James Seah Says Proposing To Influencer Girlfriend Nicole Chang Min Was “One Of The Most Chaotic Days Of [His] Life”

The ever-practical actor laughs: “Chinese New Year is around the corner, and when we go visiting, some people will ask us ‘So when are you getting married?’ In a way, we’re putting it out there that we’re engaged and so they don’t have to rush us any longer.”

The couple, who will be celebrating their fifth year together this March, successfully balloted for a BTO flat almost a year ago and have since started paying for their S$600,000 flat in Boon Keng. Marriage is something that the pair has talked about at length, James shares, but there are no concrete plans just yet as they’re taking things one step at a time.

“Being engaged isn’t that different,” he admits with a chuckle. “It always takes two hands to clap and nothing much has changed for us. The only thing I’ve been struggling with after the proposal is whether I should call [Nicole] my girlfriend, or my fiancée. It still feels a bit foreign to me.”

When we ask James if he and Nicole's lovely proposal photos were planned, he says: “The pics make it look like it was a perfect engagement but it was one of the most chaotic days of my life."

He and Nicole, along with four other couples jetted off to Khao Yai in Thailand for Christmas, and everyone except Nicole knew that he was going to propose. “In our group of friends, we have a photographer, a videographer, and someone who specialises in decor, so she flew in all the props and everything else for us. With so many of us on board, all we had to do was to surprise her,” says James.

Even then, he was understandably nervous on the big day, as he picked out a too-formal outfit to wear while Nicole got dressed in what James swears looked like pajamas. He quips, “I don’t think she’d be very happy if I proposed to her while she was in that outfit, so one of our friends told her that she would be doing a photoshoot on that day and asked her to wear something nicer.”

Thankfully, Nicole took the hint and got changed, as the group set out for their first planned location — a huge field of sunflowers that would serve as the perfect backdrop when James gets down on one knee.

Or so James thought.

“One of my friends went ahead to do a location recce and he called me to tell me that the flowers were facing downwards. They were wilting and dying, so we had to think of an alternative location. We found another smaller sunflower field, so we went there instead,” he says.

When they got there, Nicole was clearly unimpressed with the tiny place, which was located between a road and blocks of flats. James’ friend subtly signaled to him that it was a no-go just as he was about to pop the question, and the entire group set off for their third location, Thames Valley.

They found a quaint garden there and James decided that with the sun setting fast, he should propose before the lighting got too terrible for photographs.

You would think that this was the end of his string of boo-boos, but there was just one thing left: he was so nervous, he almost slipped the ring onto Nicole’s right hand instead.

“I told myself that I needed to put the ring on her left hand, but when I was putting on the ring, Nicole was like, “Left hand. Left! Hand! I was thinking of ‘left hand’ so much that I was holding the ring on my left hand, but didn’t realise that I was holding on to her right hand instead.”

It might not have been the perfect proposal that James had in mind but it surely is unforgettable for the couple.

Photos: James Seah