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Elise Turnbull’s boyfriend, Jacob Houston, recently told her they were going to see a play
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What Turnbull didn’t know was that the theater wasn’t staging anything that night. Instead, Houston had planned to propose
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After letting the proposal sink in, Turnbull turned to social media and shared a video of the moment on TikTok, where it went viral
One woman’s trip to the theater turned into a night to remember.
Elise Turnbull’s boyfriend, Jacob Houston, recently told her they were going to the Eltham Little Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, to see The Mikado, an opera by Arthur Sullivan — just obscure and dull enough, he thought, that she wouldn’t invite anyone else or bother looking it up online.
What Turnbull, 27, didn’t know was that the Eltham Little Theatre wasn’t staging anything that night. Instead, Houston, 33, had rented the space and planned to propose.
“I arranged for an ‘usher’ to tell us we were early and explain the empty theater, then seat us. After that, I slipped away to the ‘bathroom,’ ” Houston, who met Turnbull on Tinder eight years ago, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I remember waiting backstage for what felt like hours because the cue for the pianist to start playing was broken — the lights weren’t working.”
“We tried texting him, but there was no reception in the theater, so my backstage helper — who Elise knew well — had to figure out how to get the pianist to start without Elise noticing,” the indie game developer adds. “When the show finally began, I sat there staring at the floor, my heart pounding, waiting for my cue.”
Jacob Houston
A photo of the stage
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Before arriving at the theater, Houston was sure that Turnbull, a Twitch streamer, had caught on.
Over the past few weekends, he’d been gone “gardening with his family,” when, in reality, he was practicing the proposal. He recalls the first rehearsal with his friends as particularly memorable.
“I had my piano all set up and teared up watching the final ‘Dayman!’ song play, with all four of us marching in place,” he says.
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Jacob Houston
Jacob Houston proposes to girlfriend with play
Standing backstage with no one to talk to (they were all too busy setting up props, changing or being on stage), Houston had no idea how Turnbull was reacting — whether it was going according to plan, if she was playing along because she knew what was coming, or if she had even realized a proposal was imminent.
But when the show eventually started and he made his way onto the stage, he recalls looking down at Turnbull, seeing her face and immediately starting to trip over his lyrics.
“I am no doubt who I am because of having met Jacob,” Turnbull tells PEOPLE exclusively. “He is the funniest, most creative, thoughtful and passionate person I have ever met. He believes in my abilities both personally and professionally more than anyone I’ve ever met, and getting to see him succeed in his own ways has been endlessly rewarding.”
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After letting the proposal sink in, Turnbull turned to social media and shared a video of the moment on TikTok.
“I thought my partner was taking me to a theatre show, but turns out he was actually proposing to me, with the help of our friends and family,” Turnbull captioned the video.
“This is a 1-for-1 rendition of The Nightman Cometh from Always Sunny in Philadelphia if you don’t know what’s going on,” she added.
Jacob Houston
Jacob Houston with Elise Turnbull
The next day, to her surprise, she noticed the video had gone viral, amassing more than 3.4 million views and 4,700 comments.
“I knew it was a great video to capture that moment, but I wasn’t sure anyone would care about watching strangers like us, with the bare minimum of acting and vocal talent,” Turnbull says. “I figured a few IASIP fans would get a laugh, but even people who hadn’t seen the show seemed to enjoy it. There were a lot of comments like, ‘I have no idea what’s going on, but I cried.’ ”
“It feels like there are little slices of beauty in the world — a ripper view, a great movie, a kind stranger — that rebuild your appreciation of the world,” Houston adds. “Elise’s expression at the end of the video is one of those moments. Anyone who felt that made my day.”
As for the future? Houston says he’s got to think of something for their wedding day that tops the proposal.
“I might have to hire an orchestra, or the Cirque Du Soleil,” he says with a laugh.
Read the original article on People
