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Love is in the air. So is the smell of rotting flesh.
A goth couple in Southern California got engaged Monday in front of the world’s rarest — and stinkiest — flower, choosing the infamous corpse flower as the backdrop for their romantic proposal.
The darkly fitting engagement unfolded at The Huntington in San Marino, where two towering corpse flowers, notorious for reeking like rotting flesh when they bloom, are on public display from July 12 through July 19.
“Congratulations to these two who just got engaged in front of the corpse flowers 😭 they were so cute!!! And thank you for the makeup tips!! Their makeup stayed perfect after four hours in line, in the blazing heat and humidity,” the caption from a TikTok video showing the engagement read.
“They’re a very sweet couple, and this moment is SO THEM,” the sister-in-law of the woman who received the proposal, also commented underneath the video.
Nick and Laura, the bride-to-be, spoke to The California Post about their engagement at such a stinky spot.
“We were both shaking and nervous, I was shocked because he is a very shy guy that doesn’t like attention, so it was very brave of him. I cried, I know how much he loves me and how much this must mean to him to do this in front of everyone. He says he’s ecstatic I said yes,” she said.
“We’re planning a Black metal wedding with coffin cookies and a corpse paint table so everyone can join us in our unholy matrimony.”
“He just felt like it was the right place. As soon as he found out it was going to bloom, he started planning and ordered the ring. And knew I wanted to see it because I had talked about it for years and have a deep interest in unusual and toxic plants,” Laura told The Post.
“It’s a flower, so it’s very romantic.”
The Titan Arum – also known as the Corpse Flower – can grow more than 12 feet tall and blooms for only a brief 48 hours once every few years.
Found in the dense rainforests of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the rare plant is on the verge of disappearing forever — with fewer than 1,000 believed to survive in the wild.
The plants’ peak bloom occurred on Monday, but the two “Corpse Flowers” will remain at The Huntington for the next couple of weeks.
The Huntington is a 207 acre estate that features a library, an art museum, and botanical gardens.
The library is home to rare items such as the Gutenberg Bible and early editions of William Shakespeare’s works, while the museum possesses nearly “50,000 works from America, East Asia, and Europe that span nearly 2,000 years.”
The botanical gardens also features over 83,000 living plants and eighteen distinct themed gardens including the famous traditional Japanese Garden.
The Huntington first hosted the rare flower in 1999, which drew nearly 76,000 visitors. Since then, the center has exhibited 29 Corpse Flower blooms.
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