Man Showers Friends With Rose Petals During Public Marriage Proposal

A man gained unexpected notoriety after a now-viral video showed him repeatedly tossing rose petals as his friend surprised his girlfriend with a public marriage proposal in Ottawa, Ontario, on August 3.

The video shows a woman, later identified by BuzzFeed News as Kristina Hanna, walking down a staircase as rose petals fall in her direction. At the bottom of the stairs she is greeted by her boyfriend, Charbel Abillama, who is surrounded by more roses and gold-lettered balloons that spell out the words ‘marry me.’ Abillama gets down on one knee and asks Hanna to marry him, she says yes, and a crowd of onlookers cheers. And all the while, their friend Wael Mansour keeps throwing rose petals in their direction.

The clip, shot by Alison Mah, quickly went viral with the attention focusing less on the newly engaged couple and more on Mansour. The petal-thrower embraced his fame, and Twitter and Instagram were established under the handle @petalthrower, which advertise Mansour as available “for your petal throwing needs.” Credit: Alison Mah via Storyful