Love at Rooftop Films

At Rooftop Films, we always like to put on a good show. We have live entertainment at every event, and try to personalize it to the movies. On May 21, 2010, at the Rooftop romantic short films show “Hopelessly Devoted,” the opening band was Frances, and after they played, in front of an audience of 1,200 people, I asked the singer/keyboard player to marry me.

I’m the Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films, so it’s been part of my life for fourteen years. I met Steph because of Rooftop, and her band played our shows long before we were dating. She’s been in the band for four years, and because I snuck a fake listing for a film I made into the program, I knew we’d have a lot of friends and family out that night to share in our different endeavors. Steph was pretty surprised, the crowd was thrilled, and I think everyone had a romantic evening.

After the proposal, all night long, friends and strangers congratulated us—surely there were a lot more people at the proposal than will be at the wedding. On Saturday, a stranger even came up to Steph on the street and said, “Hey, I watched you get engaged last night at Rooftop. Congratulations!”

Everything worked out beautifully, as I’m sure it will for the rest of our lives together.

Video by Martha Shane and Joshua Z. Weinstein. Still photo by Irwin Seow. Special thanks to Dan Nuxoll, Curt Ellis, Ian Cheney and the entire Rooftop Films staff. Engagement ring designed and made by Bonbon Oiseau.