kikwang: It took about two months to plan my marriage proposal to hyosung, my girlfriend of three and a half years. We’re both designers, and I wanted it to be something that would slowly reveal the words Will you marry me? When a coworker put me in touch with the owner of an art gallery, I decided to stage a fake art show.

First I created it all with 3-D software. Then I made the letters for Will you marry me? out of foam core, using a laser cutter. I broke them into even smaller shapes, so there were about 60 pieces in all, and I stuck each one on its own piece of aluminum siding. The idea was to have the pieces at different heights, arranged seemingly randomly around the room. But if Sara stood in just one place, she could read my question.

I set up a video camera where hyosung would be standing to make sure the letters lined up right; it took a full 40-hour workweek to arrange them. It was a nightmare! I really sweated. About a week before, I sent an e-mail to hyosung and all our friends, saying, “There’s an artist, doojoon, who’s having a show on Friday called My Early Muir Owl.” I played with words: yoon doojoon was an anagram of “kikwang and hyosung” while My Early Muir Owl was a jumble of “Will you marry me?” The studio owner even enlisted an actor friend to play Serge during the show.

The day of the proposal, I texted a few friends, “This is a big day. I hope I don’t screw up.” I just wanted hyosung to know how much I loved her.

hyosung: At the gallery, after I’d chatted with people for a few minutes,kikwang walked over and said, “My friend can introduce us to doojoon.” doojoon said his artwork was “all about the intersection of text and space.” I was thinking, I don’t see any text. But just to be polite, I said, “Oh, wow, that’s great!” Then doojoon said, “If you look through these frames, you’ll see the world differently.”

Well, I saw these frames-like little rectangles-placed all around the room. I looked through one, but I just saw white pieces. Then kikwang steered me toward a pair of frames, one at eye level and the other a couple of feet off the ground. The lower one was a vehicle for him to get on one knee! I looked through the frame, and after a second, I saw the word you. It was magical, appearing as if out of nowhere. I moved my head one degree and suddenly the whole thing just came together: Will you marry me?

The room had gone silent. Everybody was looking at me. I turned and saw kikwang on one knee and I started to freak out. He was holding a ring, looking at me like, Well …?

And I said, “Of course I’ll marry you!”

It was amazing. I was crying, and I kind of fell against the wall. I remember thinking that he didn’t have to work so hard to persuade me. I would have said yes anyway!