A message grown into an Ohio cornfield by Tim Sullivan is seen from an airplane, which he used to fly over the message with his now-fiancee Caroline Liggett. Photo / Caleb Sullivan, The Washington Post
A message grown into an Ohio cornfield by Tim Sullivan is seen from an airplane, which he used to fly over the message with his now-fiancee Caroline Liggett. Photo / Caleb Sullivan, The Washington Post
The seeds of Tim Sullivan’s plan to propose to his girlfriend were planted months in advance – literally.
The idea came to him one April day while he was mowing the front yard of his family farm in central Ohio, operating the same kind of machine they use to carvethe design of their annual corn maze. Sullivan, 23, had been brainstorming ways to propose to his girlfriend, Caroline Liggett, 24, and wondered: Would it be possible to plant something more intricate, like a message?
It was, and with the help of a computer program and a friend who worked in crop consulting, Sullivan planted a message directly into his family’s 13-acre cornfield. Their corn maze this year would be 75ft-long letters that spelled out Sullivan’s equally big question: “Will you marry me, Caroline?”
The crops were planted on June 3. By June 20, Sullivan’s message, outlined with sunflowers and pumpkins, was starting to become legible from the air.
“It’s kind of corny, but, you know … it’s what we live, it’s what we breathe,” Sullivan said.
The couple met in October through Liggett’s friend, a colleague of Sullivan. Liggett and Sullivan work at competing agriculture firms, so it made sense to him that his proposal would tie back to their shared love of farming.
Sullivan takes a knee to place the ring on Liggett's finger after their flight. Photo / Caleb Sullivan, The Washington Post
Meanwhile, Liggett found it a little strange that Sullivan didn’t seem to want her around his family farm, Circle S Farms in Grove City, over the summer. She was also puzzled that he always seemed stressed when they would pick raspberries in the field across from his family’s corn maze.
A few months ago, somewhat out of the blue, Sullivan had also asked Liggett whether she’d ever be interested in going up in a small plane or hot air balloon. Absolutely not, she’d said.
But Sullivan persisted. During Liggett’s family vacation in Maine last month, he asked again whether she’d join him for a small plane ride, this time with a friend of his. Sullivan said that he was thinking about getting his pilot’s licence and that the friend offered to take them both up so he could learn more about the process.
When Liggett said she’d think about it, Sullivan quickly changed the subject. Her suspicions were officially sown.
They deepened the day before the flight, when Liggett asked what to wear on the plane.
“He said that he was going to be wearing jeans and a button-down,” she said. “And I was thinking to myself that he just doesn’t wear a button-down for fun.”
The next evening, August 4, the pair took off in a small Cessna plane at their local county airport, with Sullivan and the pilot in the front and Liggett in the back. Clutching the ring in his pocket as they made their first pass above the corn maze, Sullivan waited for Liggett to read the message, but she was looking the other way.
They flew back around, and this time, Sullivan explained that he wasn’t interested in becoming a pilot. He really just wanted to ask Liggett to marry him.
“She was speechless,” Sullivan said. “I’ve never seen her smile so big.”
He got down on one knee after they landed and slipped the ring on Liggett’s finger while his brother, Caleb Sullivan, took pictures. Before they went to celebrate with family, the couple walked through the corn maze alone, marvelling at how small the letters had looked from the sky just moments ago.
Liggett shows off her ring after the proposal. Photo / Caleb Sullivan, The Washington Post
The maze will soon be filled with visitors during the farm’s “Fall Fun Days” festival. Eventually, the corn will be harvested for ethanol.
The couple hopes to marry by the end of next year’s planting season, in May 2026. They’re considering a sage green and a soft yellow for their colours – though not necessarily because of the colours of corn, Liggett is quick to add.
“So many people outside of the industry would probably look at a corn maze and think that is really a cheesy way to ask somebody to marry you,” she said. “But for us … what we live and breathe every day is feeding this world, and we’re passionate about that.”
At the end of the day, Sullivan said he wasn’t looking for his proposal to become a national news story. All he ever hoped for when planting those first seeds was that Liggett would say yes.
