Dubai: Imagine taking off on a helicopter from a five star hotel for a surreal ride over the most iconic landmarks of Dubai. Forty minutes on Cloud 9 and you are back at the hotel, where a luxury car awaits you. A four-hour super car road trip later, you arrive at Dubai Harbour. A magnificent yacht beckons against the shimmering blue sea and the setting sun in gold. As you make your way up to the deck with a live violinist on board, more magic unfolds.
“Will you marry me?” the man by your side pops the question as he goes down on his knees.
For visiting Indian national Pooja Motwani, 26, who barely manages a ‘yes’, it is nothing short of a dream come true.
A dream that her man, Divyansh Kalwani, adds, ahead of Valentine’s Day on February 14, is possible only in a place like Dubai.
As the 29-year-old Indian businessman from Chhattisgarh in India lets on, he and his sister Honey Kalwani, based in the US, always wanted his proposal to the girl of his life to be out of the world.
“And if it has anything to do with luxury, it has to be Dubai,” Honey, a former resident of the UAE, told Gulf News from Seattle.
“We had a broad idea of what we wanted, but we were not so sure of how we would go about it, obtain permissions and make arrangements,” says Divyansh, who is now married to Pooja.
To their sheer delight, however, they discovered that there were a number of professional services that actually specialised in curating marriage proposals, much like wedding planners, in Dubai.
Honey said due research and enquiries with friends led her to one such service - ProposalDubai.com, a division of Qrated World, to help execute Divyansh’s dream proposal.
“My husband and I along with a couple of friends wanted to be part of the celebrations once Divyansh had put the ring on Pooja’s finger,” says Honey.
“We waited for the magic moment and then surprised Pooja by joining her and Divyansh on the deck. What followed was an unforgettable round of congratulations and celebrations with the choicest meal on the yacht as the violinist continued to play in the background,” adds Honey.
A doting sister, Honey picked up the rather pricey tab for the curated proposal as a gift for Divyansh. “I spent a total of Dh135,000 to make my brother’s Dubai dream come true,” she says.
Ankur Bagga, the man behind QRated Proposals, says, “I was happy to create the bespoke experience the family wanted, catering to everything from the start till after the girl said ‘yes’. A marriage proposal is very special and ensuring a hassle-free set up for the occasion is our job.”
Bagga says he offers a range of proposal ideas to his clients. It could be anything from a traditional do in front of loved ones at a dinner party to something completely out of the box,” he says.
“Our end-to-end packages include a romantic proposal of the client’s choice, transport, souvenirs, photography and even the ring box. The setting could vary from indoors to the outdoors – be it in the desert, on the beach, in the middle of the sea or in the skies - the sky is literally the limit in Dubai,” he says, adding that there are proposals he has curated in hot air balloons, helicopters and planes.
And pray, how much do the proposals cost? “It depends on what they entail. We’ve delivered packages, costing as little as Dh4,200 all the way up to Dh300,000,” shares Bagga, who has planned over 100 proposals.
“One of the questions that I frequently get asked in my business is, ‘what if the girl says no?’ And I promptly tell them we don’t offer a refund, only some credit for the next time,” jokes Bagga.
