We meet the woman who helps men pop the question in style
ROSE petals are scattered across the floor, 1,000 candles are lit and a musician is playing.
The romantic scene is the perfect set-up for a proposal, as Daisy Amodio well knows as she enters the room.
But the groom-to-be won’t be asking her the question. Daisy is a proposal planner, making a living out of doing the hard work so partners don’t have to.
Six years ago, Daisy quit her high-flying job as a PR guru to focus on becoming the UK’s first proposal planner — and her firm, The Proposers, has been in high demand ever since.
Despite the number of marriages in the UK declining over the past three decades, those who still choose to tie the knot are doing it in style — with the wedding industry worth more than £10billion a year.
And, of course, it all starts with one important question.
With the pressures of social media encouraging constant life updates, more couples are keen to share that magical moment.
Daisy, 37, says: “Proposals are not just quick moments any more, they are stories people want to tell for the rest of their lives.
“Weddings themselves are getting more and more creative, with couples shunning the wedding package and wanting to make their day as personal as possible.
“Now the same applies to the proposal, and that’s where I come in. Men — and some women — come to us with an idea or a thought, but with no idea how to actually execute it.
‘Faces beamed on to Eiffel Tower’
“We take their budget and idea and transform it into reality.”
However, most of the proposals Daisy plans are far from what most of us might consider a reality.
With the average cost of a wedding now £30,355, a planned proposal typically comes in at £2,500 — before the ring.
With clients from all over the world, with varying budgets, Daisy has planned proposals costing as much as £800,000.
She says: “I got the idea for the business in 2011 when my brother asked me to help with his proposal.
“He doesn’t have a creative bone in his body and knew his girlfriend would want something personal, so he was worrying.
“I planned a treasure hunt around London, with love messages at each destination. I then arranged the final place for the proposal and for a photographer to be there.
“She said yes and couldn’t believe the effort that had gone into it. It made me realise there must be a demand for this type of service.
“I went home and Googled ‘proposal planners’ but nothing came up. I knew then this was my calling.”
Daisy soon quit her job to make proposals her sole focus. She started out with two a month, but now plans up to ten per week.
With more than 1,500 proposals under her belt, she now has a team of five dedicated co-planners in her London offices. And the busiest time of year is on the horizon — Christmas.
Daisy says: “Christmas is the most popular time. We do about 25 proposals in the week before December 25.
“We offer proposals from £500, which includes a romantic walk through a park.
“For the most expensive — £800,000 — the man involved wanted to see their faces in a logo beamed on to the Eiffel Tower.
“I tried, but it just was not possible. Instead, we arranged a private jet to fly them to seven different countries and, at each one, their faces were beamed on to a landmark or object — the castle in Disneyland Paris, a chest on the sea floor in Monaco.
“In Iceland, it was on an ice sculpture. In Mexico, it was on the food menu of their favourite restaurant. In Hawaii, it was written in the sand.
'We've only ever had yeses'
In New York, it was on the screens in Times Square. And, in Canada, it was beamed on to the Niagara Falls, which is where he got down on one knee.”
With such meticulous planning going into every proposal, has anyone ever said no?
Daisy, from Balham in South West London, says: “We’ve only ever had yeses. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve not had some challenges.
“Sometimes the girls are running late, which sets everything back. We only pay actors and musicians for a few hours of their time, so I end up having to beg them to stay.
“We had a proposal planned for a private room on Tower Bridge, but the bridge went up unexpectedly, meaning we missed our slot. So I had to find a last-minute hotel with a view over the bridge instead.
“Most guys give us a two-week turnaround as they pick the ring and realise they don’t have any idea how to propose.
“We’ve had some panic-call us on the day, but we help.
Daisy herself is currently engaged, to Henry Proctor, 37, a global marking director, but with every hour of her day spent making other proposals perfect, how does anyone pop the question to her?
She says: “Henry did a great job, although we were together seven years before he finally asked me.
“It’s part of the reason I started my job — I was so sick of waiting, I decided to plan other people’s.
“I got home from work and the lights were turned off, with a trail of candles to the garden. He was there with a sign saying, ‘Is this how you pictured your future?’
“It was lovely — but I wish he’d booked a photographer to capture it. I always book them for clients.”
‘I was so full of anxiety, I got shingles’
SALES manager Martin Walker, 32, this month spent £500 proposing to his girlfriend of three years Holly Pearce, 30, an admin worker.
Martin, from Dronfield, Derbys, says: “Holly and I had been together for three years and had our son Leo when I decided to propose.
“At first, I wasn’t nervous. But when I started looking for little ideas in magazines and online, I saw all these incredible proposals and was suddenly full of anxiety.
“So many men were going big on proposals and I had no idea if I could pull anything like that off.
“I kept putting it off. I was so stressed, I caught shingles.
“It was then I found The Proposers online. The firm took over and the relief I felt was amazing.
'It was amazing'
“On September 5, we travelled to London. I took Holly on a walk through Hyde Park and, at the Italian Gardens’ fountain, Holly spotted a giant silver birthday box with a picture of our son on top. I pretended to know nothing.
“On top was a letter from Leo saying he missed his mum and dad and wished he could be there.
“When she opened the box a huge clear balloon came out covered in glitter with the words, ‘Will you marry me?’ on it.
“When Holly turned around I was down on one knee with the ring. She cried and said yes. It was amazing.
'I’ll remember for the rest of my life'
“The company had been stopping anyone from coming near the fountain to make sure our moment was perfect.
“The firm had booked us a taxi to a lovely restaurant for a special meal with champagne then booked us tickets to see the Tina Turner musical.
“All our mates said it was the best proposal story they’ve heard and I was so pleased Holly loved it – that was the main thing for me.”
Holly says: “It was amazing and I’m so pleased Martin got help from planners, as I know now how stressed he was about it all.
"It was something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
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'Waiter cat with ring'
RECALLING the funniest proposal she has organised, Daisy says: “We planned a feline-themed proposal by hiring out a cat cafe in London.
“When the lady sat down all of the cats came out dressed as waiters – and one of them had the ring around its neck.”
The craziest proposal has to be when Daisy arranged a prank DRUGS BUST in Barcelona.
She says: “Two actors dressed as policemen arrested the couple and drove them to a dark park, where they took the man off, leaving the woman scared in the car.
Eventually, they took her up the hill where he was waiting surrounded by candles on one knee. She loved it and thought it was hilarious.”
A more traditional set-up was the “re-proposal” for a 64-year-old client who wanted to do a better job than he had the first time around.
Daisy says: “We sent them to a country house in a Rolls-Royce for dinner. A huge firework display went off and in sparklers it spelt out ‘Will you marry me again?’”
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