ORLANDO — A Florida man proposed to his Cleveland sweetheart with some help from her favorite animal, and though he got down on one knee, the story is anything but traditional.
Eric Griemsmann popped the question to Samantha Warner in February, but the video was just recently shared on YouTube.
Because Samantha loves alligators, Eric decided to propose during a trip to Gatorland in Orlando.
Samantha was chosen from the audience to participate in an “Up Close Encounters” act and was blindfolded on stage.
When the blindfold was removed, Eric was on his knee, but he didn’t have a ring box.
Instead, the ring was tied to a baby alligator, which Samantha took into her hands while nodding yes.
“I was secretly more excited to hold the baby alligator than the ring!” Samantha told Fox 8 News.
And she wasn’t afraid of the animal, either.
“My dream has always been to be an alligator wrestler so an infant alligator was nothing!” Samantha said.
And there was something else Samantha wasn’t afraid of.
She stayed on stage to finish the act, only to have an enormous spider get placed in her hand, then on top of her brand new ring!
Samantha called the unique proposal the “greatest surprise of her life.”
She moved to Florida last year after graduating from Kent State University and met Eric within the first week.
They hit it off immediately.
The two plan to marry in Cleveland in June of 2015.
