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  • - Hey guys, I'm Lee Loechler.

  • Better known to the internet

  • as the Sleeping Beauty Proposal guy.

  • - Hi, I'm Sthuthi.

  • I'm the Sleeping Beauty Proposal girl.

  • - My name is Kayla Coombs.

  • I did the artwork for the "Sleeping Beauty Proposal".

  • - And this is that story.

  • - This is that story.

  • - This is that story.

  • - And I'm actually Sleeping Beauty. (laughs)

  • (keyboard typing)

  • - So Sthuthi and I met our freshmen year of high school.

  • She was taking a dance class at the time,

  • and at the end of the year

  • all the dance classes have their final performance

  • and I was taking a stage craft class at the time.

  • - Lee did all the tech for it.

  • I thought he was kind of a weird guy in the corner,

  • because he would always wear all black

  • and just look really sad.

  • I knew he was someone special.

  • - The final night of the show

  • somebody in the sound booth just like cranked the music

  • and all the dancers from all the classes

  • just ran on the stage and just started dancing,

  • just letting loose.

  • Somehow I got dragged out of the wings onto stage,

  • in the spotlight and somehow I wound up

  • dancing with Sthuthi.

  • And naturally I was like "Well, I gotta do something here."

  • And somebody had given her a red rose.

  • I put it in my teeth and I started

  • pretending like we were tangoing.

  • Which at the time seemed like a good idea.

  • - Two seconds later realized there thorns in that rose.

  • - It was such a special and memorable moment

  • that if you look carefully at the video

  • you'll see that in that frame where we're dancing together

  • I actually, my character has a little rose in his mouth

  • as an homage to that moment.

  • Yeah, it's making me tear up.

  • Edit that part out.

  • - And that's actually truly how we met and started dating.

  • - So I guess that our story begins a few years back

  • and a friend of mine told me that he was thinking about

  • proposing to his then girlfriend.

  • And we were just sort of sitting there talking

  • about how he might do it.

  • The idea popped into my head pretty much fully formed.

  • He's sitting there with his significant other

  • and their watching her favorite movie.

  • And all of a sudden in a key scene,

  • like green screen composited into the shot is him.

  • And just a moment for her would be like feels kinda magical,

  • it's like cognitive dissonance

  • "what are you doing there?"

  • And then it would Segway to a real life proposal

  • with him doing a little fake toss

  • and then in real life catching it

  • and getting down on one knee.

  • It's like magical being animated into your favorite movie.

  • And he thought about it and he's like you know honestly

  • that doesn't feel like it would be right for us.

  • And so I sort of filed that idea away for later,

  • thinking maybe there,

  • you know it seemed like there was something there.

  • Maybe I could get some mileage out of it yet.

  • Fast forward few years down the road.

  • Sthuthi and I were dating.

  • We'd started having conversations

  • about taking the next step in our relationship.

  • My head of course went to, how am I gonna do it?

  • Eventually I sort of resurfaced that idea.

  • What if I put myself into her favorite movie

  • and popped the question that way.

  • The problem was her favorite movie is "Sleeping Beauty",

  • which is animated.

  • I got a copy of "Sleeping Beauty"

  • and I just sorted of scrubbing through it

  • 'cause I'd never seen it.

  • I got to the end where Prince Phillip comes in,

  • kneels down, kisses Aurora,

  • and like breaks the spell.

  • And I noticed that the whole scene was pretty static

  • and it made me think that maybe

  • I didn't need to be an animator,

  • maybe I just needed an illustrator.

  • It had to be something that could be seamless

  • with Disney level animation.

  • Which is like, that's as good as it gets.

  • I just wound up going on Instagram,

  • and using different hashtags

  • I could kind of discover artists

  • who were posting certain styles.

  • I eventually made my way to Kayla Coombs.

  • - I thought what have I gotten myself into here,

  • this is too much.

  • Lee sent me an email just out of the blue.

  • "Would you be available or willing to do some artwork

  • to help me propose to my girlfriend?"

  • We had a chat and he kind of told me the whole vision

  • and I was like "Wow, this guy's got high hopes,

  • this is gonna be special if we can pull it off."

  • - Kayla Coombs is an Australian illustrator.

  • One of her talents is she can emulate

  • that kind of classic Disney style.

  • - Yeah, it's weird.

  • Definitely did not see this coming.

  • I had no idea.

  • - And when I found my way to her Instagram page

  • and started scrolling through I just remembered

  • that being the moment where I thought

  • "This could actually work."

  • So I was very excited to just do this proposal

  • in the comfort of our home.

  • Presented to my friend.

  • He's like "No man. Have you never met a woman?

  • Friends and family should be there,

  • it should be someplace beautiful."

  • And both of our heads went to this

  • local independent movie theater

  • called Coolidge Corner Theater.

  • It's a venue that holds of lot of significance to me,

  • and Sthuthi and I have gone and seen movies there.

  • - I think this shows how ingenious Lee is.

  • He basically had to figure out a way

  • not to seem so weird that he was inviting me

  • to a theater full of my friends and family.

  • So he enlisted my Mom.

  • - Can I give you something to send her

  • that will invite her to the screening.

  • And she said "Yeah, I'm down."

  • - And then my Mom had emailed me this,

  • and said "Oh I know how much you love "Sleeping Beauty"

  • so I bought all of us tickets.

  • If Lee is available he can come too."

  • So then a week later I had forwarded this email to Lee

  • and said "Oh FYI we have to go see this movie

  • with my family. It's like one of my favorites."

  • And he's like "Oh okay, well if I'm getting invited

  • to my own proposal I think I must be doing

  • a pretty good job." (laughs)

  • - (laughs)

  • (gentle orchestral music)

  • - There were a lot of logistics to be managed.

  • The idea we had then was maybe we

  • stick all the friends and family,

  • we push them to the back.

  • And then lets get some people that she doesn't know

  • to sort of fill those seats right around her

  • to kind of distract her from the friends and family.

  • We had put this on Reddit, you know said

  • "Hey I'm looking for-" I think I used the words

  • "I'm looking for random internet strangers to help

  • fill a theater so I can surprise propose to my girlfriend."

  • - These kids back behind me were dressed up

  • and I thought they came here for "Sleeping Beauty."

  • And I was like "oh god, they're not gonna

  • be able to see "Sleeping Beauty.""

  • (audience cheers)

  • - I don't know, like it happened

  • and like it wasn't like really making sense.

  • I just like because so many emotions were going through,

  • like was really special.

  • - That's as good as it gets.

  • - The best part is I get to spend the rest of my life

  • with Lee which is always something that

  • is really what brings a smile to my face.

  • - To me one of the most mind boggling parts

  • of all of this has been seeing that not only have people

  • in America enjoyed watching this but across the globe.

  • I think we all sort of suspect deep down

  • that everyone around us sort of wants the same things.

  • We all appreciate love, we all appreciate respect.

  • This kinda sounds super cheesy

  • but like we're not that different.

  • Like no matter where we are on the planet,

  • the fact that this resonated so widely

  • really reaffirmed that belief that I've always had.

  • (lighthearted music)

- Hey guys, I'm Lee Loechler.

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