing this for my love, talking to strangers was tough. That's why I was lack of confidence. When I walk towards people with the board, people said "No." without listening to my story. I thought "Is it impossible thing to do?"

However, I got a message from one couple, I realized how to start my story and aprroace people. After then, 9 out of 10 people gradly wrote message for my girl friend. It was really thankful. Some people wrote in there language, but it was ok. The message just need to be for my girl friend.


Messages are mostly in English, but there were also French, Spansish, Portuguese, German and so on. After I recieved a message on the board, I took a picture with their consent. To take a one picture, it took at least 10 mins because I needed to say my story and they needed to wrote something with their idea. I also wanted to get messages from lots of places in New York. So, I took 3 days to finish the job.

I met lots of people in Times Square, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Soho Street, Statue of liberty, Grand Central Station. the messages of congraturations and sayings were really greatful and appreciated. At this moment, there is nothing I can do for them, but this story can show what they helped me on this project. If anybody of them saw this post, please let me know. The moment that you share with me was one of my happy time in my life.

You can see some of 100 pictures below.

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I was looking for a place that I can use it as a gallary, but it was hard to find. Cafes are too noisy and have small space to hang my pictures. I've searched for few days and finally find a good place to do it. It was W hotel seoul. The studio suite room has long white wall and it looked good for display my pictures. That why I chose this place.


There also has a big PDP TV in front of a round bed. It was perfect setting to show my proposal video to her. However, the problem was it was a suite room and expensive. Normally, this room was over $400 and it was hard to afford. Fortunately, I was a platinum member of SPG, and it was confirmed upgrading room to suite with a reservation of standard room. W hotel concierges were really helpful for my project.


I printed my picture in many sizes. 15x10, 12x8 and 4x6. If all of them were too small, she weren't able to notice the messages. So, I decided to print in big sizes for 30 out of 100. Then, it became much easier to see the messages from people of New York.

The day I planed a marriage proposal was our 2 years anniversary. So, I told her I will be busy during a day and how about having a dinner at night. Then, I made a reservation at 7:00 pm for the restaurant on the first floor. This hotel was quite close to her home and we had dinner few times before. So, it is quite familiar place to us.

I went to the hotel at 3 pm for preparing everything and she thought I was in work. There were no candles and balloons, but 100 picture needed to be placed everywhere in the room.


First, I made a heart with pictures.


On the long white wall, I displayed most of pictures. When we came to the room, it shouldn't look like wierd and it worked ok. It was really simple display, but it was my best.


I also put some places in hotel so that she can find them after my proposal. This was also worked great. Since I can't change any hotel's interior, I just lean pictures on the wall and places.


I also connected my MID to the TV using S-VIDEO to show her my proposal video.


Then, I went to the restaurant and had dinner seems like the dinner is everything. After the dinner, I told her I prepared something for you in the room, but didn't mention it was a merriage proposal. She showed a curious face, but didn't expecte it.

When we came to the room and turn on the light, she thought the pictures were the interior of the hotel. Then, I hold her hand and show her my marriage proposal video. I was not good at making a video so I spent 2 days to finish it.






ps. with more pictures, you can see full story on my blog,
http://www.kimchi39.com/entry/nyc-proposal