Tiffany Wright / ©Justin Downing/BSkyBTiffany Wright is one half of proposal planning duo 'The Proposers', working on helping plan extravagant and exciting proposals for those in love.
We got the chance to chat to Tiffany about her proposal business, new television show and just what we can expect from the proposals we may see when it hits our screens later this month.
Can you tell us a little bit about what to expect from 'The Proposers'?
So basically it's following myself and Daisy - my business partner - around as we are involved in exciting, over the top and romantic proposals.
So, on the show you kind of get to see us right from the beginning of meeting the client, coming up with ideas, trying to find venues, running around like headless chickens! Basically, trying to arrange the most fantastic proposal we can.
So what led to the creation of the business?
Well me and Daisy have actually been friends for years now. We kind of bonded over the fact we were both in relationships and were desperate to get engaged, so whenever we meet up we were always chatting about proposals and how he would do it, and then one evening we were walking to home from work - I used to be a journalist and Daisy worked in advertising - and we were walking home from work, it was just after Nick Candy had proposed to Holly Valance - he spelt out 'will you marry me?' in flames - and there was a guy in Hyde Park who was using little tea lights, trying to write 'make me the happiest man alive', and we realised that he'd spelled 'happiest' wrong, so went over and corrected it.
Then we offered to take some photos, etcetera etcetera, and he said to us; 'my God, you've literally saved my proposal', and we just thought there must be men and women out there that want to propose but don't know how to do it, or are struggling, or can't quite pull off the ideas that they have, so we thought there's obviously a business in this.
So, I think we always kind of say women have wedding planners, so why shouldn't people have proposal planners?
How important would you say it is for a proposal nowadays to be more than the traditional 'down on one knee'?
I think to be honest that with the things like YouTube, celebrities and things, with big grand gestures, it is getting more of a talking point now I mean - we're not anti people getting down on one knee at all - we're not saying that every proposal has to be huge and extravagant - there can be very simple, lovely ones as well, but I think it's just - people like to have a story. When you get engaged the first question people ask is 'how did he do it?', so it's nice to be able to have a really lovely story to go with that, because you're gonna be telling that story for the rest of your life - to your children, your grandchildren.
What we do as a company is we specialise in personalised proposals, so we make sure that every single proposal is kind of personalised to the couple. So, for example if the girl loves horses then we'll come up with a proposal that involves horses, or if she loves Disney we'll try and do something involving Disney, so that basically that proposal is exactly tailored to that couple and the hope is that when they tell their proposal story, they won't ever have someone that says 'oh yeah, that's how my boyfriend proposed to me too'.
Did you find it strange having cameras following you round working?
(laughs) Yes! It took a bit of getting used to. I think it's funny getting up two hours in advance to do your hair and makeup every day - it was a bit of a shock to the system!
But no, I think to be honest, initially it took a bit of getting used to but in the end, they were just literally following us around doing our day to day things. There weren't any kind of set-up scenes or anything like that, so you just learnt to ignore them! (laughs)
What would you say are some of the most extravagant proposals you've worked on?
One of the most extravagant ones is being featured in the show, and it involves a Ferarri, a helicopter over London, a James Bond speedboat down the Thames, a gospel choir, a church - it literally has absolutely every element to it of a VIP proposal. The girl in question apparently always wanted to know what it would be like to feel like a celeb - so we created something completely amazing - she was delivered presents throughout the day; a Chanel dress, a Mulberry handbag - just kind of every girl's dream proposal I think! (laughs)
Do you attend the proposal itself or is that something you leave to them?
No, we tend to be there because obviously we help organise it all and that's kind of one of the main points of our job - is so the guy doesn't have to worry about asking the question - we're there to make sure everything goes swimmingly.
Obviously we do sometimes - when guys come to us and they kind of say 'look, I don't want my girlfriend to know I've used you' - basically wanting to take all the credit! (laughs) We'll happily do that for them as well, so they can pretend they've pulled it all off by themselves! Whatever the customer wants really.
What would you say have been some of your favourite moments of your career so far?
Well, obviously getting a TV show is huge, that was very exciting. But I think, to be honest it's also just meeting the clients, I mean we get - obviously we get work from men and women but it's mostly men - how it works is we get them to fill out a relationship questionnaire all about their partner, and I think some of the nicest moments are actually just sitting down and reading through those questionnaires, because you just see how in love people are, and it's just such a lovely thing to be a part of.
Have you ever had any awful moments or rejections?
(laughs) We might have had some rejections - you'll have to watch the show and see!
Finally, why should people tune in on February 12?
I think to be honest it's just one of those shows that has a lot of drama and a lot of different characters throughout, but ultimately it's just a feel-good show. You're witnessing one of the most important moments in a couple's life and I even now - the parts of the show I've watched - I still get goosebumps, I still get emotional (laughs), it's just a lovely, feel-good programme.
The Proposers starts on Lifetime on Wednesday February 12 at 9pm.