An invitation to a garden party turned into her own surprise engagement

Our creativity connects us

I am a fashion influencer covering beauty and lifestyle. My fiance Leo is also a content creator focusing on Disney, gaming and comics. Although our interests differ, being creative has been an important part of our relationship.

Leo and I met in March 2019 during an influencer trip to Disney World. Although we didn’t meet for the first few days in Orlando, we eventually met on the Disney Dream Cruise. Many of the creators on this particular trip focused on family blogging. Those of us who were single often hung out in the adults-only section of the cruise.

We met in the adult hot tub and ended up chatting about work and our lives, him from LA and me from New York. I had an outfit planned for the Little Mermaid’s 30th birthday and found out that Leo had a knack for dressing up as Prince Eric and we did a photo shoot together on the cruise.

After we got her, we decided to stay in touch as friends. Facetimes and consistent communication allowed us to really get to know each other and I started to feel sparks. About a month after we first met, I was in LA for Coachella and decided to stay a few extra days to see Leo. Our first date was at a Mexican bar in LA where we really got to dig deep and felt such a connection.

That year we made it a point to travel back and forth to see each other. While the first year of our relationship may have been non-traditional, we really had to step in because in long distance relationships, visiting your partner is essentially living with them while you’re there. When the pandemic hit, being in New York was a particularly scary experience, and I said to Leo, “I’d love to come and stay with you,” which he agreed to.

Leo and I met later in life, which made a huge difference in our connection. At our age, you already know what you want in life and what you’re looking for in a partner. Just try to figure out if your visions are aligned with theirs.

I couldn’t wait to end the long distance with Leo because he brings light to even the mundane moments in life like shopping. After living with him for a few months at the height of the pandemic, we decided he would be moving to New York full-time in May 2020.

I thought I was attending a work party, not my own engagement

On August 31, 2022, I headed to the Central Park Greenhouse Garden, ready to work what I thought was a white garden party celebrating the launch of a new line of Sunglass Hut frames. When I’m working on getting content for a brand, I’m very focused on getting the perfect shot and everything they might need for photos and videos, and this day was no exception.

I headed to Central Park in full work mode. That morning when I left for the event, Leo was still in his pajamas and told me he was going to the gym. After checking in with the woman holding a name clipboard, I made my way to a semicircle of flowers. I turned around and noticed that my three friends were holding their phones up, and at first I thought, “Why aren’t they wearing white? Didn’t they get the grade?” before he hit me. A guitar player was playing “Fools Rush In”, which is one of our favorite songs, and I realized that the man standing in the distance in a suit was Leo.

Although we’ve discussed engagement before, I believe an engagement should be a surprise, and ours was the most incredible surprise.

People always think I knew about the proposal because I wore a white dress, but my friends worked behind the scenes to help make it happen. When my best friend Noelle got engaged in Paris in 2017, I helped her fiance plan to surprise her. Her luggage didn’t arrive, and when we went shopping, she couldn’t find any options she liked. I ended up giving her a dress she wore when she got engaged.

Then, before my engagement, Noelle asked me out of the blue if I was going to the influencer sunglasses launch and said she ordered a dress that didn’t fit her but she thought it would look great on me. Looking back and knowing that I wore her dress to get engaged and that she wore my dress to get engaged was a very special part of the day. My female friendships are so important to me, and knowing my girls were involved in the planning process meant the world to me.

We hang out at Leroy’s Cocktail Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at least once a week, so it was only fitting that Leo would rent out the restaurant that same night to have our engagement party. Our friends and family were there and we enjoyed a personalized menu, cocktails and even a cake. We are getting married in September 2025.