Man Writes Children's Book About Lobsters For Surprise Proposal To His Girlfriend
The author of the "fake" book was named Ivan Yutusayez
— -- Joe Graceffa proposed to his longtime girlfriend Elsa Cremer with an adorably clever children's book titled "Bobster The Lobster."
Graceffa, Co-Founder of PromoCodesForYou.Com, wrote and illustrated the entire children's book himself, and surprised Cremer by proposing to her in a lobster costume after she read the book to a classroom of kids at Piper Preschool in Santa Monica, CA.
"Last Monday morning, as I was prepping my classroom for the day, I received a call from my boss wondering if I'd mind reading a story to the kids while they recorded me for "marketing purposes," Cremer explained. "They told me the book I'd be reading was written by a friend of theirs."
Graceffa told ABC News that he decided on the idea of proposing with a children's book because he wanted to incorporate Cremer's work as a teacher into the engagement.
"I wanted to do something at her preschool, because it was the one place I could of think would be most meaningful to her," Graceffa said.
Graceffa enlisted the help of Piper Preschool co-owners Crystal Biltz and Jesse Biltz to help set up the surprise, and said that they were an integral part of making sure that he pulled off the proposal without a hitch.
"Crystal, Jesse and everyone else at the school were so helpful and did everything they could to make sure things went smoothly," Graceffa said.
The book, which told the story of a lobster falling in love with a crab, was loosely based off of Graceffa and Cremer's real-life relationship, and Graceffa said that he left subtle clues throughout the story to try and hint to Cremer that the book was about them.
For example, the author and illustrator of the book were named Ivan Yutusayez and Hope Tizwurks, respectively, and some of the illustrations in the book were replicas of real-life photos of the couple.
"The picture of the two of us [as lobster and crab cartoons] on a boat is a copy of the photo of us that I knew she already seen," Graceffa said.
Graceffa, 38, popped the question to Cremer, 32, when she got to the last page of the book, which Cremer ironically skipped over by accident.
"She didn't realize I wrote the book, but once she fully understood everything it had the proper impact," Graceffa said.
Watch the adorable "Bobster The Lobster" proposal video below: