Because P.E.I. potatoes played a significant role in Brodie MacDonald’s summer proposal to Olivia Harris, the couple has started to look for ways to incorporate the potato into their wedding celebration next September.
It was on Olivia’s birthday back on July 16 that Brodie, who works at TD Bank in Charlottetown, spelled out the following proposal with about 200 netted gem potatoes borrowed from her father’s potato warehouse: “Olivia will you marry me?”
Olivia described her reaction: “I snapped my neck around pretty quick and looked at him and just basically grabbed him up off of the ground. I don’t even know if he got any words out.”
Although that event happened more than four months ago, the couple’s special moment was recently thrust back into the limelight when details of the potato-themed engagement started flooding social media. Various media platforms have been sharing the story.
“I hope people know I’m doing [the interviews] because it’s for the potato industry, really. It’s like a positive thing,” said the bride-to-be. “I really like that it’s positive for farming.”
Reaction, she said, has been very positive. She’s even taking the good-natured comments, like the ones about future tater-tots, in stride.
Although potatoes are not part of his background, Brodie was certainly well aware how important they are to Olivia’s family. “It was kind of nice to incorporate all that in the proposal,” he acknowledged.
Olivia admits she had anticipated Brodie might pop the question on her birthday, but they had also talked about getting a puppy.
Brodie had taken her, blindfolded, out into her parents’ backyard.
“He said, ‘Okay, you can take the blindfold off,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, this is probably it, but it could be a dog,’” Olivia said. “Then, whenever I took the blindfold off, he was down on one knee and I saw the sign in the grass.”
There’s still no puppy and she doubts there will be one for a while.
“Brodie said they had gone up to the warehouse, and there weren’t many potatoes left. Dad, I think, was pretty happy he was using them for that reason,” Olivia commented, adding they were the last of the farm’s 2014 crop.
“I think that Brodie was pretty clever and he put a lot of thought into it and brought a lot of things that were important to me into the engagement,” said Olivia.
The potato angle caught fire once Kendra Mills from the P.E.I. Potato Board heard about it and sought permission to share photos. “I was definitely all for it, and so was Olivia,” Brodie said, but admitted he wasn’t expecting the proposal to go viral.
“I think that’s really cool that something that seems so special to somebody can really draw so much attention,” Olivia said.
“I do think, because of where we come from, with potatoes being such a huge part of our advertising and kind of our motto for P.E.I., I think that’s why it’s gotten so much attention.”
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