Ally Klein was honored to be tasked with planning the perfect proposal for her best friend, Samantha Townsend. She loved all the details: A beautiful fall backdrop, paired with the surprise appearance of their friends.
Then, after arriving to Wolf Mountain Vineyard and Winery to witness the big moment, Ally learned the proposal was for her all along.
A video capturing Ally’s total shock has gone viral. The moment took a whole friend group’s cooperation, according to Ally and her twin sister, Tiffany Klein.
Ally and her now fiancé, Richard Ramirez, met in 2019 while working behind the bar at a local steakhouse in Alpharetta, Georgia. She knew a proposal was coming — the two had recently gone ring shopping.
But Richard was still figuring out how to propose. He recruited Tiffany to help him brainstorm, and she landed on the perfect idea: Having Ally “plan” Samantha’s proposal.
From there, Tiffany asked Samantha’s fiancé, Austin, to send a picture in the friend group chat of an engagement ring.
“As soon as he sent a picture of Samantha’s ring, Ally immediately was like, ‘Oh my God, can we help plan the proposal?’” Tiffany recalls to TODAY.com. “It honestly was pretty easy, all the traps were set out.”
As Ally tried to plan Samantha’s proposal, her friends subtly made sure she was ready for her moment. For example, her friend Lauren scored a last-minute nail appointment for her.
Come Oct. 19, the day they were all waiting for, Ally was in game mode, ready to watch her friend get engaged.
“I was texting Richard, like, five minutes out and I’m like, ‘Hey, make sure Austin’s hidden. We’re almost there,’” she says.
As Ally got out of the car and walked towards the gazebo, she panicked when she saw Richard standing there.
“In my head, I’m like, ‘Why are you standing there? You just ruined the whole surprise,’’’ Ally remembers thinking. “‘You’re supposed to be hidden.”‘
That’s when Samantha’s “fake” proposal turned into Ally’s reality.
“Richard takes my hand and then I’m looking up at the stairs, still trying to find Austin and then finally he whispers in my ear and he was like, ‘This is for you,”‘ Ally says. “And that’s when I was like, ‘What?’’’
Ally’s realization came flooding at once.
“Once he got down on one knee, that was when every memory was flooding my head over the last two months of me planning everything,” Ally says.
In that moment, Ally says she thought about how she had gotten played by everyone present in the room.
“The first two minutes Richard was kind of trying to explain everything that was going on because I was in total shock, but then the last two minutes he was basically just telling me that he loves me and all the sweet stuff,” Ally says.
Klein and all her friends hugged post-proposal.
“I couldn’t stop laughing at Samantha,” she says. “We were all celebrating.”
In the aftermath, Samantha and Austin revealed they had eloped months prior — so there was a double celebration.
Tiffany documented the proposal and its leadup on video, which went viral on Instagram.
Now, Ally and Richard are enjoying engaged life and appreciating their close friend group.
“I never would have thought that that could have happened,” she explains. “It goes to show, honestly, how gullible I am, but also how how good my friends are.”
