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https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/c...l-18435770.php

Lavish proposals and giant letters are taking over this Houston park

People are heading to Buffalo Bayou to publicly (and loudly) declare their love.

Brittanie Shey
Nov. 10, 2023

Like many people in the early days of the pandemic, Houstonian Jay Gonzales had a lot of free time on his hands. Though he previously ran a moving business, few people needed his services, so he started looking for something new to do. Scouring social media, he came up with an idea.

He saw lots of outdoor gatherings like gender reveals and birthdays, where people were celebrating with elaborate decorations and giant lit-up letters. That led to the creation of his current business, Superstar Marquee Letters, where he makes his own letters and rents them out for events. And one type of event in particular has been a huge boon for him: wedding proposals. Specifically, wedding proposals at Buffalo Bayou Park.

Drive past the park most weekends at dusk and you're likely to see at least one, sometimes multiple, such setups. Gonzales says he does an average of two engagements in the park a week. He also does events like quinceñeras and graduations, but proposals are by far his biggest business, especially this time of year. In America, the holiday season is the most popular time to get engaged, with 19 percent of all engagements happening in November.

"Right now there are a lot of people that rent the letters," he said.

Scroll through the Instagram location link for Eleanor Tinsley Park, the park-within-a-park along Allen Parkway, and you'll see dozens of over-the-top engagement photos, including not just massive marquee letters, but also geodesic domes and extravagant picnics. A quick Google search for local photographers shows a number of proposal photo shoots at the park as well. So when did Eleanor Tinsley, and Buffalo Bayou Park as a whole, become the go-to place to get engaged in Houston?

Karen Farber, vice president of external affairs at Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP), said the park has always been a popular place for proposals, but the elaborate set-ups really started to explode during the pandemic.