A man proposed to his wife on a flight by recreating an iconic scene from The Wedding Singer.
According to SWNS, Sam Riber, 34, was traveling to Mexico with his then-girlfriend Lissy Alden, 37, to celebrate her birthday.
He decided to recreate a scene from the Adam Sandler movie to propose to Alden mid-flight with help from the flight attendants on board.
Riber, a CEO in Philadelphia, serenaded Alden with a song from the 1988 romantic comedy using a prop guitar that he smuggled onto the plane. After his performance, he got on one knee and proposed to his partner, who said “Yes!”
“It was such a special moment,” Riber said per SWNS. “I almost couldn’t believe it all worked out.”
The two, both cinephiles, met at a Shabbat dinner in February 2024.
Riber said he always knew he wanted to propose using the movie scene, in which Sandler’s character Robbie serenades his love interest Julia – played by Drew Barrymore – by performing his original song “Grow Old With You” during a flight.
Riber, however, faced one major roadblock in his plan.
“Lissy had never seen it so I had to find a way to introduce it to her without giving anything away,” he said. “I managed to casually suggest a movie night. She went for it and luckily she absolutely loved the film, same as me.”
The couple has since “sung versions of that song to each other.”
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A video of the encounter shows a flight attendant hyping Riber up while preparing the intercom. Not far from them, staff had prepared two celebratory drinks with a special note.
“I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my beautiful, darling, sweet and, oh, so gullible girlfriend, who believed me when I said I didn’t have anything planned for her birthday,” Riber can be seen announcing in the video.
After singing the song, he handed his red and tan ukulele to another passenger as he grabbed a ring box out of his pocket and kneeled on the floor.
Alden covered her face in surprise as Riber popped the big question.
When he got a passionate response, he informed everyone onboard the plane that “she said yes” before they embraced in a kiss.
The video also captured the aftermath of the proposal with Alden explaining that she was caught by surprise, although she could tell “something was up.”
Hammond School, where Riber studied, shared the video on Instagram with a sweet caption: “A Skyhawk Takes Flight… and Pops the Question at 35,000 Feet!”
Referring to the proposal, the school added, “Bold, creative, and unforgettable — everything we love about our Skyhawks! Congrats, Sam and Lissy, on this incredible beginning to your story. Wishing you a lifetime of love… and maybe more in-flight karaoke!”
According to the The New York Post, the couple have not yet made any specific plans for their wedding.
Alden also told the outlet, “Although I had no idea he was going to propose then and there, we had talked about a future so it wasn’t completely out of the blue. When it first started, I assumed it was because it was my birthday as he’d already done things to celebrate like bumping us up to first class. But, when he got down on one knee, I realized what was happening and just felt so happy.”
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