THINGS YOU HEARD US TALK ABOUT

You know how people are always complaining that getting married in New York is too cheap these days? What with the variety of venues open year-round and the plummeting prices of caterers, diamonds, wedding planners and gown designers, it’s like you can’t even go into debt to show you care anymore!

Luckily, there’s a new way for the fellas to make a small dent in their wallets before making a much larger dent in their life savings: hire BluePrint Proposals to plan your proposal for you.

Founded by Midwest natives Kym Pitlor and Erin Mavian, this “boutique event consultancy” will help you create an unforgettable New York experience for your partner, culminating in you asking her to marry you.

“I’m one of those girls who has 27 dresses in her closet as a bridesmaid,” Ms. Pitlor told The Observer over the phone. “Erin and I were just the go-to girls for all our friends’ engagement parties. We just saw the huge industry that wedding planning has become, and how often the men are left out of it. We thought it was time to give credit where credit is due, and let the man really shine.”

And what better way to make a man stand out than for him to turn over the last vestige of free will he has in the prenuptial preparations to the lady experts? On BluePrint’s website, men can fill out a quiz about themselves and their (hopefully) future spouse, including “What are five places in NYC that remind you of your partner?” “How would your partner choose to spend their birthday?” and “Have you given thought to a budget or how much you would like to spend on the proposal?” Then the BluePrint duo tabulate your responses and set you up with a consultation for a proposal planning, which could result in a flash mob, a helicopter ride over the city, a scavenger hunt or just a simple ring and candlelight dinner affair.

It doesn’t have to gouge your pockets, either. For merely $250, Ms. Pitlor said, BluePrint will look at your results and offer you two creative ideas on how to propose, as well as the steps for how to do so. (Open box, get down on knee, etc.) If you want them to actually help out, however, the prices start at around $1,000. But for that money, the agency will take all the worrying off your hands and plan the whole damn thing for you.

“Everything from start to finish: travel arrangements, all the logistics, and, you know, there’s tons of add-ons that we’re happy to do as well. If you want a personal shopper the day before, or you need someone to help you buy the ring, we have those contacts as well.”

For an example of a recent success story, Ms. Pitlor pointed to a gentleman who had wanted to have a sunset dinner at a hotel to pop the question. “We arranged the private photographer, the penthouse at the hotel, and then a dinner where six of her best friends were waiting. So it was a little engagement party afterward.”

Which actually sounds quite lovely … but what if she had said no? Blueprint’s site claims it can “design a proposal guaranteed to make her say Yes.” Was that actually possible?

“There’s always that fear in the back of our head,” Ms. Pitlor laughed. “As much as we say that we can guarantee a ‘Yes’ on our website, we don’t actually have … we’re not actually mind readers.”

Though they might be able to recommend you someone who is.

http://observer.com/2012/09/blueprint-proposals-new-yorks-premiere-pre-engagement-planners/