We’re no stranger to a good love story, but this particular tale has the ultimate modern-day spin. What began as a casual exchange on Twitter turned into love and ended in a hashtag-driven proposal plus “Will You Marry Me?” tweet. The Groom-to-be set the bar for millennial proposals everywhere, and you see the full surprise unfold inside The Vault. #Tweethearts
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How We Met
My friends know me as social media obsessed. I use social sites for my personal and professional benefit. I have used Twitter to reach out to individuals that have similar professional interests as me and throughout college and law school and even after, this has led me to have over 16 different internships and 9 of those started with relationships I built off of Twitter. I also have a knack of finding social media contests on Twitter and have won tickets and prizes to almost every local concert and sporting event I can think of (almost $10,000 in prizes on Twitter!) Therefore, it was no surprise to anyone that I met my fiance on Twitter!
I was searching for tickets one day in September 2013 on Twitter for Jazzoo, an annual event held at Zoo Atlanta. I searched “jazzo tickets” and Anuj Patel’s (my now fiance) tweet popped up. He had tweeted just a day or so earlier, asking anyone if they want to join him because he had an extra ticket. I randomly reached out to him and asked if he still had it. He had already given up his ticket but his biography on twitter caught my attention because he works in sports and entertainment, which is a field I was very much interested in getting into. We started chatting and tweeting turned into Direct Messaging and then emailing, and then texting, and phone calls, and then we met in person. The rest is history I guess! This is a snapshot of our first exchange on Twitter, so you can see where it all began.
The Proposal
It was only fitting that his proposal was “Twitter” themed. The day started with my sister dragging me out of bed for breakfast. Then, she led me to Drybar to have my hair done. At this point, I knew something must be going on. As soon as we left the hair salon, a few of my closest friends were waiting outside (two of them armed with cameras and shooting video as well) and they had the first clue for me along with instructions for the scavenger hunt. I was blown away just by the first clue. Anuj had created his own “tweet” clues.
The tweet clues resembled an actual tweet so perfectly and they were already time stamped with the EXACT time I was to receive each clue throughout the day. My sister and friends were tasked with getting me to each location on time. The tweet clues always led me to a meaningful location in our relationship and at each new location, there was a close friend of mine waiting to greet me with a rose and the next clue. The timing was amazing, as every time I received a clue, I would check my watch and it was literally the SAME time printed on the clue! Anuj was also tweeting as soon as I received a clue, so I had to go on Twitter and favorite and retweet the same tweet clue that I had just received on the actual website as well. He also had a unique hashtag, #SumitaFindAnuj
He had asked two of my friends to follow me all day, capturing photos and videos. One of the last clues included a horse carriage ride around downtown Atlanta. The horse carriage ride ended at the W Hotel in Midtown where he had booked a room and when I went in, a dress and my shoes were already laid out for me, along with the last clue, which asked me to take the elevator up to the helipad.
Of course, after getting ready, I headed up there, and there he was. Waiting for me at the top. Anuj is deathly afraid of heights, so the fact that he chose this spot to propose blew me away. Not only was he waiting with the ring, but he had one more tweet for me! He held up a tweet sign that said “Will you marry me?”. It was perfect.
He had the entire day timed so that this last tweet would be at 5pm, right when the sun was setting over Atlanta. After saying yes, he led me back down to the hotel, where all of my friends were waiting with one more surprise. They had choreographed a dance to two of my favorite artists, Justin Bieber and the Backstreet Boys. Anuj does not dance, he always refuses too, but he completely blew me away when he joined in in the middle of one of the songs. He had learned the dance just for me! As if this was not enough, after the dance, we headed to Tin Lizzy’s restaurant, where he had both of our families waiting for a celebratory dinner. It was truly a magical day.
Photography: Jeffrey Franks Photography
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