It was a rainy night in Hong Kong when Junella first showed Patrick the McFly music video Love is Easy. As he watched the boys move around the stage with their cardboard props and wingtip shoes, the gears in Patrick’s head began to turn. “I could do that…” he thought idly. The seed was planted.

More than a year later, he had decided that Junella was the one, and what better way to propose than with a live rendition of the song in the McFly video, props and all, accompanied by friends and family?! And of course it would have to be a surprise. Eager and bright eyed, Patrick went to his parents with the idea. His dad said:

-- "Are you out of your mind?"

His dream shattered, Patrick agreed to settle for a mundane, run-of-the-mill proposal involving multiple boats and spy cameras. But the fire of inspiration would not be doused. The very next week, while staying with Vivek and Helena in their Tribeca apartment and shopping for the engagement ring, he floated a new idea past them. What if he did both a (mostly) private proposal and a surprise musical performance?! The girl in the [elevator/lift] overheard the plan and chimed in, “And you’ve definitely got to get a live band.” So it was decided, so the planning commenced.

Patrick scoured the web for a team that could help manifest his dream and found Daisy and The Proposers. Daisy acknowledged that the plan was ambitious, but she took the project on. As the first matter of business, Daisy asked, “And what will you do after the performance?” “After?!” Patrick exclaimed. “Well, after… I guess we’ll all give each other high fives and then go home.” That wouldn’t do, of course, so post-performance celebration arrangements began.

Alex from Club Mob signed on to help with whipping the crew of 45 amateur performers into shape. Patrick made a PowerPoint presentation of choreography (use what you know, right?) and together with Alex transformed it into a step-by-step choreography. On Wed Dec 28, Patrick’s sisters and his friends from Houston, Texas (now scattered across the globe, in Seoul, Los Angeles, Boston, and Austin) met Alex and Daisy at Danceworks Studio in Mayfair, London, one of the few dance studios open for business during the holiday season. The whole time, Junella thought Patrick was at work, even though it was a bank holiday…

The crew drilled the first 1.5 minutes of the song. Some compromises were made (no, 8 seconds is not enough time to don and button a waistcoat), but for the first time, everybody truly believed that the show might actually come together.

The next day at Hoxton Hall, the real preparations began. The cast practi[c/s]ed over and over again as friends and family trickled in, variously donning their morph suits or bird suits as appropriate, and helping out with final prop preparations.

Glasses were broken. Clothes were covered in cotton ball lint. Glue was applied and re-applied and re-applied again to stubborn wood and cardboard. At last, at 7:10pm, Junella arrived, guided by her friend Shing, and was seated next to her parents for the “pop-up chef dining experience”. To her surprise and delight…

… she saw this:

The performance concluded with a recorded video message from none other than Harry Judd, drummer for McFly (thanks for the introduction, Philly!).

The song sung and the speech spoken, there was much rejoicing as drinks were handed out and backs were clapped heartily.

The next stop was Ace Hotel, for dinner and dancing. The food was tasty. The dancing was rowdy. The DJ indulged us by playing the 11-minute Weird Al Yankovic song Albuquerque. And then, all too quickly, the night was over. The hotel closed the dining hall, the night owls went across the street to a pub, and we outlasted London. All in all, a successful evening.

And that, my friends, was the engagement party.

You can read Alex’s version of the story on Club Mob’s blog.