She thought the concert was magical, not realizing she'd walked into her own proposal

When Loren Echivarre was invited to take part in what she thought was a promotional shoot after a concert, she didn’t expect to walk into the moment her life was about to change for good. As the stage lights dimmed and a string quartet began playing a familiar tune, it became clear that this wasn’t just a photo opportunity but her own engagement, and it was unfolding exactly the way her partner had planned it for weeks. It all started 15 days earlier when Echivarre's boyfriend, Luke Everett, had reached out to photographer Parker Strehlow (@strehlowphotography) with a request, who put the video of the proposal out on his account.

He wanted to propose to Loren without raising any suspicion, and he needed help pulling it off between two scheduled Candlelight concerts at the San Diego Natural History Museum. "I've photographed surprise proposals before, but nothing like this, I practically begged Luke to allow me to film it," Strehlow told People. The idea was to stage the proposal between the first and second concerts. Luke and Loren attended the first show, while Strehlow entered separately and hid his gear in a storage room earlier that day. "Because the musicians would need to prepare for their second concert, there would only be about a 15-20 minute window for the proposal. So everything needed to run smoothly — and quickly," Strehlow said.

After the concert, Strehlow approached the couple in the lobby under the pretense of working with the production team. He asked if they would be willing to pose for a few staged promotional shots. Loren agreed, having no idea that everyone involved, including a Candlelight producer, was in on the plan. "Our biggest goal was, of course, for Loren to not be at all suspicious of anything up until the very last moment," Strehlow said. Minutes before, Luke had met Strehlow in a nearby restroom where he was fitted with a microphone under his suit jacket.

Once inside, the Candlelight producer interrupted the shoot to ask if the musicians could return to the stage. Loren, still believing it was all part of the setup, agreed. As the quartet began to play, she smiled and clapped. "Did you think we were really attractive or something?" she joked to the photographer, unaware the music had just shifted. The song was "Avatar's Love," a piece Luke had asked the musicians to learn weeks earlier because it held special meaning for the couple. As it played, Luke turned to her and said, "Do you recognize this song? It's the one we're going to walk down the aisle to."

Instead of immediately dropping to one knee, he began talking to her as the music continued. Then, at the right moment, he asked her to marry him. "She cried tears of joy. It was truly incredible to be a part of," Strehlow said. The emotional weight of that moment may be part of why it resonated so deeply. Psychologists at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute found that surprising events act as clear memory "bookends," helping our brains segment experiences into distinct, lasting episodes—and making them more memorable. The magical proposal drew heartfelt reactions from viewers around the world. @ghislainehawes wrote, "Ok, umm, wow, who’s your mama — let me give her a round of applause." @just_vaa added, "The Avatar theme? They are goated. Loving Avatar!" @paulina_corazonsito shared, "I am lying in my bed clapping with my feet y'all."

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