Carter Allen spent five hours in post-production on a very specific edit: inserting himself into the wedding scene of Shrek, running down the aisle to declare he'd experienced true love. Then he hit play for his girlfriend Andressa Da Silva, slipped out of the room, changed into a matching suit, and came back with a ring.
It worked. She said yes.
How a shared love became a proposal
The two met four years ago on a film set at Georgia Tech, where Carter was writing and directing a class project and Andressa was acting. "When I met her I fell for her, and while editing the class film and listening to us mucking around in between takes, I fell for her all over again," he said. They'd spent their evenings since then doing what they'd done that first day—watching films together, building something quietly.
When Carter decided to propose, his first instinct was a movie theatre. It didn't feel right. So he asked Andressa what they should watch next, and she suggested Shrek—a film they both loved. That's when it clicked.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxHe timed the edit meticulously: his video cameo would appear just before Lord Farquaad says "the perfect bride." Five hours of work, done while she slept. When the scene came on, Carter had already left the room to change. By the time his edited self appeared on screen saying he'd found true love, the real version was kneeling beside the couch with a proposal he'd mostly forgotten how to deliver.
"I completely lost myself. I forgot everything I was going to say and just asked if she'd like to marry me," he recalled.
The proposal video landed on Reddit and gathered 52,000 likes and over a thousand comments. Strangers suggested they use the Shrek soundtrack at their wedding. Carter was stunned by the reach. "It was private, personal, and very us, and I am so glad it worked out like it did," he said.
Sometimes the best proposals aren't the ones designed for an audience—they're the ones that prove you've been paying attention to what someone loves, and that you're willing to spend five hours in editing software to say it back.
