Mardi Gras flash mob leads to marriage proposal

— -- What one Texas woman thought was just her boyfriend dancing in the streets at a Mardi Gras celebration turned into a flash mob marriage proposal.

Wendy Hernandez, 23, of Houston, Texas, was celebrating Mardi Gras in Galveston Saturday afternoon with her family and friends, including her boyfriend, John Galloway.

Just before the island city’s Mardi Gras parade was about to begin, Galloway, 26, began dancing in the street. He was soon joined by nearly a dozen of his closest friends in a choreographed dance routine to Bruno Mars’ hit songs “Uptown Funk” and “Marry You.”

Galloway didn’t even have an idea of what a flash mob was until last December when he asked his friends’ advice for how to propose and they immediately said, “Flash mob,” he said.

“I just went to YouTube and we went from there to choreograph it,” Galloway told ABC News. "It wasn't pretty at first."

Galloway knew that dancing was the way to the heart of Hernandez, a college student who is also a Zumba teacher and a former professional dancer.

“My original plan was to hire professional dancers,” Galloway said. “But that would take the fun out of it and I wanted something that would take more effort and show more emotion.”

Galloway recruited around 25 of his friends to help. Those that wanted to dance rehearsed with him weekly from December until this weekend. Those friends with what Galloway described as “less rhythm" worked as self-named security guards on Saturday to make sure no one interrupted the surprise proposal.

“I did not catch on at all,” said Hernandez, who watched on the street alongside her family and friends who traveled from Houston. “He’s pretty silly and I thought he was just dancing and thought it was pretty cool.”

As a large crowd gathered to watch, Galloway danced his way to the back of his friends and then walked through an aisle they created to get down on one knee in front of Hernandez with the ring.

“In the video, you can see my shoulders are shaking for how much I’m crying,” Hernandez said of her shocked reaction.

Friends posted videos of the proposal on Facebook, and family made sure they had engagement T-shirts and a cake on hand to celebrate.

"There were tons of people involved," Galloway said. "There was no way I could have done it on my own."

The newly-engaged couple has yet to set a date for their nuptials but they are already planning their first dance at their wedding reception.

“I want to do a full-on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ salsa dance,” said Galloway, to which Hernandez replied, “And of course I’m all in.”