This is an amazing gift and such a creative way to propose!
[AdSense-A]
Justin Lebon and his fiancé, Michal Ott, love to stay in and play a good game of Monopoly.
Lebon made a monopoly board in high school that they would play on but it was getting old and a few of the cards were missing. He decided he wanted to create a new one as a Christmas gift and as a way to propose.
Lebon talked his idea over with his friend, woodworker Mark Becker. The two came up with ideas for custom properties and got to work.
“The first thing I knew was that I could do something with the engagement ring and the luxury tax spot,” he told BuzzFeed Life. “I wanted to figure out how to make some kind of trap door underneath it, and it all came together while I was walking around work one day last November.”
[AdSense-A]
Becker, who runs the Etsy shop Old Redwood, had the board made in three weeks. He used wood from a 1900’s icebox.
All of the property names on the board were real places that meant something to Lebon and Ott.
The places on the board included the streets where they grew up, their favorite vacation spots, and for the ultra-valuable Park Place and Boardwalk, their current apartment number and “Home Sweet Home.”
Continued on page 2
He found an unopened Monopoly game from the ’70s which he got the money from and found the gold pawns from a vintage anniversary version.
[AdSense-A]
Lebon placed a proposal card on Chance, seven spots into the game.Once Otto landed on Chance, he would get down on his knee and reveal the trap door.
[AdSense-A]
It worked out beautifully.
“She knew Mark was helping me, so she figured her gift was going to be really cool, but she thought it was going to be a world travel-themed board,” Lebon told BuzzFeed Life. “When she opened it up and saw that it was about us, she was like, ‘No fucking way.’ I gave her the whole tour of the board and by the end, we were both crying.”
When Lebon lifted the lid of the game to show her the money and playing pieces, she thought the ring would be beneath the lid. When it wasn’t she didn’t expect a proposal at all, instead she listened while Lebon explained how he came across the pieces and ideas for the board.
“By the end, she didn’t think a proposal was coming. She had the dice in her hand the whole time, and when I finally suggested that we play, she rolled a seven.”
Of course, she landed on Chance and read the specially made card. Lebon got on one knee, withdrew a long wire key, and opened the trap door.
The two are planning a non-Monopoly themed wedding in Maui for 2017.