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Ben and Kate’s Central Park Zoo Marriage Proposal

A fun and creative proposal idea in New York is the Central Park Zoo. Kate spent her childhood going there with her father, and that’s where Ben surprised her with the picture-perfect proposal. 

If you want to view their full romantic love story (which runs over the course of 10 years!) and photo gallery, click here!

Ben and Kate met in college back in 2006, when he was a sophomore, and she was a freshman. Ben and Kate were both on the crew team and rowed together every morning. They reconnected four years later in the summer of 2013 at a mutual college friend’s summer party, and started dating in February of 2014 after Ben was able to convince Kate to speed up her plan to move from Albany to New York City.

Ben was first attracted to Kate’s great sense of humor and how down to earth she was. Ben saw a woman who was very relaxed, loved hanging out, and enjoyed so many of the same things he did. Kate was instantly drawn to Ben because he was, “so much fun to be around,” and had an unexpected love for Broadway and show tunes, which were two of Kate’s favorite things!

Kate knew Ben was the one at a very unlikely moment. One day in 2014, when Kate spent a week at Ben‘s apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, he was on hold with his phone company, “making the silly faces he does while waiting for something,” and it hit her, “oh, wow, I love him.” As simple as it was, it was a definite and exciting feeling. Ben knew Kate was the one on February 13, 2014 while at a Darius Rucker concert. He explained to her this feeling of amazing and complete comfort around her, which he had never felt with anyone else.

As a child, Kate spent the weekends going to the Central Park Zoo with her father and looking in awe at all the animals and scenery. Knowing this, Ben, under the guise of it being their 10 year anniversary of meeting each other, said he wanted to plan a special celebratory date for Kate. From there, Ben took Kate through the zoo and around Central Park, until they reached Gapstow Bridge on the southern side of the park, and to continually throw her off, gave her a beautiful diamond necklace and a photo album of their time together as friends and as a couple, telling the story of how they got to where they were. On the last page, Ben got down on one knee and asked Kate to marry him (he had a speech planned but couldn’t get any of the other words out!).

If you want more inspiration for proposal ideas in New York, check out some of our favorites here! And if that’s not enough romance for you, make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for an endless supply.