She Said Yes! Flyover Proposal At Manhattan's Irish Fest Steals Hearts

MANHATTAN, IL — Emily Brown glanced up at the banner trailing behind the plane in the bright blue sky above Manhattan's Irish Fest Saturday: "Faye, will you marry me? I (heart) you."

"Oh my gosh, that's so cute for someone! How cute is that?!" she remembers thinking to herself.

Brown didn't know at first that the message in the sky was for her. But her friends all knew exactly who it was meant for, even before she turned to find boyfriend Adam Seidler on one knee.

Brown—who goes by her middle name Faye—had no idea it was coming.

"I thought, ‘Where’s Adam?’" she remembers thinking, just before seeing him dropped to his knee. Surrounded by family and friends who had looked up to see the writing in the sky, their touching moment was everything Seidler had hoped it would be.

"It’s kind of unique, you don’t see it a lot anymore," Seidler told Patch, of how he picked his method. "I wanted it to be special for her."

The Coal City residents met in high school. Brown, 31, and Seidler, 32, dated intermittently in the years since, going their separate ways for some time. Seidler joined the Marine Corps. Ultimately, they found their ways back to each other two years ago. They have three children together: 9-year-old son Talon, 6-year-old daughter Paisley, and 3-week-old daughter Fayelynn.

They'd talked about engagement over the last year, and had been working with Bradley jeweler D. Westphal on a ring. Though they'd discussed the ring together, Brown didn't expect it any time soon, they said. The employee they had been working with had fallen ill, and had told them the ring would be delayed.

But things fell into place last week, Seidler said. The ring was ready Tuesday, and they attend Irish Fest every year with friends and family. It would be perfect. They'd enjoy the parade, and the plane was set to fly over at noon, give or take five minutes, the pilot told him. Seidler might have been covertly minding the time, but neither he nor their families ever let on that he had something planned, Brown said.

"I never felt the pressure of them looking at watches," she said. "I was just standing there, having fun, catching koozies, enjoying the parade."

As the parade ended, Seidler was getting a bit nervous. The plane hadn't come, and Brown was getting antsy. She wanted to go back inside Gallagher's where they'd staked out a table. Instead, he nudged her to come with him to his truck, trying to buy the pilot some time. She resisted initially, finding herself a bit flustered and perturbed.

"I was getting irritated," Brown said Sunday, laughing. Eventually, she agreed—even if reluctantly. "I was trying to make it a happy day."

It was her dad who spotted the plane and got her to look up, Seidler said. And they weren't the only ones at Irish Fest who saw the message.

"We were getting texts from people from Coal City who were at Irish Fest, that could see it from blocks away," Seidler said. "It had a far reach."

Curious minds took to social media, too, sharing photos of the banner and asking, "who is Faye, and did she say yes?!" Their bit of celebrity followed them around the fest. Wearing a "bride-to-be" sash, Brown caught the eye of excited festgoers who deduced that maybe SHE was Faye.

"It was so much fun ... " Brown said. "People were like, ‘Are you Faye?’ It just felt so good, so nice. No negativity, everyone was so nice about it.

"It was just fun, I did not expect it at all."

She couldn't believe Seidler had pulled it off, and asked him how he'd found someone to carry out his idea.

"Google does wonders," he answered her jokingly.

The two hope to have a destination wedding, possibly in the Florida Keys.