Tanveer Mostafa didn’t originally expect to propose to his girlfriend at The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience. But when his girlfriend, Afrida Ashraf, asked him if he wanted to attend the formal event together, he considered wearing the elegant sherwani that he wore to his brother’s wedding —which got him thinking about weddings in general. “Well, if I’m going to show up like that, why not propose at that time?” Mostafa tells Tudum. “It’d be beautiful.”
It was Ashraf who turned Mostafa onto Bridgerton after she fell in love with the second season. They rewatched it together. “I like Kate and Anthony, but the reason I was so beholden to Season 2 — and I think Afrida [was], as well — is that we could relate to it because of the [Indian] representation,” Mostafa says, citing the small moments that showed up in Kate’s storyline, like the way she made tea or how she applied yellow haldi on her sister before the wedding.
“Especially with weddings and stuff in our future, the haldi, or turmeric ceremony, that happened in the show is such a pivotal and wholesome moment, and seeing that on-screen on such a big show like Bridgerton was really heartwarming. And [now] we’re going to have that soon, in about a year!”
At The Queen’s Ball, couples are choosing these events to have, share and celebrate their own once-in-a-lifetime moments. So far, 33 couples have gotten engaged since the events began in March.
“For The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, we wanted to give viewers an opportunity to live in real life the love story that Shondaland so vividly created in the series,” says Greg Lombardo, Netflix’s Vice President of Live Experiences. “And what better testament to the power of this show than to see so many fans choose the beautiful setting of the Ball to share one of life's most important occasions and pop the question among a community of devoted fans?”
For Mostafa — who was singled out by the Queen herself and crowned the ball’s Diamond — the entire evening felt “right out of” Bridgerton. “The atmosphere, even the actors, all the activities fit the theme,” he says. “I loved the organizer that I worked with. She basically came behind us after I got picked and said, ‘As the Diamond, you get to wait until everybody leaves the room to propose.’”
He’d prepared a dance ahead of time, and told Ashraf that he just wanted to create a fun and memorable video. “When the dance was over, I did the spin, and on the second spin, I noticed he was going down on one knee. Once I was doing that final spin was when I started registering, ‘Why is he going down? That’s not part of the dance!’” Ashraf remembers.
“It worked out pretty great,” Mostafa adds.
Tanveer Mostafa and his fiancée, Afrida Ashraf.
Edgar Acevedo also had a “magical” experience proposing to his partner of four years at the Queen’s Ball. “I’m well aware of the show,” he tells Tudum. “My fiancée [Blanca Franck] watched the whole season in a day, and she always told me, ‘Hey, I want to go to a ball one day, that’s my dream.’”
He started looking into events they could attend together, and eventually, Franck sent him a link to the Queen’s Ball. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity to propose,” he says. “She’s always dreamt about being a princess.”
As a self-described shy guy, Acevedo knew that a Queen’s Ball proposal would take his fiancée by surprise. “When I did it, she couldn’t believe it. I think she expected me to propose going out to dinner with no people there,” he says. But, although he was “very, very nervous,” he had a wonderful time.
Photos from Edgar Acevedo’s engagement to Blanca Franck.
“After the proposal, [the organizers] led us back into the event to get additional photos when everyone had left already, which was extremely nice,” Acevedo says. “And when I proposed, people were cheering and clapping for us; some of the workers there were hyping us up. The whole reaction was magical.”
If you’re a Bridgerton die-hard who wants to bow to the Queen and hopes to be crowned the season’s Diamond, buy your own dance card here. And if you’re planning on spending the rest of your life with someone who has Anthony’s “bane of my existence” speech memorized, contact the team who can help you perfect your proposal in advance.
