What would you do if 500 people told you your idea was rubbish?
My recent Now Go Create podcast guest, Daisy Amodio, heard exactly that – and went ahead anyway.
Daisy is the founder of The Proposers and one of the world’s leading proposal planners. She’s staged more than 5,000 marriage proposals across the globe, from £500 pop-ups to a £1 million, multi-country epic that ended with faces projected on to Niagara falls. She’s done fake drug arrests, dressed 50 cats as waiters, and now masterminds ultra-luxury weddings – including a royal one.
In this blog, I’m pulling out the creative and entrepreneurial lessons from our conversation: how Daisy invented a category, how she mines clients for stories, and what it really takes to say “yes” first and figure it out later.
From ad agency to “queen of proposals”
Daisy’s story starts in a familiar place for lots of us – the creative industries. She was an account manager at M&C Saatchi, loved her job, and had no plans to leave. Then her brother asked for help.
He wanted to propose, had no idea how, and – in his words – “no creative bone in his body”. Daisy designed a treasure hunt around london, ending at sunset with a harpist and a big yes.
Afterwards, she did what many of us would do: she googled “proposal planner”.
Nothing. No category. No competitors. No obvious proof that anyone wanted what she’d just done.
Instead of parking it as a nice one-off, she followed a gut feeling that something was there – weddings were getting bigger, social media was exploding, and big, shareable moments were becoming the norm.
So she did some “research”: a questionnaire to 500 men.
The verdict?
- most thought it was a terrible idea
- “why spend money on proposing? just get down on one knee”
- “why would you leave a good job for that?”
Even her (very supportive) boyfriend reminded her she still had to pay the bills.
The exception? Her agency. They loved the idea, gave her space on stage to share it with the whole company, and even lent her web designers to get her first site off the ground.
Fast-forward 13–14 years and that “rubbish idea” has turned into:
- 5,000 proposals
- two tv series (including Will You Marry Me? on channel 4)
- a wedding planning business and a royal wedding
If you’ve ever had an idea shot down, Daisy is proof that external validation is not the only signal you should listen to.
Inventing (and then defending) a category
Because she was first to market, Daisy’s initial “strategy” was deceptively simple:
- get a website up
- talk about “proposal planning” clearly and consistently
- benefit from the fact there was zero competition in search
She ranked page one on google for proposal planner because literally nobody else was using the term.
Of course, success attracts competition. Today:
- there are proposal planners in almost every country
- hotels and attractions run their own proposal packages
- there’s a steady stream of copycats
Her answer? Double down on expertise and niche.
“there is nobody in the world more of an expert than me at proposals. it would be physically impossible.”
She’s done more proposals than anyone else, across more cultures, budgets and styles. And she’s built a natural funnel: if someone has a decent budget for the proposal, she can transition them into her wedding business afterwards.
The creative engine: deep client discovery + Pinterest stalking
As romantic as it all sounds, Daisy’s process is grounded and quite systematic.
When she’s pitching or planning, she wants to know:
- how the couple met
- what they love about each other
- favourite colours, foods, music
- in-jokes, nicknames, shared obsessions
- visual clues – Pinterest boards, instagram feeds, playlists
A favourite example is her first ever paying client:
- the girlfriend was an aspiring artist with a pinterest board full of handmade hearts
- Daisy invited her to what looked like an art gallery show in Richmond
- 10 canvases lined the walls – each a new “artwork”, actually about their relationship
- the final piece was wrapped in her favourite purple velvet
- underneath was her own heart artwork from pinterest, re-created to say “will you marry me?”
They later used the pieces at their wedding and still send Daisy family photos.
The whole experience is built on story mining: turning private details into public moments.
Fake arrests, cat waiters and a million-pound waterfalls
Part of what makes Daisy’s work so compelling – and so good for TV – is how wildly different each brief can be.
A few that stood out:
- Fake drug arrest in barcelona
- she and her team slipped “drugs” (oregano!) into the girlfriend’s pocket
- fake police “arrested” her, bundled her into a car, and told her she’d never go back to america
- she had to identify her supposed dealer in a line-up
- instead, her boyfriend stepped forward, dropped to one knee and proposed
- she loved it – because pranks were central to their relationship
- The cat-themed proposal
- 50 actual cats dressed as mini waiters
- the couple stroked them, had cake, discovered the ring, then danced to a jazz song about cats
- deeply niche, totally on-brand for them
- The £1 million “no budget” brief
- his original ask: project his face onto the Eiffel Tower
- daisy said yes… then discovered every authority in france would say no
- she came back with alternatives and ended up:
- hiring out disneyland paris privately, with fireworks and personalised characters
- taking the couple around the world, staging iconic moments on each continent
- culminating at Niagara Falls at night, with both of their faces projected on to the water
Her attitude is “say yes first, work out the how later” – and then quietly deal with the logistics, regulations and politics behind the scenes.
Storytelling as the spine of the experience
We talk about “storytelling” endlessly in business, but daisy lives it in a very literal way.
For her, storytelling means:
- narrative from first contact to final yes – the enquiry email, the pitch deck, the build-up, the reveal, the photos afterwards
- physical storytelling in the space – props, colours, textures and music that all link back to the couple’s story
- continuity into the wedding – reusing proposal elements in the wedding decor, stationery or rituals
No two proposals or weddings are the same because no two stories are the same. The “big gesture” makes the headlines, but it’s the small, specific details that make people feel truly seen.
6 takeaways from Daisy’s story
You might not be projecting faces onto waterfalls any time soon, but there’s a lot we can steal from Daisy’s approach.
Here are six prompts to take into your own work:
- Trust your gut, not the poll
If 500 people tell you your idea is rubbish, they might be right – or you might be early. Check the logic, then listen to your instincts. Not every idea needs a focus group’s blessing. - Mine your clients’ world for specific details
Don’t stop at the brief. Look at pinterest boards, playlists, social feeds, old photos. The gold for storytelling and creativity is often already there – you just have to go looking. - Offer both templates and true bespoke
Packages give reassurance, speed and scale. Bespoke work feeds your creative soul and your portfolio. You don’t have to choose; you can design your business to hold both. - Say yes, then design the constraints
You don’t have to know exactly how you’ll do something the moment you say yes. But you do need to quickly create the boundaries, resources and plan that make it possible. - Build a team before you break yourself
If you’re still “sticking 5,000 crystals on by hand” in your business, ask where you can start handing things over. Your future work (and health) will thank you. - Remember: if there’s no playbook, you can write one
There was no rulebook for proposal planning. Daisy wrote her own.
Listen to the full episode here.Now Go Create Podcast
And if this sparked something for you – an idea you’ve parked, a niche you’re too scared to own – maybe this is your nudge to dust it off and explore it again.