Love is in the air - literally. Hot-air balloon proposals are on the rise, and grooms-to-be are making attempts to create an unforgettable experience of popping of the big question.
Luke Jones of St. Augustine took his soon-to-be-bride Kelly-Ann (Wolfe) Jones of Winter Haven up, up and away and landed a proposal made in heaven.
"When Luke and I started dating, I begged him to take me up in a hot-air balloon," says Kelly-Ann, a 2004 Harrison School of the Arts graduate. "His response was, 'There is no way I am getting in a flying wicker basket that's fueled by fire.' "
Kelly-Ann says she asked him several other times, and each time he declined. Then, on the morning of Nov. 8, 2008, she was awakened at 4:30 a.m. by Luke, whose personality was extreme and different.
"He rushed into my bedroom turning on all the lights yelling, 'Get up! Get up! We have to go! Get up!' " Kelly-Ann says.
As one who adores her sleep, Kelly-Ann says she is pretty sure she cursed at and threw things at Luke for the early morning awakening, but after 15 minutes of relentless begging, Luke finally won.
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After Luke and Kelly-Ann Jones became engaged midflight, the couple says their hot-air balloon landed unexpectedly in a residential neighborhood.
Courtesy of Kelly-Ann Jones |
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When Kelly-Ann was ready, Luke told her he was taking her to breakfast. They pulled into a McDonald's drive-through, and while Kelly-Ann was trying to remain calm, she noticed they were being approached by two strangers. Luke rushed out the door to meet them.
"I was quite confused," Kelly-Ann says. "We then followed them to a beautiful field filled with hot-air balloons. I had never been so thrilled in my entire life. When we met up with our pilot, we helped her inflate the balloon. Once we took off, it was so beautiful! The sun was rising and the weather was perfect."
Kelly-Ann says that after about an hour of gorgeous flying, their pilot took them up high one more time. When she turned around from surveying the view, she saw that Luke was holding a beautiful ring. He asked her to marry him, and she said "Yes!"
The couple's pilot then made an announcement over the walkie-talkie, and people in the 15 other airborne hot-air balloons hollered their congratulations.
The pilot then lowered their balloon and ended up about 40 feet above a neighborhood.
"Everyone was coming out of their houses wondering what the ruckus was about," Kelly-Ann says. "We were (flying) so low that we were having conversations with them. Of course, I had to take advantage of the situation and let everyone know we had just gotten engaged! They all 'Yayed' in unison!"
Kelly-Ann says that after all the engagement excitement, they were unable to catch the wind to land in the field where they had originally planned, and their pilot just landed right in the middle of the street.
"Everyone came out as excited as could be, completely enthralled with the balloon and my ring," she says.
The pilot set up a table in the middle of the street and served the lucky couple the traditional champagne and snacks, a baloon-ride tradition believed to have been started by the French in the 1700s.
"It was so much fun and honestly one of my biggest dreams come true," Kelly-Ann says.
Jeff Thompson of Orlando has been flying for 35 years. He and his company, Thompson Aire Orlando, have seen numerous proposals over the years, and some have turned out to be simply spellbinding.
Thomas says that during one of the marriage-proposal flights, a gentleman wanted to put an engagement ring in a glass of champagne and serve it to his girlfriend so she could sip on it and find the ring while in flight.
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A ride in a hot-air balloon offers a unique and romantic way to get engaged.
Courtesy of Kelly-Ann Jones |
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"We told him that we must use nonalcoholic champagne because we cannot serve alcohol in the aircraft," says Thompson. "After he agreed, she took one sip and says, 'This is awful!' and dumped it over the side of the basket. The groom-to-be turned white as a sheet. She says to him, 'Honey, you don't look good. Do we need to land?"'
Thompson says the gentleman was speechless.
"Then she says, 'Are you looking for this?' and pulled the ring out of her mouth," Thompson says. "She had taken enough of a gulp to catch the ring in her teeth and still had some drink in her glass to throw over and then he says, 'I want it back!' That was the biggest 'Oh-my-God moment' we have ever had, but when we finally landed, he says that he still did want to marry her."
Thompson's company has since created a private flight for proposals, during which the pilot pretends that the radio is not working. Everyone is in on the stunt except for the bride-to-be. The pilot swoops down low and asks the couple to help him try to understand what the ground crew is trying to tell them. While the pilot and the couple are conversing in the basket, the ground crew runs around the back of the chase-truck, which is parked on the ground, and comes out with a banner that says, "Will you marry me, Jane?" or whatever the girl's name is.
"You should see the 'deer-in-the-headlights' looks on these girls' faces," Thompson says.
He shared a story of a time when a gentleman told him he could not afford a private flight but still wanted to do a proposal. "We told him that there would be two other couples in the basket and he told us that would be fine, so he handed this wadded-up bed sheet that he had spray painted on, to the ground crew," Thompson says. "When we swooped down, the ground crew unfolded it and it says, 'Will you marry me?' and that's all it says, so we had two of the three guys ready to jump overboard."
Real stories of outrageous experiences from real people who have flown with Thompson Aire Orlando can be read in the guest book and testimonials sections on the Web site www.thompsonaire.com. The company also has a proposal page, calendar and photos of people who have done hot-air balloon ride proposals.
"The guest book is priceless," Thompson says. "We have spent 30 years perfecting this. We go out and make absolute magic."
