Vancouver resident Bunny Blacklear works for a company in Coquitlam monitoring highway traffic, so she’s used to watching a blur of cars go by on camera.
But on Thursday something caught her eye that made her scream out loud.
Her boyfriend of three years, Scotty Minch, was standing on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver with an enormous sign that read, “Bunny, will you marry me?”
“I was absolutely shocked,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All my friends and co-workers were there. It was incredible.”
Minch, 40, a Downtown Eastside mental-health worker, knew his girlfriend, who he lives with near Vancouver General Hospital, had full view of all the cameras on that bridge.
So, with the help of his two best friends, he went out onto the bridge with the sign and held it up to one of the cameras he knew she’d be monitoring.
Blacklear’s co-workers were in on the secret and told her there was something unusual on the camera, so that she would see Minch at the right time.
Blacklear, 29, wasn’t suspicious, but said on Thursday morning she found it strange when her boyfriend asked her to help him style his hair when he was going swimming with friends.
“I was like: ‘No, you are going to be in a pool in 30 minutes. That’s ridiculous,” she said.
Planning took about two months. Minch had the sign professionally made and he had to figure out the perfect spot on the bridge. One day, while she was at work, he told her he was going to ride his bike over to North Vancouver, and asked her if there was a spot where he could stop and wave at her.
So she took a screenshot of the camera screen to show him where to go to wave.
Little did she know that a couple of months later he’d be back in that same spot with a marriage proposal.
“It was a full-on mission and I had so much anxiety,” he said, laughing. “The sign was five feet by four feet so it almost blew off the bridge.”
As soon as she saw Minch on the screen, Blacklear ran out of the room at Miller Capilano Highway Services, where she works, and called him from her mobile.
The answer was an enthusiastic yes.
Blacklear’s colleague took photos and video of her answering his proposal and sent it to him, and then Minch “bolted” to her office to put the ring on her finger.
“It was like her brain couldn’t process it. Her jaw dropped,” he said. “When she came back into the room she was crying and everyone was cheering. It was like a movie.”
The couple was asked in separate interviews what it is they love about the other, and they had similar answers.
“She’s just my person,” said Minch.
“He is my favourite person ever,” said Blacklear.
Blacklear grew up in Newfoundland and Minch is a Canadian citizen, originally from California.
The pair met on an internet dating site. Minch said she was the first and last person he went out on a date with from that site.
“She is the most beautiful person I have ever met. She helps me with so much, and she is perfect,” said Minch.
Blacklear said Minch makes her so happy and she “just can’t get enough of him.”
“He is so loving and caring as a person, and so creative and artsy and talented, and so sweet. I am so lucky to have found him on the internet.”
They are thinking about going to Las Vegas for a fun wedding, but then have a ceremony in Vancouver.
