Having a mother who is a wedding planner, Sarah Boucher has heard her share of love stories. Still, nothing could top her own romantic narrative that unfolded on Oct. 5, 2019.

In the morning, her sister kept trying to persuade her to get her nails done for the dinner date she had planned with her boyfriend, Jake Trentmann.

“I had a feeling something was going on, but I didn’t know exactly what it was,” Sarah says.

In a few hours, her suspicions were realized when her sister and mother, Diana Boucher of Weddings by Diana Boucher, helped Jake pull off an elaborate surprise engagement.

Terrace Montage  

After sharing a cocktail in the library of the Hotel Emma at the Pearl, Sarah and Jake took the elevator to the luxury hotel’s rooftop pool terrace. She followed a walkway of pink and yellow rose petals illuminated by vintage lanterns and glass cylinders glowing with floating candles.

Under a leafy arbor, the path culminated in a carpeted montage of woven and shag pillows, antique chests, bouquets of roses, orchids and hydrangeas and a framed sign that read, “Sarah, Will you marry me?”

“Jake said that he didn’t want to spend another day without me, and then he got on one knee and asked me to marry him,” she recalls.

Sarah’s tears welled as she basked in the beauty of the proposal vignette that her family lovingly created.

“I went for a Boho romantic style mixed with the soft pinks that Sarah likes,” says her sister Jackie White, who manages the Hofmann Ranch venue in Castroville and also works with her mother with Weddings by Diana Boucher. “I used props from my mother’s inventory, our sister-in-law made the proposal sign, and our sister-in-law’s mother designed the floral arrangements. It was truly a family effort.”

Hidden Cameras

During the proposal, Sarah had no idea that her parents, siblings and sister-in-law were peeking from nearby windows. After Jake popped the question and she said, “Yes,” her family joined the couple on the terrace.

The future bride will be able to relive the moment since Limelight San Antonio Photography and Video captured the action.

“The photographer placed a tiny video camera in one of the planters that he remotely controlled,” Diana Boucher describes. “Like a spy, from behind a bush about 20 feet away, he snapped still shots of the proposal as it happened.”

After the couple shared the big news with Jake’s parents in Missouri through FaceTime, they celebrated the momentous occasion with Sarah’s family at Hotel Emma’s Southerleigh restaurant.

“My family is everything to me. We’re all really close,” she says. “I was thrilled that Jake made a point to include them in our engagement.”

Sarah and Jake haven’t set a wedding date, but she knows she can count on her family to help with their big day.

“Being that I have family in the wedding business, there’s nothing small when it comes to them and event planning,” she says.