A Calgary man who is obsessed with the Canadian rock band Arkells chose their show at the Saddledome as the perfect moment to pop the question to his equally fanatical girlfriend.
Chris Schneider and his girlfriend, Hannah Escallier, have been going out for the past two years. Their first date was at an Arkells show, so Chris knew he wanted to take the next step at one of their concerts.
“She got us the Arkells tickets for Christmas and then I knew I wanted to do the proposal during the show because they had been our band.”
In order to pull off his plan, Chris wanted to make it extra special.
“I knew I wanted to bring her to the VIP part, so I wanted to get her out of the house and close to downtown for that to be easy. I asked if she wanted to go to the CJAY Jam Session and she said ‘yes’ and that’s just up the road from the ‘Dome.”
After the performance at Studio Bell, the pair killed some time in a pub before going over to the Saddledome well before the show, but just in time for Hannah‘s surprise.
“Initially, when he said ‘I have a surprise,’ I thought it was going to be the proposal right then and there. Because he has been acting weird for at least two weeks.”
When they got inside the box office, he told her that it was the VIP meet-and-greet and that put her right off the trail again.
Little did she know, Chris had gotten in touch with the band’s manager and set up the entire magical moment.
“Everyone got in line and waited their turn and once it was our turn, we got our two vinyls signed by them and [we] told them the story about how we first started dating and it was basically our second year anniversary and Max [Kerman] just thanked her and said they were honoured they could be a part of the anniversary moment.”
However, that wasn’t the only memorable moment in the young couple’s lives that the band would participate in.
“That’s when I dropped the knee.”
Hannah says she turned around to see if Chris had anything to say to the group, but it was the perfect moment.
“My immediate reaction was, ‘Oh my God, it’s actually happening now.’”
Hannah said ‘yes’ and there has been a huge outpouring of support for them ever since.
“It’s been almost overwhelming. We’re both social media fiends. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, you name it. We’ve gotten hundreds of likes and favourites,” Chris says.
“The Arkells they just seemed to be really, really happy to be a part of this,” Hannah says. “They gave us hugs and they congratulated us. They were so wonderful.”
(With files from Stephanie Wiebe)
