Creative proposals seem to be booming with the rise of TikTok—but one couple is proving they’ve been around for decades.
An adorable TikTok video posted by Ava Garland (@avagarlo) revealed her father’s marriage proposal to her mother 25 years previously, involving a surprising change to a restaurant menu. Since it was posted, it has received over 154,000 likes and over 350 comments with people in the comments “bawling”.
“Thinking about how 25 years ago, my dad took my mom to their favorite restaurant and had the menu specifically changed so he could propose to her,” Garland captioned the video. “Crying”.
On the menu for their dinner that night? “Soulmate Amore”: “Love and tenderness, tossed in the joys of parenthood, served on a warm bed. Please say yes and marry me?”
The menu item was couched strategically within seafood—scallops, oysters and tuna tartare. The price of the item, unlike the others, was labeled “POA”, which Garland wrote in the comments means “price on application”: a marker for special dishes.
Viewers in the comments swooned along with Garland, saying the video is inspiring them to keep looking for someone who will put in this kind of effort.
“Them parents and grandparents make it hard for me to keep my standards low,” @not.leno wrote.
Other commenters wrote that the proposal was a risky move: The menu item was so inconspicuous that Garland’s mother might have missed it altogether.
“I definitely wouldn’t have clocked that if i was her,” @stillasaint wrote. “He’s so sweet.”
“Imagine she didn’t read the menu because she already knew what she wanted,” @theemogremlin wrote.
The comments echo a hilarious oversight in another recently viral video involving food and proposals. In this one, a woman’s fiancé places a sparkling engagement ring on top of a potato twister at the fair. When presented to the creator, Priscila, she ignores the ring altogether, jokingly taking a fake bite out of the potato.
fizkes/Getty Images
“POV: You were too focused on the food and didn’t realize your [boyfriend] was trying to give you a ring,” Priscila captioned the video. “That would’ve hurt coming out.”
Her oblivion doesn’t last for long, though—after a quick cut in the video, the ring sits comfortably on Priscila’s finger as she smiles.
While viewers don’t know exactly how Garland’s mother reacted to the proposal, they may get an idea from looking a bit more closely at the TikTok video. The photo of the menu seen in Garland’s video seems to be part of an Instagram post presumably by her mother: parts of the caption can be made out to say “proposed to me on a res…”
What is clear is that Garland, and countless others online, appreciate a good old-fashioned food-focused proposal.
Newsweek reached out to @avagarlo for comment via TikTok.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.