Woman confused by friends giving her 25 'Post-it' notes. Then her husband slipped one with a question on it

In a video posted by Christy Smith on her Instagram account @christy_smith_astrology, she shared the footage that became one of the most precious and personal moments of her life. Smith was sitting at a coffee shop when a group of people began walking toward her. One by one, they handed her Post-it notes while softly saying, "You dropped this." She didn’t understand at first, but as the notes kept coming and the messages grew more familiar, the reality suddenly dawned on her.

Every note carried a message, and every message led back to when she and her now-husband began dating. Years ago, Smith and her now-husband had fallen in love while working together. Because their relationship had to remain private, they passed Post-it notes back and forth in secret. "So we wrote love notes on Post-its and would pass them to each other, saying 'You dropped this,'" she explained in the video. Her husband turned that ritual into a proposal. With every Post-it she received from friends and family, it became clear that he had saved them all from their time together.

"When I realized he had saved all of our love notes for this moment I lost it," she wrote. The final Post-it note read, "Will you marry me?" As soon as Smith saw it, she broke into tears, and said yes, surrounded by loved ones, who filled the moment with applause and laughter. The proposal happened at the same coffee shop where they had once passed notes in secret. In her caption, she wrote, "Amid all of the trolling, there is a lot of love." Surprise moments like this tend to create a stronger and more lasting emotional response, according to psychologists. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour showed that unexpected rewards or moments of affection trigger stronger memory encoding and emotional engagement than predictable ones.

The moment struck a chord with the viewers, and people shared their joy, emotions, and their own versions of love. @among.the.wild.flowers.family commented, "Dammit Christy, I just put my makeup on!! This is the most heartfelt proposal!" @vitagurl3 wrote, "He DOES love you!!! And I love how he lets you drive him completely crazy — on the regular!! This is amazing." @taraustler added, "This made me so emotional. How beautiful that you have this recorded and that you shared something so sweet with the love notes. Now I’m angry at my husband who didn’t do anything this close to romantic, and he is gonna get it when he gets home lol."

@crazygirllamey said, "Crying at 8:48 AM... new record for me, and it's usually at animal rescues and sad tears... you two are made for each other." @mynewjourneytohappiness penned, "Ohhh my goodness, the amount of chills I just got watching this beautiful, loving, forever special moment. One of the sweetest, most meaningful, thought-out proposals I have seen!" @thefunnybach quipped, "Oh my goodness. The fact that I’ve seen and loved this video and now you and I are best friends is wild. I love this! You’re my Jim and Pam."

You can follow Christy Smith (@christy_smith_astrology) on Instagram for more daily-life content.