- A video went viral of Darian Brinkley proposing to his girlfriend outside of an airplane bathroom.
- The video received mixed reactions online, with some questioning the post-bathroom proposal.
A loud flush, cramped quarters, and a long line are what you might think of when it comes to airplane bathrooms.
For Darian Brinkley, 43, it was the setting for a major life moment: asking his girlfriend Minita Tanner, 41, to marry him.
Though Brinkley initially assumed it would be just an airplane's worth of people cheering the couple on, it quickly turned into something bigger.
TikTok user @mzzgina13 shared footage of the proposal on Tuesday, and the video has since gained 3.8 million views. It also went viral on Twitter, where more than 13.7 million people have watched Brinkley's proposal as of Friday.
@mzzgina13 ♬ original sound - GYNATAE WITH THE TEZZ & TEA
And while thousands of online viewers celebrated the couple, who have been dating since 2019, others questioned Brinkley's decision to ask the question right outside a bathroom.
But Brinkley stands by his proposal, which he told Insider was spontaneous and full of love and laughter.
"If she had to do a number two, that's natural," Brinkley said. "We're clowns anyway."
Brinkley said the proposal was spontaneous — just like the couple's relationship
A day before flying to Cancun, Mexico, Brinkley picked up an engagement ring.
He told Insider that he was ready to propose to Tanner, and as he ran through ideas, he thought a tropical vacation would be the ideal setting.
"I toyed with the idea of proposing to her in the air because she is a flight attendant and because we do travel so frequently," Brinkley said. But ultimately, he decided a beach proposal might be the smarter decision.
Since Tanner is a flight attendant, the couple flew from Atlanta, Georgia, to Cancun on standby. They ended up seated seven rows apart from one another.
Brinkley started chatting with a flight attendant and a group of women seated near him. He mentioned that he had planned on proposing on the trip, and the flight attendant suggested he do it on the plane.
Brinkley agreed, and the flight attendant got approval from the pilot. Meanwhile, the women around him eagerly got to work at creating "Will you marry me?" signs.
The plan was for the flight attendant to approach Tanner and tell her that she needed her help. But Tanner got up to use the restroom as the flight attendant was walking up to her seat, Brinkley said.
He realized this was his chance, so he followed Tanner to the bathroom and kneeled on the floor, waiting for her to come out.
"I got on one knee and then I was waiting — and I kept waiting," Brinkley said. "That's when I started to knock on the door because everyone was recording and I didn't want her to be in there too long because that might be embarrassing."
After a few seconds, Tanner came out of the bathroom to Brinkley on one knee and a flight full of people recording.
"She started screaming, and I couldn't say any words because she was saying yes and crying," he said.
Brinkley said the spur-of-the-moment proposal suited them as a couple.
"The word spontaneous is the definition of our relationship," he said.
There are times that they've woken up in Atlanta and were in Ecuador by the afternoon on an unplanned trip, Brinkley said.
"Everything we do is always on the fly, so it doesn't shock me that this proposal was on the fly," he said.
The video received a mixed response online, but Brinkley said all he feels is laughter and love
As comments on the video flooded in, Brinkley said most of them were positive. Plenty of people congratulated the couple and celebrated their love.
"It's the entire flight's participation that touched me," one user wrote.
One Tiktoker added, "Now this is the kinda effort you rarely see."
"Awww you can see how much he loves her," another TikToker commented.
However, plenty of others were quick to comment on Brinkley's decision to ask post-bathroom.
"Don't anyone ever do this to me ..my bowels be acting UP," a TikToker wrote.
On Twitter, @Bornakang shared the video with the caption, "Imagine taking a dump to come out and everyone recording lol."
But Brinkley said both he and Tanner don't consider the comments negative. If anything, the couple is laughing with the commenters.
"At the end of the day, if that's the worst that people can say, that's nothing," Brinkley said.
Ultimately, Brinkley said the couple sees a proposal filled with laughter and love.
"My goal was to set out in front of an airplane full of people and confess my love, and instead, I got millions of people witnessing how I confessed my love for her," he said. "And you can't pay for that."