Video: Engagement made in Dot Day heaven

Ed Geary, Jr. spent weeks – and recruited several people – planning to propose to his girlfriend, which he did at Sunday’s Dorchester Day Parade as the final floats of the afternoon were pulling into Peabody Square.

View it Now: Dot Day Parade Photos!

As the parade processed through the square by the Ashmont T station, a banner emerged from a flock of feathered dancers that read, “Gretchen, Will you marry me? Love, Ed” and a bedazzled Gretchen Carney (who happens to be the Dorchester Day Parade president) pointed and screamed in joy.

“You can’t do better than that,” Geary says.

Geary, who is the Dorchester Day Parade clerk, says he remembers his wife-to-be’s face when he proposed.

“She was completely shocked,” he said. “That’s the way it was supposed to be.”

Geary had planned the whole affair with military-like precision, alerting BNN-TV (which was covering the event live, with Gretchen serving as one of the on-air commentators) to be at the ready. He made sure the banner came out just at the right time; too early, and Gretchen would have been too flustered, he says, too late, and he would have stolen the thunder from Councilor Maureen Feeney’s closing remarks.

“I didn’t know what to expect at the time,” Carney said. “At first I was surprised and I said, ‘Really? In front of all these people?’ But after all this time, of course I was going to say yes.”

Geary and Carney met at a party at Jillian’s near Fenway Park in 1998 and had been together for 12 and a half years before their engagement.

In retrospect, Geary says he’s happy with how it all turned out.

“When you look at the big picture, you just want to do something nice and special.”


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