Influencer's ‘surprise’ wedding proposal turns out to be a marketing stunt

An influencer couple’s “surprise” marriage proposal has turned out to be a well-thought-out marketing stunt that was originally pitched to brands.

Earlier this week Marissa Casey Fuchs, a fashion influencer, posted a video on Instagram of her boyfriend Gabriel Grossman, in which he says he has the most “important question” of his life to ask her.

“Problem is, we’re not really into traditional weddings,” he stated in the clip.

Over the next two days, the couple shared several Instagram Stories – totalling 45 minutes of footage – with their combined 201,000 followers.

The videos see Fuchs enjoying a series of activities including a Flywheel spinning class; trips to the Hamptons in New York State; shopping trips in Miami, Florida; dinners; shopping trips; and finally a holiday to Paris.

In the footage, the couple tease that the activities will end in Grossman getting down on one knee and asking Fuchs, who uses the Instagram handle @fashionambitionist, to marry him – although it's not clear whether he has actually asked her yet.

However, on Thursday, The Atlantic reported that a pitch deck – a brief presentation of a business plan – uploaded to the online image sharing platform Imgur had been sent to several brands in the hopes that they would sponsor the engagement.

“We’re pleased to offer your brand the opportunity to align with this momentous occasion and the beautiful cities [Fuchs] will be visiting along the way,” reads an excerpt from the pitch.

The pitch included the couple’s itinerary earlier this week, including where they would be staying, the restaurants they wold be eating in, as well as when brands could expect to see Instagram posts featuring their sponsored products.

The proposal trip is described in the business plan, which features images of the couple in several foreign locations, as “a one-of-a-kind proposal experience for a one-of-a-kind female ambitionist”.

The pitch soon went viral, prompting a friend of Fuchs to post an Instagram Story on the influencer’s social media account in which they claimed the deck was a “logistical plan” for the couple’s friends to see.

It is unknown whether the couple received sponsorship for their drawn-out proposal, but several brands appear to have been tagged in Fuchs’ Instagram Stories, with some even appearing to have sent gifts.

“Thank you so much for sending this bag right in time for this!” Fuchs says in one post in which the luggage maker Tumi is tagged.

According to Vox, Fuchs gained more than 20,000 followers during the week-long proposal extravaganza, making her current following 180,000.

Twitter users have expressed their shock over the branded stunt.

“Glad these two sociopaths found each other!” wrote one user.

“Enjoy fake crying in your Instagram Stories for the rest of this farce!”

Another added: “I assume that when they say a 'Traditional Wedding' not being 'their style' they mean traditional in the sense of paying for it themselves?”

“I don't even have any words to describe my reaction,” wrote another. “I guess this is our life now.”

After the couple's proposal trip went viral, Grossman told The Atlantic that he, Fuchs, and a social-media marketer (known by the name Evans). who put together the business plan said they received no “direct payment” for Fuchs' posts.

While Grossman said that most brands didn’t even respond to the sponsorship proposal, the ones that did (including FlyWheel, Love Shack Fancy and Glamsquad) already had a good relationship with the couple and offered some private products.

“I was trying to do something that I knew Marissa would love,” Grossman told the publication.

The news comes after a social media influencer couple, who faced backlash for asking their followers to crowdfund €10,000 (£8,866) to cover the costs of their upcoming holiday, announced they are going to “step away from social media”.

Earlier this month, Catalin Onc and Elena Engelhardt, who share the Instagram account Another Beautiful Day, announced that they would be taking a tandem cycling trip to Africa and needed help from their more than 42,000 followers to cover costs.

However, following widespread criticism from their followers, who accused the couple of freeloading and told them to get a job, Onc said on Monday he would be stepping away from social media to go “on a walk”.

“With this post, I will step away from social media for a little while,” he wrote, adding that he’d previously announced he would soon be doing “the hardest thing I’ve ever done mentally and physically”.

According to the influencer, who shared an up-close photo of his “look within” face tattoo, he will walk as long as he “possibly can” without “sleep, social media or distractions”.

The Independent has contacted Marissa Casey Fuchs and Gabriel Grossman for comment.