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She said yes: Proposal pulled off at Winnipeg Jets whiteout party

Love was in the air at the Winnipeg Jets Whiteout Street Party Thursday night as one man proposed to his girlfriend.

'It kind of makes the loss a little bit easier': Groom-to-be

Austin Grabish · CBC News ·
Jon Skrypnyk and Jen Meixner are getting married after Skrypnyk proposed in front of a crowd at the whiteout street party Thursday night. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)

They've watched Jets games together from the moment they started dating, so popping the question in front of thousands of fellow fans seemed like the perfect one-timer. 

But when Jen Meixner got called onto the stage, she was convinced it was to answer a skill-testing question. Little did she know her boyfriend of three years, Jon Skrypnyk, was about to ask her to marry him.

"I had to tell a few lies. I told her we had won a contest and we had to go on stage and answer a Jets skill-testing question," said Skrypnyk, 36.

Skrypnyk told CBC he started planning his proposal to his girlfriend earlier this week and contacted Ace Burpee to see if he could help set it up. 

Meixner, 31, didn't see it coming. "I had expressed how stressed out I was all afternoon," she said Thursday night. "I'm on maternity leave so I've been studying all day waiting for the Jets skill-testing question."

The proposal outside Bell MTS Place at the Winnipeg Jets Whiteout Street Party Thursday night went off without a hitch — after Meixner turned around on the stage to see a photo of the couple's kids that said will you marry dad/pop?

Love was in the air at the Whiteout street party

7 years ago
Duration 0:44
A Winnipeg man pulled off a surprise proposal at the Jets Whiteout Street Party Thursday night. Jon Skrypnyk took his girlfriend Jen Meixner by surprise when he got on one knee in front of thousands and popped the question.

"It's a blur," Meixner said following the Jets' defeat to Nashville Thursday night.

"Feeling great about the engagement, crummy about the loss so it kind of makes the loss a little bit easier," added Skrypnyk.

The couple hasn't decided on where the wedding will be yet. Meixner said as long as Mick E. Moose is there, it'll be great. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Austin Grabish

Reporter

​Austin Grabish is a reporter for CBC News in Winnipeg. Since joining CBC in 2016, he's covered several major stories. Some of his career highlights have been documenting the plight of asylum seekers leaving America in the dead of winter for Canada and the 2019 manhunt for two teenage murder suspects. In 2021, he won an RTDNA Canada award for his investigative reporting on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which triggered change. Have a story idea? Email: austin.grabish@cbc.ca

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