I've seen that video at least a half dozen times, now, and it leaves me teary every single time. Its not because he, personally, went through all of the trouble. Its that his friends and family believed in their love so much that they supported him in a project that clearly took a LOT of work and co-ordination.
Who are these people? I can just imagine trying to organize and rehearse something that complex with family members. We can barely decide on which restaurant to eat at without bloodshed. That is a lucky guy!
The Hollywood version would be worse in so many ways.
First no director would hold a shot so long. Second no movie star would allow the whole scene to play to the back of her head. Third everyone in the scene would look like an actor... Instead of like real people. Fourth the guy asking would be a movie star, not an average looking guy in a black suit. So of course she would say yes. And finally, fifth, it would star Katherine Heigl.
These over-the-top proposal videos are getting truly ridiculous. I feel sorry for the women who are put on the spot and would really rather say "no." My wife laughs about the fact that I never actually proposed to her; I just started referring to her at work as my fiancee, and she said she figured she'd better start planning a wedding. We got married in a park with about 15 guests.
Last month, we celebrated our 22nd anniversary. Meanwhile, everyone I know who had a big, elaborate wedding in the same decade is long since divorced.
Moral: Don't oversell it at the beginning; you'll never be able to live up to the hype.
But I do second the people who said that the woman in red in this video makes it worth watching.
I'm sorry, but anyone that doesn't like that is beyond hope. I would have gone without the cheesy actual proposal at the end (was that really needed? A good screenwriter would have cut that), but to get everyone involved like that was mighty impressive.
And am I the only one who thinks the one in the red dress is a professional choreographer?
I love the people that I'm pretty sure are her parents and the people on skype on the laptops. All the details and work that went into this make me happy!
Oh, and Tim W., yes she is definitely a choreographer. I read somewhere that the fiance is an actor so a lot of their friends are creative types.
And it looks like I was wrong about the parents: "Thus the laptops that appear in front of Frankel during the song show videos of family and friends who don’t live in town. Frankel’s parents, who live in Florida, are dancing on camera, her mother in her wedding dress and her dad in his tux. Another laptop shows Frankel's sister in Massachusetts and her brother’s family in California, as well as friends in New York and Alabama"
Omgosh Pat Reeder do you need a hug or something freshly baked or something? :( Do you kill bunnies in the morning? I think all the flowers in my yard just wilted because I read your comments. What's really bothering you?
Everyone's entitled to their opinions but I agree that this was mighty impressive - the guy's lucky to have so many great friends to help put this together. And the actual marriage proposal at the end is only extraneous if you're forgetting the "do or die!" necessity - cheese is totally necessary on this big ol' marriage proposal burger :D
I loved it. Thanks Ken. Totally awesome :)
Did the guy get police to block traffic and all neighborhood pets and kiddies tucked safely away, too?
Tim, I'm fairly certain several of those people were performers, not just the girl in the red dress. I presume he's connected with a theatre or something like that.
Yeah, a little digging on this video reveals the girl in the red dress is Gina Johnson Morris, who is married to the bearded guy she first appears with in the video. She choreographed the thing. She co-owns a boutique in Portland called Radish Underground. Her husband is indeed one lucky man.
According to Oregon Live, they had one three hour rehearsal for everyone involved. That's fairly amazing. The future married couple are local area performers, and so are many of their friends and family in the video. The older couple early in the video are his parents, and his mother tosses the bouquet to Amy, the intended. Her reactions were priceless. All in all, a job well done.
As the father of the "girl in the red dress", Gina Johnson Morris, (choreographer of the video)I must say how proud we are that she is a part of this wonderful piece of love. Not a fake, not a commercial, Gina had two weeks and one rehearsal to create a non-dancer friendly number that a handful of theatre friends and a total of 60 other friends and family could pull off to suprise Amy with a memory that we all will love forever. Spread the love not the Sinisism please.
Sorry, I can't accept hugs from strange women, being happily married for 22 years and all. And no, I don't kill bunnies, I actually take in homeless and handicapped parrots (16 at current count). My wife and I work as writing partners in home offices and are together 24/7, yet we seldom argue and go out on dates to dinner or theater two or three times a week. I just don't feel the urge to record all that romance and stick it on YouTube because it's none of the public's business.
I wish these people well, and maybe they're exceptions to the rule, but I think that in general these elaborate proposals are just the latest manifestation of the over-the-top wedding competition, a fairly certain indicator that the relationship isn't going to last because the couple's priorities are focused outward rather than inward.
Quick quiz: What's the most elaborate public wedding ever? Charles and Diana.
What was the worst marriage ever? Same answer.
If you think that's an outlier, I would have also accepted Star Jones' or Kim Kardashian's weddings.
And lest you think I'm the only one who feels this way, here's an acquaintance of mine writing on the very same subject:
To the cynic above... Let's all hope for the best for these two. The effort and energy used to make this proposal has to be a reflection of the group's affection for the couple. And I couldn't count sixty friends who would do that for me with a calculator.
And I don't think this counts as a 'public' proposal since it was just family and friends who took part and witnessed it.
My wife and I have been married 33 years. We had an itty bitty wedding. So your theory holds up. Oh wait. My sister's been married 25 years and they had a huge gift laden bash that was the party of the year. They still have unopened presents. So who's knows.
I say mazel tov (I spell that right Ken?) to the Oregon couple for a job well done and many happy returns.
I've been happily "married" to my "wife" for 20+ years without benefit of a wedding or even technically a marriage. And weddings make my skin crawl. I describe them as a remake of a play I never liked in the first place. The coy sentimentality, the over-rehearsed emotion and things being said that no one would be caught saying otherwise....
But...
That proposal was awesome. I could have gone without the little speech at the end, though, and let the song and dance speak for itself.
I love it. My first thought when I saw it (OK my second as I too fell in love with "the lady in red") was that I hope its awesomeness will put an end to Jumbotron proposals at the ballpark.
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Man, that would have been a rough "no" .
ReplyDeleteGee, what car is that, a Honda CRV?
ReplyDeleteWow! Kind of leaves you speechless...
ReplyDeleteI feel so inadequate.
ReplyDeleteTook me a couple to figure out the "Dancin' Jews" but generally hilarious. I think she'd become a national pariah had she refused.
ReplyDeleteI was fully prepared to hate this. I can't stand these pretentious wedding videos. Damn you Levine, that was fucking awesome.
ReplyDeleteI've seen that video at least a half dozen times, now, and it leaves me teary every single time.
ReplyDeleteIts not because he, personally, went through all of the trouble. Its that his friends and family believed in their love so much that they supported him in a project that clearly took a LOT of work and co-ordination.
Oh, and the woman in red is stone cold beautiful.
The woman in red is Gina Johnson. Her mother, Cathy, was our receptionist at KOLO radio in Reno, Nevada when I worked there from 1977-81.
DeleteWho are these people? I can just imagine trying to organize and rehearse something that complex with family members. We can barely decide on which restaurant to eat at without bloodshed. That is a lucky guy!
ReplyDeleteWho is going to propose to whom on The Office next season so they can do a mash-up of this?
ReplyDeleteThe obvious choice is Andy/Erin.
The Hollywood version would be worse in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteFirst no director would hold a shot so long.
Second no movie star would allow the whole scene to play to the back of her head.
Third everyone in the scene would look like an actor... Instead of like real people.
Fourth the guy asking would be a movie star, not an average looking guy in a black suit. So of course she would say yes.
And finally, fifth, it would star Katherine Heigl.
A mistake. Their marriage will never match the cuteness.
ReplyDeleteIn the UK, we did this over twenty years ago on live TV.
ReplyDeleteThey were turned down.
I'm with ChicagoJohn, the girl in the red dress is a babe. I would have proposed to her.
ReplyDeleteIf my wife sees this, she'll once again tell me how I didn't put much effort on my wedding proposal.. :P
ReplyDeleteDamn, there was no tape in the camcorder! Take two...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the Dancing Jews is what totally sells it.
The big winner, of course, is Bruno Mars.
These over-the-top proposal videos are getting truly ridiculous. I feel sorry for the women who are put on the spot and would really rather say "no." My wife laughs about the fact that I never actually proposed to her; I just started referring to her at work as my fiancee, and she said she figured she'd better start planning a wedding. We got married in a park with about 15 guests.
ReplyDeleteLast month, we celebrated our 22nd anniversary. Meanwhile, everyone I know who had a big, elaborate wedding in the same decade is long since divorced.
Moral: Don't oversell it at the beginning; you'll never be able to live up to the hype.
But I do second the people who said that the woman in red in this video makes it worth watching.
Ken, something that might be of interest to you and your readers: sitcom writer Dee Caruso's (Monkees, Get Smart, Smothers Bros, etc.) obit:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dee-caruso-writer-sitcoms-332216
Damn. How can you not like that?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but anyone that doesn't like that is beyond hope. I would have gone without the cheesy actual proposal at the end (was that really needed? A good screenwriter would have cut that), but to get everyone involved like that was mighty impressive.
ReplyDeleteAnd am I the only one who thinks the one in the red dress is a professional choreographer?
I love the people that I'm pretty sure are her parents and the people on skype on the laptops. All the details and work that went into this make me happy!
ReplyDeleteOh, and Tim W., yes she is definitely a choreographer. I read somewhere that the fiance is an actor so a lot of their friends are creative types.
ReplyDeleteAnd it looks like I was wrong about the parents:
"Thus the laptops that appear in front of Frankel during the song show videos of family and friends who don’t live in town. Frankel’s parents, who live in Florida, are dancing on camera, her mother in her wedding dress and her dad in his tux. Another laptop shows Frankel's sister in Massachusetts and her brother’s family in California, as well as friends in New York and Alabama"
Awwww....
Omgosh Pat Reeder do you need a hug or something freshly baked or something? :( Do you kill bunnies in the morning? I think all the flowers in my yard just wilted because I read your comments. What's really bothering you?
ReplyDeleteEveryone's entitled to their opinions but I agree that this was mighty impressive - the guy's lucky to have so many great friends to help put this together. And the actual marriage proposal at the end is only extraneous if you're forgetting the "do or die!" necessity - cheese is totally necessary on this big ol' marriage proposal burger :D
I loved it. Thanks Ken. Totally awesome :)
Did the guy get police to block traffic and all neighborhood pets and kiddies tucked safely away, too?
Tim, I'm fairly certain several of those people were performers, not just the girl in the red dress. I presume he's connected with a theatre or something like that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, a little digging on this video reveals the girl in the red dress is Gina Johnson Morris, who is married to the bearded guy she first appears with in the video. She choreographed the thing. She co-owns a boutique in Portland called Radish Underground. Her husband is indeed one lucky man.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Oregon Live, they had one three hour rehearsal for everyone involved. That's fairly amazing. The future married couple are local area performers, and so are many of their friends and family in the video. The older couple early in the video are his parents, and his mother tosses the bouquet to Amy, the intended. Her reactions were priceless. All in all, a job well done.
As the father of the "girl in the red dress", Gina Johnson Morris, (choreographer of the video)I must say how proud we are that she is a part of this wonderful piece of love. Not a fake, not a commercial, Gina had two weeks and one rehearsal to create a non-dancer friendly number that a handful of theatre friends and a total of 60 other friends and family could pull off to suprise Amy with a memory that we all will love forever. Spread the love not the Sinisism please.
ReplyDeleteTo Kati,
ReplyDeleteSorry, I can't accept hugs from strange women, being happily married for 22 years and all. And no, I don't kill bunnies, I actually take in homeless and handicapped parrots (16 at current count). My wife and I work as writing partners in home offices and are together 24/7, yet we seldom argue and go out on dates to dinner or theater two or three times a week. I just don't feel the urge to record all that romance and stick it on YouTube because it's none of the public's business.
I wish these people well, and maybe they're exceptions to the rule, but I think that in general these elaborate proposals are just the latest manifestation of the over-the-top wedding competition, a fairly certain indicator that the relationship isn't going to last because the couple's priorities are focused outward rather than inward.
Quick quiz: What's the most elaborate public wedding ever? Charles and Diana.
What was the worst marriage ever? Same answer.
If you think that's an outlier, I would have also accepted Star Jones' or Kim Kardashian's weddings.
And lest you think I'm the only one who feels this way, here's an acquaintance of mine writing on the very same subject:
http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-05-31/hitched-your-elaborately-planned-public-marriage-proposal-is-awkward-for-everyone/
To the cynic above... Let's all hope for the best for these two. The effort and energy used to make this proposal has to be a reflection of the group's affection for the couple. And I couldn't count sixty friends who would do that for me with a calculator.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't think this counts as a 'public' proposal since it was just family and friends who took part and witnessed it.
My wife and I have been married 33 years. We had an itty bitty wedding. So your theory holds up. Oh wait. My sister's been married 25 years and they had a huge gift laden bash that was the party of the year. They still have unopened presents. So who's knows.
I say mazel tov (I spell that right Ken?) to the Oregon couple for a job well done and many happy returns.
It's amazing that 60+ people were able to keep this a secret - in my circle, the cat would have been out of the bag within the hour.
ReplyDeleteOne of the copyright holders pulled the video. Seriously, what the FUCK do they think they are doing?!? Do they think this will end well?
ReplyDeletePat Reeder,
ReplyDeleteI've been happily "married" to my "wife" for 20+ years without benefit of a wedding or even technically a marriage. And weddings make my skin crawl. I describe them as a remake of a play I never liked in the first place. The coy sentimentality, the over-rehearsed emotion and things being said that no one would be caught saying otherwise....
But...
That proposal was awesome. I could have gone without the little speech at the end, though, and let the song and dance speak for itself.
That
I love it. My first thought when I saw it (OK my second as I too fell in love with "the lady in red") was that I hope its awesomeness will put an end to Jumbotron proposals at the ballpark.
ReplyDelete