BERLIN—In the fairytale, Cinderella lost a glass slipper at the stroke of midnight during a royal ball. During Berlin’s 2014 New Year’s Eve celebration, April Taylor accepted a diamond ring at the stroke of midnight under a descending ball. As the wider crowd was counting down the seconds as we waited for midnight to arrive, the crowd that quickly formed surrounding Tommy Cahall and Taylor held their collective breaths waiting for Taylor to give her answer.
In the midst of a massive crowd of revelers gathered in the center of Main Street, Cahall quietly dropped to one knee, cradled Taylor’s left hand in his and proposed marriage. The maneuver seemed to be a bit of a surprise to Taylor. It was a much bigger surprise to most of the partygoers that surrounded them.  
It showed on Taylor’s face as her understanding of the event began to register. Then her hand went to her mouth, her eyes began to get misty, she nodded and said “yes.”
The relationship had begun nearly seven years ago, when Taylor, 28, and Cahall, 29, were introduced to each other by a mutual friend when they met up with friends at The Party Block in Ocean City that year.
Taylor, who lives in Laurel, Del., and works at Ace Printing in Berlin, is in the first year of an early childhood education associate’s degree program. Cahall is from Salisbury and works at Eastco Laundry Systems, a commercial laundry equipment company.
Taylor remembered telling the girlfriend she was with, “Oh, he’s cute,” when she spotted Tommy. Cahall thought the same about Taylor. The two hung out at the bar and chatted while their friends kept busy on the dance floor.
Which raised the question, was their meeting a secretly set up blind date?
Taylor tends to think it might have been. “I think she did. But she never came out and said it,” Taylor said of the friend who introduced them.
Cahall was not so sure. “I think it was a coincidence,” he said.
Either way, four of their friends were with them to share in the moment when Cahall finally popped the question.
“All our friends had been asking when we were going to do it, so I kind of expected it,” Taylor said.
All the friends knew about Cahall’s New Year’s Eve proposal plans, except for April of course, including friends who were not physically at the Berlin celebration, according to Cahall. Then, after midnight the absentee friends began calling in their congratulations—two to Cahall, at least 20 to Taylor.
Taylor said she received 40 to 50 “likes” on her Facebook page overnight.
Cahall said he had bought the engagement ring before Christmas. But then decided he did not want to give it to April for Christmas. He didn’t want to diminish the moment as just another Christmas present. That left him with the dilemma of trying to decide on a time he could give the proposal and ring to Taylor that was far enough away from a connection to the Christmas holiday. That was when he decided on New Year’s Eve.
The mere numbers of people the proposal attracted, however, might have taken Cahall a bit by surprise.
During the proposal a crowd immediately began encircling the couple. To Cahall, Taylor’s response seemed to take an especially long time. To those of us who were not laying our hearts bare in front of a crowd of strangers, Taylor’s response took seconds.
Asked what he was thinking at that moment, Cahall said the one thing on his mind at the time was, “She’d better say ‘yes’.”
Taylor said she had been sensing that Cahall would soon be popping the question. “But I didn’t expect the proposal to come on New Year’s Eve,” she said.
The couple has not set a wedding date yet, but Cahall said it would probably not be this year.
Cahall said when he returned to work after the holiday his co-workers had one question on their minds: “Are you engaged?”
Their family members had the typical happy response to the news, they said. Although Cahall added, “There were a few who asked “What took you so long?”
So why on New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight in the middle of Main Street?
Cahall’s answer was, “If you’re going to go, go big.”