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By Alyce Collins
Senior Reporter
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After being surprised with a stunning proposal in Central Park, a woman’s search to find the footage captured by a passerby has gone viral.
On October 28, Jillian Anderson was filming a brief for work in New York with her partner, Chris Telfiar, who also works for the same marketing agency. Little did Anderson know, the brief was created just for her as a sneaky way for Telfiar, 32, to pop the question in Central Park.
Anderson, 27, who resides in Denver, Colorado, told Newsweek that it was “a total surprise” and she thought they were just there for the job.
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“We both work for the same marketing agency as content producers, and he actually had one of our creative directors create a fake brief for us to film in Central Park and around New York. So, I honestly thought it was just another day at work,” Anderson said.
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Telfiar got down on one knee in a secluded area near the lake, and one of their colleagues was on hand to capture the special moment. But when they watched the video back, Anderson was amazed to see a woman who was also filming the proposal from a boat on the water.
Anderson hadn’t seen the woman filming at the time (too busy getting engaged, after all), but upon seeing the video, she desperately wanted to see the lake POV.
“It was the best day of our lives so far, and it just felt so fun and special to see it from another perspective. It’s such a once-in-a-lifetime moment, so getting another angle of it was really meaningful to us,” Anderson said.
She posted the original proposal video on Instagram (@thejillianandersonn) on November 1, and she wrote in the caption that she was “praying the algorithm finds her.” The post went viral with over 5.4 million views and more than 185,000 likes on Instagram at the time of writing, as internet users were desperate to help find the footage.
To Anderson’s amazement, after two days of searching, she finally found the woman, Dulce Maria Rivera, who was recording the proposal. One of Rivera's friends saw Anderson’s Instagram post and connected the two, allowing the bride-to-be to finally see the additional footage.
Rivera told Newsweek that she "felt excited about what was about to happen" and couldn't resist capturing the precious moment.
Anderson shared the POV from the boat on Instagram when she finally found it, much to the internet’s delight. The secondary footage went viral with over 987,000 views and 92,900 likes on Instagram in just a matter of days.
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https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQnrZqtja-9/
Rivera, of Mexico, continued: "It was exciting because I uploaded the video a few days later. When I posted it to my stories, several people started telling me that a girl was looking for me on TikTok. We connected immediately, and I found it interesting how she was able to find me through social media, even from another country."
If getting engaged wasn’t special enough, Anderson has been amazed by all the love and support she’s received on social media. She told Newsweek that the experience has been “so overwhelmingly positive” as so many people came together to help her find the woman’s footage.
Anderson said: “So many people were invested in trying to help us find the girl in the boat. My fiancé and I were blown away by how kind and excited everyone was. I think our favorite part of finding her POV was hearing her and her boyfriend’s genuine reaction to the proposal—it felt so heartwarming to have complete strangers share this moment with us and celebrate like they were right there.”
Internet users couldn’t get enough of Anderson’s search for the elusive footage, leading to more than 600 comments on her Instagram post.
One comment reads: “Girl in the boat!! Where are youuuuu?”
Another Instagram user wrote: “CONGRATS!! Hope you find that video.”
While another person replied: “Can’t wait to see the boats POV! Bring me back.”
Do you have any viral videos or pictures that you want to share? We want to see the best ones! Send them in to life@newsweek.com and they could appear on our site.
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