Ice skating at the Rockefeller Center rink under the lights of the iconic tree is a staple holiday activity in New York City.
But for some, it’s not just a festive outing, but a night they will remember forever: their engagement.
A spokesperson for Rockefeller Center told TODAY.com that so far, a little over 100 couples got engaged at the Rockefeller Center ice rink this holiday season, noting that this is a “typical” amount to occur at the rink.
That number, according to the spokesperson, is based off of how many proposal packages were purchased, which are offered by the Rockefeller Center ice rink. The proposal package includes two VIP skating tickets to skate alone, skate rentals and a song of the couple’s choice.
The spokesperson notes that the total number of proposals at the rink is higher, though, as several impromptu proposals occur.
Two of the couples who purchased the proposal package both traveled from the Carolinas to make their special nights happen. Despite their towns only being separated by 28 miles, neither couple knows each other, but now share the bond of proposing at the same spot.
An ice skating dream — and engagement — in the making
Douglas Brown, 34, and Ivana Hughes, 33, both from Charlotte, North Carolina, had a New Year’s Eve party at the beginning of 2024, where they set personal goals to achieve this year.
“My individual goal was to skate at the Rockefeller Center,” Hughes tells TODAY.com in a recent interview.
Hughes, a criminal defense attorney, was a dedicated track and field runner growing up, but as a result, never got to focus on ice skating like she wanted to. As an adult, though, she’s finally been able to take up ice skating as a passion and hobby for the past two years.
“I think I’ve always known about the Rockefeller Center (ice skating rink), because all the Christmas movies around New York and it is iconic,” Hughes says. “So, looking into that at the end of last year and just kind of deciding, ‘You know what, I’m going make this my goal.’”
The pair had also set a joint goal for the year: to get engaged.
Brown, a certified public accountant, said he did all the planning to set up her skate, but little did she know he was adding a diamond ring to the routine.
“I wanted her to focus just on putting together an ice skating routine, and I’d handle all the logistics,” Brown says.
During their trip to New York City in December, the couple showed up at Rockefeller Center for their rink time for Hughes to do her routine. After she completed her performance set to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind,” Brown made his way onto the ice, despite not being an experienced skater.
He then pretended to fall down on the ice, grabbing Hughes hand for support.
“It didn’t really matter my skating skills,” he says. “All I need to do is get out there and fall down — if it’s a real fall, all the better.”
Hughes, on the other hand, was worried she was going to fall with him, and asked him to get up before she did.
“And he’s like, ‘OK, well, before I get up, can I ask you a question?’” she recalls. “And then he pulls out a ring and asks me to marry him.”
Hughes said she had a feeling the engagement might happen during their trip to New York, but didn’t realize it would happen during her skate routine.
Afterward, the couple went to dinner to celebrate and FaceTimed family members to share the happy news.
Hughes says this was her first time in New York City as an adult, while Brown has never experienced the city at Christmastime before. Both plan on coming back in the future.
“I would love to (come back),” Hughes says, adding that they are already planning another trip to New York City with some friends.
New beginnings while paying homage to a special family bond
Philip Cho, 32, and Heather Nguyen, 29, traveled from Rock Hill, South Carolina, to New York City for a romantic weekend getaway earlier this month.
The couple had been dating each other for six years, and while Nguyen tells TODAY.com that she knew they would end up together, she didn’t see it coming when they visited Rockefeller Center.
As they were ice skating on the rink, a voice on the loudspeaker told everyone to exit so the Zamboni could clean the ice. In that moment, Cho, a teacher, flagged down a rink staff member and asked them to quickly take their picture.
But Nguyen recalls the staff member taking their time with the photos, and she started to get stressed that they were overstaying their welcome on the ice.
Nguyen also noticed that Cho wasn’t acting like himself and seemed relaxed while they chatted with the rink worker, who snapped several pictures instead of taking a quick photo and leaving. She started to wonder if he was going to propose, but before she could fully comprehend what was happening, a big beam of light hit her, and her favorite song (“Enchanted” by Taylor Swift) began to play.
Cho then pulled her close and pointed to the steps leading down to the rink, where people were holding up letters that spelled out, “Will you marry me?”
Nguyen, who works in cinema advertising, didn’t even realize at first that the people holding the signs were all her friends and family members who traveled to NYC to celebrate the happy couple.
Cho then dropped to one knee and asked Nguyen to marry him.
“He kind of mentioned some wisdom that his grandma had shared before she passed,” Nguyen says through tears, remembering Cho’s grandmother who had died two months prior at age 95.
Nguyen says that the advice Cho recited from his late grandmother, who was married to his grandfather for 60 years, was something along the lines of “never give up on each other” and “no matter what, that person, there is no turning back.”
Nguyen says that Cho’s late grandmother only spoke Korean, a language she doesn’t speak. Whenever they had dinner together, they would speak to each other in their native languages about completely different things.
“At the very end (of dinner), she would be like, ‘I love you, mucho’ in a Korean accent and we could have been talking about totally different things, but we’d hug each other at the end,” Nguyen says. “And Phil would later translate sometimes, and be like, ‘she just really wants us to get married and give her a wedding.'”
While down on one knee, Nguyen says Cho repeated his grandmother’s words: “I love you, mucho.”
Nguyen could barely contain her excitement as she accepted his proposal, saying she lost her voice for three days after screaming “yes” so loudly.
The now-engaged pair say they plan on returning to the rink in the future.
“I’m thinking forward of our future kids and grandkids, we’re going to want to take them on the rink and be like, ‘Grandma and grandpa, we were right here in the middle, nobody was here,’ I just want that moment so bad, and just come there for our anniversaries now,” Nguyen says.
“I think every time we’re gonna see that tree and kind of like what it symbolizes, we’re just gonna think back on that moment and like what it felt like to be like right in the middle of it all,” she adds.
CORRECTION (Dec. 21, 2024, 5:15 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misspelled the city where Philip Cho and Heather Nguyen traveled from in South Carolina. It’s Rock Hill, not Rocky Hill.
