Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is hard to escape. It’s the one day of the year when all of Instagram is deluged with proud displays of affection and shops are filled with people buying last-minute gifts. For the entire day, we hopscotched around neighborhoods, visited popular attractions and even ventured to the top of a skyscraper to capture the scene. In Times Square at 11:30 a.m., Valentine’s Day kicked off with a proposal for Nicolette Miller, whose boyfriend of five years, Justin Shadday, surprised her with a billboard display asking for her hand in marriage. He got down on one knee amid cheers from people nearby and confetti falling overhead.

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Persons: Valentine’s, Nicolette Miller, Justin Shadday Locations: Manhattan, Harlem