Woman's Get-Engaged Secret: Try On a Wedding Dress

Public marriage proposals aren't always the best idea, but a man recently staged a near perfect one — while his girlfriend was wearing a wedding dress.   

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On Sunday, store clerk Stacy Phipps, 20, volunteered as a model in the Oregon Wedding Showcase, an exhibit for photography, catering, and bridal wear vendors, at the Salem Convention Center. Phipps, who was modeling wedding gowns onstage, had no idea that her boyfriend of six months, Josh Phillips, 22, was plotting a secret proposal.


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“Stacy has always dreamed of her wedding day, so the showcase was the best place to propose,” Phillips tells Yahoo Shine. The Salem-based couple, who met through work two years ago, had discussed marriage in the past; however, Phipps had no idea that three weeks earlier, Phillips had purchased an engagement ring and made arrangements with the showcase.   

“I was sitting in the front row with Stacy’s mother and brothers and my own family and I was really nervous — my hands were shaking pretty badly,” he says. While the models were doing their final walk, Phillips sneaked out of the room and quickly changed into a tuxedo.

Phipps had noticed that her boyfriend wasn’t in the audience at the end of the show, but figured he had returned to work. Backstage, a showcase coordinator pulled her aside. “She told me that I had to do one more walk because a bride wanted to see my dress again,” Phipps tells Yahoo Shine. “Then she said, ‘You’re going to love me for this.’ At that point, I knew something was up.”

As Phipps walked onstage wearing a tulle ball gown, her favorite song, “Amazed” by Lone Star, played over the loudspeakers. Phillips met her halfway onstage and dropped to one knee, proposing with a three-stone, princess-cut diamond ring. “I don’t remember a thing he said to me, but I said, 'Yes,'” Phipps says, adding that the pair is planning a December wedding.

Phillips is one of a growing number of men plotting elaborate proposals. In October, a Texas man surprised his girlfriend with a proposal and wedding — on the same day — styled directly from her “My Dream Wedding” Pinterest board, where she had outlined her ideal seating arrangements, ceremony details, and jewelry. And, while carefully planned but decidedly less romantic, a New York groom has promised his girlfriend an engagement ring if she makes him 300 sandwiches.

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