[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/celebrity-wedding-planner-colin-cowie-extravagant-south-african-safari-proposal-to-danny-peuscovich\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/celebrity-wedding-planner-colin-cowie-extravagant-south-african-safari-proposal-to-danny-peuscovich\/","headline":"Celebrity wedding planner Colin Cowie’s extravagant South African safari proposal to Danny Peuscovich","name":"Celebrity wedding planner Colin Cowie’s extravagant South African safari proposal to Danny Peuscovich","description":"Wedding planner to the stars Colin Cowie recounts to Equally Wed exactly how he pulled off his luxury proposal to boyfriend Danny Peuscovich on a South African safari.","datePublished":"2019-05-15","dateModified":"2019-05-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/kpalladino\/#Person","name":"Kirsten Palladino","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/kpalladino\/","identifier":2,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76421eab241dc39d43a493849d7bc676e4b1c60c6b1167f727466599b6882eca?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76421eab241dc39d43a493849d7bc676e4b1c60c6b1167f727466599b6882eca?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Equally Wed","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","url":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","width":218,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/colin-cowie-engagement-equally-wed-9.jpg","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/colin-cowie-engagement-equally-wed-9.jpg","height":1080,"width":1620},"url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/celebrity-wedding-planner-colin-cowie-extravagant-south-african-safari-proposal-to-danny-peuscovich\/","about":["Celebrities","Celebrity News","Engagement","News","Travel"],"wordCount":2319,"keywords":[" South Africa","celebrity engagement","Colin Cowie","Danny Peuscovich","LGBTQ proposals","luxury","ring alternatives"],"articleBody":"Colin Cowie\u2019s New York office in the Garment District is swank and sophisticated but welcoming and comfortable, all in the same breath\u2014just like the man himself. The famous wedding planner arrives for our interview as polished and handsome as ever, dressed in jeans and a tweed jacket. We take a seat in his office\u2019s lounge where a cart of liquor brims of lively after-hours entertaining.Cowie and I have a history. He wrote a blurb for my LGBTQ+ wedding planning book, and I\u2019ve covered his multiple tomes (he’s working on his eleventh book right now\u2014more on that below). I\u2019ve been following Cowie’s 30-year career ever since I entered the wedding media scene 10 years ago, and we recount those encounters for a brief moment before getting down to the business at hand: Colin Cowie is recently engaged to Danny Peuscovich, and I want the scoop straight from the celebrity LGBTQ+ wedding planner himself. He’s more than happy to oblige.Colin CowieIn early 2018, Cowie and Peuscovich decided that they would become engaged. They didn\u2019t set a date or decide when, where or how it would happen. As the months went by, \u201cto throw him off,\u201d Cowie told his beau, \u201cLet\u2019s wait until January sometime. We\u2019ll figure it out then. No rush. You can meet my family, and I can meet yours.\u201dCowie\u2019s family lives in South Africa, while Peuscovich\u2019s family lives in Argentina. The couple went to Argentina, where Cowie met Peuscovich\u2019s family, all the while Cowie was planning his proposal, which took him six months to plan.\u201cBeing the planner that I am, I like drama, theater, a sense of timing and surprise elements,\u201d says Cowie, who was born in Zambia and raised in South Africa. \u201cI am an old-school romantic. So I came across this lodge called Kubili House in Thorny Bush, which is a game resort area. Part of the Greater Kruger National Park. And it looked like the chicest lodge that I\u2019ve seen. Now I go to safaris three or four times a year and I\u2019ve done them my entire life. It\u2019s the greatest thing that I\u2019ve \u2013 it\u2019s my favorite thing in the whole world to do. Danny went with me to South Africa many, many times. He does business there. He\u2019s a commodities trader. But he\u2019d never been to a safari.\u201dDanny Peuscovich and Colin Cowie on their private safari picnic before the proposalIn late December, Cowie took over the whole camp for privacy. They had the whole lodge to themselves. After their game ride on the second day, Dec. 21, 2018, Cowie tells Peuscovich: \u201cDanny, I\u2019ve arranged for us to go on a helicopter safari,\u201d which he tells me, \u201cis a very different experience of viewing animals.\u201d\u201cWe were flying through the bush belt and approaching this mountain range, which is called God\u2019s window. Which is the greenest canyon in the world\u2014it\u2019s beautiful. Waterfalls, mountains and pools.\u201d And Peuscovich said to Cowie, \u2018Why are we flying high? I thought we were supposed to be looking at the animals?\u2019” Far below, there was a printed message for\u00a0Peuscovich which read, “Will you marry me?”“Will you marry me?” sign that Colin Cowie had sprawled out for their engagement picnic where he proposed to Colin Cowie’s extravagant proposal to Danny Peuscovich.\u201cI land the helicopter, and I had set this whole picnic in advance. I got these beautiful sterling silver champagne flutes from England. I got engraved the exact coordinates where I made the proposal. His name, my name and the date. And then I used a saber, and I opened a bottle of Dom Perignon 2000 ros\u00e9. I pulled out this amazing picnic of all of his favorite foods, the things he likes.”The site of Colin Cowie’s extravangant proposal in South Africa“And then \u2026 he doesn\u2019t really wear rings but when I was working with Blue Nile, I\u2019d made a ring that I carried around the world for three years. I was going to use it in a social media post, asking \u2018Where has this ring been?\u2019 So I had inscribed inside the ring, \u201caround the world for you, my love.\u201dAnd then as he was about to put it on his finger, I pulled out a leather lanyard and slipped the ring on it. Now he wears it on his neck.\u201dColin pauses in his recollection of his proposal to point out that LGBTQ+ people don\u2019t have to follow conventional engagements and weddings. \u201cI also think we can write our own rules. We don\u2019t have to be bound by what tradition says you need to do, to wear a ring on your left hand. You can wear a symbol of love any way you want.\u201cAnd from that moment onwards, we just had an amazing day. I\u2019d arranged to have white truffles flown in from Italy to the Bush. And our combined birthdays at the time made up 100.\u201cAfter sunset there were 100 candles, 100 lanterns burning. And the final fun moment was after dinner it was pitch black outside. And you could hear these women singing and these men. Two choirs came together. I arranged for a choir to come sing African love songs to us. And the last song was Viva Argentina in Spanish. I\u2019d sent them the words to learn a few weeks before. And we all lived happily ever after,\u201d he ends his story with a charming grin.Colin\u2019s advice to others planning a proposal? \u201cMake it special!\u201dThe wedding will take place on a vineyard in February 2020 in South Africa. \u201cSouth Africa has the best weather in February,\u201d he explains. I press for details but Cowie is understandably coy, and twists a pretend lock at his lips with a twinkle in his eye.\u201cBut it\u2019s going to be epic, stunningly beautiful, an all-nighter. I\u2019m a big believer in writing a new script. I don\u2019t want to do anything stereotypical. However, rituals, ceremony \u2026 everything will take on a very personal meaning and a new way of doing things.\u201dColin Cowie and Danny Peuscovich at the New York Public Library | photo by Brian Dorsey StudiosAdvice to couples who are trying to come up with new ways of doing things? Cowie is happy to share his thoughts:\u201cFirst thing is it doesn\u2019t have to be like the stereotypical heterosexual wedding. Where you\u2019ve got men and women walking together down the aisle, some standing to the right and some standing to the left. Rewrite the rules completely! There are no rules.As long as you\u2019re not offending anyone, go ahead and do something new and different and inspiring because no one\u2019s going to judge you. The people are there to support you and to love you. Otherwise they shouldn\u2019t be there in the first place.\u201dAs far as Cowie\u2019s South African wedding, he plans on bringing in many of the typical elements of weddings, but he\u2019ll be doing it his own way. He says, \u201cI\u2019m going to incorporate all the traditions but my spin on them and I think that\u2019s the whole key because this is not just another big party. It\u2019s our personal statement of style. It\u2019s about who we are to our family, new family and new friends. We both know who we are individually.Colin Cowie and Danny Peuscovich | Photo by Brian Dorsey Studios\u201cSo that\u2019s why I don\u2019t believe in a textbook wedding. I don\u2019t want to do a stereotypical wedding that mirrors others \u2026 I don\u2019t see him and me walking down the aisle, holding hands together. That\u2019s not who we are, y\u2019know? Or cutting a big towering floral cake. It\u2019s not who I am.\u201dDo you like cake, I ask? \u201cNot particularly.\u201d Another dashing grin. \u201cBut we\u2019ll do a very beautiful cake but it\u2019s not going to be festooned in flowers. It\u2019ll be marbled, clean, contemporary and architectural, which is my aesthetic.\u201dDoes Danny have a similar sense of style that Cowie has? \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re actually very different. I\u2019m in the creative business, and he\u2019s in finance.\u201dBut Cowie doesn\u2019t want to just take over and plan it all by himself or take the lead because of his creative career. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in ever doing that,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I believe that the planning of a wedding is something that you do together and even though I am known for designing these extraordinary weddings it\u2019s been fun to bounce around all these ideas together. We could do this, or we could do that. It\u2019s also part of building, you\u2019re planning this event together. The last thing I want is for him to show up and say, \u2018What the f-ck? Why\u2019d you do that?\u2019 So we\u2019ve come together and agreed on everything. He defers to me in many ways but in many ways, he has a point of view and it\u2019s respected. He\u2019s come up some really good ideas!\u201dTo propose with or without a ring\u2014and other wedding trend disruptionsI ask Cowie about men proposing with or without engagement rings, since he proposed to Danny with a ring that Danny will wear on a necklace. Cowie breaks the mold on proposal gifts by saying, \u201cI think that there\u2019s this idea that every engagement ring needs to start with a little blue box \u2026 forget that! Throw that out the door. Do whatever works. Go get a tattoo if you want to! Get a love bracelet that\u2019s screwed on for the rest of your life. Do a ring. Do a pendant. Do anything. This is your opportunity to express who you are. And as I\u2019m coming up with a unique idea for what to do for our wedding.\u201d\u201cThis industry is still trying to understand us by their standards,\u201d I say.\u201cI\u2019m not interested in that,\u201d Cowie says. \u201cAnd you\u2019ll see. After this wedding, it\u2019ll be a whole takeaway about what to do, the speeches and the toasts \u2026 I\u2019ve reinvented the wedding completely. And I think it\u2019ll be a style guide, an example for other people how to express themselves without feeling that it was rooted in some form of tradition from the heterosexual world.\u201d\u201cI think the straight community thinks we just started getting married because of marriage equality but we\u2019ve been having weddings for a very long time,\u201d I say. \u201cThey just didn\u2019t have a legal paper to go with it.\u201d\u201cRight,\u201d Cowie says.\u201cWe\u2019re writing our own rules,\u201d I find myself saying in response. \u201cIn my book, I say, \u2018These are all just suggestions!\u2019\u201d Cowie wrote an advance recommendation for my book before it was published\u2014a blurb, we call it in the literary world.\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he says with a nod. \u201cIt\u2019s your opportunity to shine, to make a statement of style to say who we are, not who we\u2019re emulating. Or feel that we need to do what is done traditionally.\u201dWhat\u2019s it like when a celebrity wedding planner plans his own wedding? Does it feel different?\u201cNo, I\u2019m actually excited! I lie awake in bed and I can\u2019t fall asleep because I\u2019m thinking, \u2018My God, we could do this.\u2019 It\u2019s evolved amazingly. It\u2019s crystal clear in my own mind.\u201dTo orchestrate it, Cowie is bringing a core team from New York to be in charge of logistics. He\u2019s also collaborating with a South African company he\u2019s worked with before on another wedding to provide additional support.\u201cI\u2019m sure no one wants to disappoint you,\u201d I point out. He flashes that grin again.Colin Cowie and Danny Peuscovich | Photo by Brian Dorsey Studios\u201cYou\u2019ve never really seen anything of my personal life,\u201d Cowie begins. \u201cIt\u2019s not that I hide it. I like somewhat of a mystery of some of my life. I don\u2019t blast every single thing on social media. When we got engaged on the 21st of December, I was able to kind of keep it covered until the Post heard about it and then it went crazy. I had people in India to Africa to Argentina wanting to provide cakes, music, favors, come sing, photographs. People I haven\u2019t seen in 20 years want to come to the wedding.\u201cIf I did this wedding in New York, we\u2019d have 600 people. I don\u2019t want that. I really don\u2019t want to attend a banquet. One-hundred-and-fifty people max. I think that\u2019s the magic number. This is our greatest hits, not our latest hits. That\u2019s been my approach with the guest list.\u201dIn the meantime while planning his wedding and running his event-planning business, Colin Cowie Lifestyle, Cowie is also writing another book. His eleventh book is titled Colin Cowie\u2019s Standard Operating Procedure. \u201cIt\u2019s a business-to-business book,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s for anybody in the service industry. It\u2019s really about the importance of customer service and how we use it today to set ourselves apart from a very flooded arena in all areas of business. It\u2019s crowded. And why it\u2019s so important to create that emotional connection. Otherwise you\u2019re just a product.\u201d Cowie is certainly far from that with his jovial warmth. Though he\u2019s been planning events for three decades, he says he \u201clearns something new every time he does a job.\u201d He says with a grin: \u201cIt\u2019s tremendous fun.\u201d All photos courtesy of Colin Cowie’s personal collection. Black-and-white photos of Colin Cowie and Danny Peuscovich were taken by Brian Dorsey Studios       "},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Celebrity wedding planner Colin Cowie’s extravagant South African safari proposal to Danny Peuscovich","item":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/celebrity-wedding-planner-colin-cowie-extravagant-south-african-safari-proposal-to-danny-peuscovich\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]