The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Rebecca Russell thought she was going to Snyder’s Farm Oct. 23 to pick pumpkins.
Turned out that she left with a rock. As in diamond ring.
As in, engagement ring.
Unbeknownst to Russell, her long-time boyfriend, Bobby Quinn, conspired with some friends, her sister and a cousin and Beth Savaryn, co-owner of the farm, to set the stage for him to “pop the question” among the gourds.
“I had no idea at all, at all,” Russell said, after she said “yes.”
“I’m still in shock,” she said.
Russell, 26, and Quinn, 28, high-school sweethearts in Howell who, she said, have known each other since they were little, have been a couple for the last 10 years.
“We knew we would get married eventually,” she said.
Quinn said he had no thoughts on a wedding date.
As for picking the pumpkin patch as the venue for him to drop down to one knee, Quinn said, “I guess we just like doing pumpkin picking.”
Quinn, who lives in Ocean Township with Russell, is familiar with Snyder’s Farm; he runs the Jake’s Seafood food truck that has been serving visitors to the farm’s Fall Festival this year.
To prepare for the big event, Savaryn painted five pumpkins black, and then had the words, “will you marry me?” painted on them. A sixth pumpkin was painted white, with the inscription, “She said yes.”
The food truck played a part in the ruse: Quinn said he had to check something at the truck, and kept Russell with him as the rest of their party made their way to the pumpkin patch and took positions at two hay bales Savaryn set up. Behind the bales were hidden the pumpkins.
The ring was placed in another pumpkin, ready for Quinn to “pick.”
Next step, Russell said, is the round of phone calls announcing the engagement.
“I have a lot of calls,” she said, “I have a big family.”
2016 Snyder’s Farm Engagement
