823EventsPlan My Proposal
A proposal setup at dusk with a hidden camera operator filming from the side

823 Events — Buffalo, NY

You get
one shot.

We design and run the entire proposal. The concept, the location, the setup, the crew hidden in the treeline. You walk in and ask her.

Plan My ProposalSee How It Works

01 / The Pressure

The ring was the easy part.

  • Where do I even do this?
  • How do I get her there without her figuring it out?
  • How do I get a photographer there without her seeing him?
  • What if it rains?
  • How do I make it feel like us and not like Pinterest?
  • What if the moment just… lands flat?

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Every one of those questions has an answer. None of them should be yours to solve at 11pm on a Tuesday, in secret, on top of a full-time job.

You handle what you're going to say.We handle everything else.

02 / The Work

Four steps. One of them is yours.

01

Tell us your story

Who she is. How you met. The places that already mean something. What you want the moment to feel like. One conversation and we know what we're building.

02

We design the moment

You get a concept built from your relationship — the setting, the reveal, the sequence, the one detail she'll never stop repeating to people.

03

We handle the details

Location, access, vendors, design, photo and video, timing, the cover story that gets her there, and a plan B for weather and everything else.

04

You ask the question

You show up. That's it. That's your entire job.

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03 / The Approach

No packages. No menu. No tier three with the extra candles.

We don't hand you a list of proposals to pick from. You tell us about her — how she reacts to attention, the trip you still talk about, the joke that only works between the two of you — and we build the moment out of that.

Sometimes that's quiet and completely alone. Sometimes there are twenty people around the corner. Sometimes it's the least obvious place in the city on a Wednesday. What it never is: something we already did for someone else.

Make her friends wonder how the hell you pulled it off.

04 / The Production

We don't plan proposals. We stage events that never really happened.

This isn't a ring box at a lake at sunset. We build an entire fake occasion around her — cast, crew, script, set — and the proposal detonates inside it. Nobody can recreate it, because it only ever existed once, for her.

We invent the event
A gallery opening that doesn't exist. A last-minute work dinner. A radio contest she just happened to win. A friend's fake engagement party. Whatever gets her there believing something completely different is about to happen.
We cast actors
Hosts, waiters, strangers, a photographer covering "the event," a producer with a clipboard. People with lines, timing, and a reason to be there — so nothing about the day feels staged to her.
We build the set
Venue, lighting, sound, signage, props, the printed program with her name on it. If the story needs a thing to exist, we make the thing exist.
We run it like a production
Call sheets, cues, a run-of-show, someone in an earpiece watching the door. You get walked through it until you could do it in your sleep.
We film all of it
Hidden cameras on the moment, plus a full behind-the-scenes film — the build, the rehearsals, the actors, the near-misses, the second she realizes. That's the video you show her that night, and her parents the week after.

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Everyone in the room becomes part of the story.Including the ones who were in on it the whole time.

A woman's overwhelmed reaction in the seconds after being proposed to

05 / The Payoff

Imagine her reaction.

She turns around. It takes her a second. Then she sees you — and realizes you planned every piece of this. You ask. She says yes.

And from somewhere she never noticed, a camera catches the exact frame where her life changes. Her friends will ask how you did it. Your kids will hear the story.

Plan My Proposal

06 / Proposal Stories

Real moments. Real reactions.

It starts with mine. Everything we build for other people came out of the night I had to pull this off myself.

The moment the proposal was captured on camera — the story that started 823 Events

Story No. 01 — Buffalo, NY

The one that started the company.

I couldn't find anyone in Buffalo who'd do what I had in my head, so I built it myself: an event she thought she was attending for a completely different reason, people playing parts, a photographer she never spotted, and a whole crew hiding in plain sight.

She still tells the story. So does everyone who was there — including the ones who were in on it. That night turned into 823 Events, and now we do it for other people.

“This is a story we'll get to tell for the rest of our lives.”

Reserved

Story No. 02

Reserved

Reserved

Story No. 03

Reserved

07 / Relief

You don't have to do this alone.

No idea where to do it
We'll find the place — including rooms and spots you can't book yourself.
No idea how to keep it secret
We write the cover story, the timing, and the reason she gets in the car.
Want photos without her knowing
A photographer and videographer already in position before you arrive.
Want it to feel unique
That's the whole job. Nothing gets recycled from another couple.
Worried something goes wrong
Weather, traffic, delays, nerves. Every plan ships with a second plan.
No time to plan it
You'll spend a couple hours total. We spend the rest of them.

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08 / Where

Built in Buffalo. Not limited to it.

We know where the light lands on the water, which rooms downtown are empty on a Thursday, and how long it takes to get to the overlooks before the crowds do. Western New York is home base — if the moment belongs somewhere else, we'll travel to it.

09 / Start

Let's plan the moment.

Tell us a little about her, your story, and the moment you're imagining. We'll take it from there. You only get one shot at this — let's make it unforgettable.

Start PlanningTalk To A Specialist

Start Planning

Tell us about her.

This is where every proposal we design starts. Take four minutes — the more you tell us, the more it will feel like yours.

  1. 01 — Who You Are
  2. 02 — The Moment
  3. 03 — Her Story
  4. 04 — Last Details
Plan My Proposal