Woman who thought she was on Paris girls’ trip gets surprise proposal instead

By Jake Meeus-Jones via SWNS

A woman whose best friend convinced her to go on a "girls' trip" to Paris realized it was a ruse when her boyfriend showed up to propose.

Alli Sims, 26, was in cahoots with her friend Freya Mohr's now-fiancé, Caleb Kemp, 22, to set up a surprise proposal in the French capital.

Alli convinced two of her friends to join them - under the guise of a Christmas weekend away.

But they surprised Freya, 23, when Caleb, a content and community executive, suddenly appeared on the Pont Neuf bridge and got down on one knee to propose.

Alli had all the tricks up her sleeve and convinced Freya that the reason they were getting a bigger Airbnb was because the smaller one had flooded, and they were getting a free upgrade.

When in actual fact, they needed a bigger place to accommodate Caleb and his friends too.

After a day of touring the city and some coincidental chats about proposals, everything was set up for Caleb to pop the question in the evening.

Alli told Freya they were crossing a bridge to go to a bar, but Caleb surprised her halfway across it - where he asked her to marry him, and she said yes.

Alli, a fashion stylist, originally from Nashville, Tennessee, now living in Kensington, London, said: "It was really nice.

"When Caleb surprised Freya she was so shocked. She couldn't believe I'd thrown her off so much.

"We had a really amazing weekend celebrating afterward.

"It's lovely because they're both from the States and we all live in London. Caleb had his two best friends from the US fly in as well. That was super sweet.

"We even went to a coffee shop in the day, and she was telling me how frustrated she was that he hadn't proposed yet."

Alli and her friends first visited Paris in the summer - where they got matching tattoos and decided they'd go back and visit as often as they could.

Caleb - who used to live in Paris with Freya - got in touch with Alli and planned the surprise proposal.

"I was speaking with Freya's boyfriend because they used to live in Paris, and he wanted to surprise her there with the proposal," Alli said.

"So, he said 'why don’t we pretend that you’ve bought tickets to Paris as an early Christmas gift?'

"Then I texted her and my other friend saying ‘oh my gosh I found tickets to Paris this weekend - can you go?' Thankfully they could.

"I had a few little hoops we had to jump through with convincing her I was booking an Airbnb for three people instead of the eight we needed.

"Three days before we left, I said ‘the Airbnb flooded so we've been given a nicer one that hosts more people’ as an excuse to get into the bigger one.

"Us girls got there at 9 am and then the boys all got there at 9 pm later in the day."

Alli and her friends spent the day touring the city before they went back to the hotel to prepare for the proposal - with Freya blissfully unaware.

"The three of us girls travel a lot together and we typically don’t go back to the hotel until the evening when we go away," Alli said.

"But I said maybe we should go back to put something nicer on.

"Freya wasn't sure whether she wanted to put something nicer on and I had to really work to get her in this dress."

Timing it perfectly, Alli chose a restaurant close to the bridge where Caleb was going to propose and suggested they go for a drink at a bar on the other side.

She said: "I said ‘shall we go to a bar across the bridge?' to try and get her on the bridge but I had to think of a random bar.

"So, I quickly whipped out my phone and pointed to a random bar on the other side.

"Then we started walking across and suddenly he surprised her. She was crying, completely shocked and just so happy. I think it was the last thing she expected."

Caleb first approached Alli in August with his idea to propose to Freya, and the two of them later hatched their secret plan.

"I was super nervous but very excited," Caleb said.

"Once I got the ring in my hands a few days before, I was calm, but then the day of I had the feeling of going over the hill on a rollercoaster."

Freya added: "It was wild, I sort of assumed he might propose soon, but I was absolutely certain it wouldn’t be that weekend.

"When Alli said we were going to a bar on the other side of the bridge I wanted to know exactly where the bar was because it didn’t seem right but I didn’t clock anything at all."

Caleb said: "I feel super, super excited now. The engagement step I sort of found easy but now we have to plan a wedding.

"I feel the same but there's a little bit more of an affirmation because the commitment is very solid now."

"When I imagined getting engaged I thought I'd be nervous and excited, which I was, but it was also peaceful. True peace. We're super happy," Freya added.