Video of a couple getting engaged at the Toronto Islands last week is making the rounds online.
Curtis Raymond surprised his now-fiancée Christina Sfeir, who headed out to the Islands with some friends on a private boat thinking she was going to an unrelated event.
But Sfeir said as the boat turned a corner, she saw the big sign that said “marry me” and then began to wonder if it was for her.
“If you watch the TikTok video, you can see me kind of like pause and then look at my friend across from me and then look at my other friend next to me and be like, ‘Is that Curtis?'” she said.
“It took me a few seconds to actually think that was for me and that was what was so special about it. It was just, it was so much more than I thought.”
Video of the proposal, posted by Sfeir, has since gone viral on TikTok, raking up millions of views and more than 1.2 million likes.
Raymond, who first started thinking about proposing at the Islands last year, said he never intended for it to go viral.
“It wasn’t going to be this huge public, you know, display of affection or anything. I really wanted to create like an intimate, loving environment,” he said.
Raymond said while on a boat around the Islands last year, he loved the scenery and the quietness combined with the close proximity to the downtown core.
And in May, he began to plan the proposal. It was initially booked for a date in July, but then it was moved due to an event happening at the Islands, he said.
Another date in July was selected, but then it had to be cancelled yet again due to bad weather.
Then finally he settled on Aug. 18, four years and five months from when they began dating.
“And luckily, the weather held out. I think at one point it started raining just a little bit, but it did hold out and we ended up with those cotton candy clouds. And I couldn’t be happier,” he said.
“It’s been overwhelming. It’s been surreal.”
Raymond said initially he just planned to use the big “marry me” sign but ended up adding a lot more, including candles and flowers.
“I planned it to a tee and it happened exactly the way I expected it to, which was challenging because … there was just so many moving parts to this,” he said.
The couple said they have since received an overwhelming amount of support from people online.
“I think that people love, love. And I think especially the past few years have been so hard on so many people and it’s so nice to come across these kind of feel-good stories,” Sfeir said.