Obsessed with Pokémon Go? Let us know if you're using it in your proposal or wedding in some way!

I proposed with a Pokémon battle.

Let's back up. A couple of months ago I saw this post on Offbeat Bride, and knew that if I were capable of any coding at all I would need to propose to my boyfriend Jacob with a Pokémon game. He's been drooling with excitement about Pokémon Go since it was announced, and for his birthday he asked for "an early release of Pokémon Go." But since I have no experience coding anything, there was no way I could make him a game. I decided to go a completely different route: a real world Pokémon scavenger hunt with wild Pokémon and gyms.

I started by choosing places around our neighborhood that were important to us. Each one would be a Pokémon gym, with one of our friends as a gym leader stationed there. But I needed a way for him to catch Pokémon so that he could have proper battles. So I grabbed some other friends to appear unexpectedly along his route as wild Pokémon that he would battle and catch by "throwing the Pokeball really cool." I hand painted Pokeballs to send with him.

I knew that Jacob was not always the best at following directions, so I wanted to make sure he had someone with him through the whole hunt to keep him on track. I designated our best friend as the Pokemon Professor, who got him started on the hunt, gave him a Pokedex and a starter Pokemon, explained the modified version of the card game I had created, and kept him going in the right direction. He also got to decide if a Pokeball throw was cool enough to catch the Pokemon. Each Pokemon caught or gym badge won had a Pokedex entry with the clue to the next location.

So what does this have to do with the actual proposal? Instead of normal gym badges, I created personalized badges that were parts of our relationship. The Foundation Badge was for trust and communication, the Fire Badge was for passion and spontaneity, and the Soul Badge was for empathy, comfort, and shared loves. Once he won all the elements of a relationship, he ended up at the final gym leader: me.

"You're the very best, like no one ever was. I choose you."

I had the Ring Badge, which allowed him to use the move engage outside of battle. We had our final battle, with everyone who had helped watching, and when he beat me, I gave him a giant, ridiculous prop diamond ring and told him, "You're the very best, like no one ever was. I choose you."

I was so happy that I got to create an experience he won't forget as our proposal. But the best part was how great all our friends were. They all went above and beyond, some of them coming in costumes, and many creating whole personas for their character to make the whole experience more real. Our Pokemon Prof even brought along a Bluetooth speaker and played music from the games through the whole two-hour hunt. Jacob's sister-in-law is a photographer and she was so generous to take pictures through the whole thing. It was super fun to plan and see, but more than how fun it is I feel so excited for our future supported and loved by a whole clan.

To top it all off, a pair of our friends helped us celebrate after the actual proposal with a huge dinner of homemade chicken wings, grilled corn, sweet potatoes, and an amazing steak. We even had Pokémon-themed cocktails, created by yours truly.

OMG this is our type of geektastic awesomeness. What fandom would YOU use to propose?

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