Woman Surprised with Flash Mob Proposal While Walking Dog in Sweatpants: 'You're Doing This Right Now?' (Exclusive)

Blake Spellacy proposed to Caitlin Wilayto in May 2022

• On a Monday in May 2022, Caitlin Wilayto threw on sweat pants and rain boots to take her dog out to the park with her then-boyfriend Blake Spellacy

• As they walked through N.Y.C.'s Central Park Wilayto noticed faint music in the background. Then, she saw two of her best friends from college pop out from behind the tree and begin a flash mob

• Spellacy, who is also a dancer, choreographed the entire routine himself and taught it to a group for two months leading up to the proposal

Caitlin Wilayto always knew that when her now-husband Blake Spellacy — an actor with a fun personality — proposed, he would do something creative and out of the box. However, when he eventually got down on one knee in May 2022, Wilayto was completely caught off guard by the proposal Spellacy had planned.

It was a rainy Monday in New York City, and Wilayto had just returned from work, intending to take their dog out for a walk. Each night, one of them would walk the dog while the other stayed home to start dinner. When Spellacy insisted they walk the dog together, Wilayto sensed something was up. Nevertheless, she quickly threw on a random outfit — sweatpants and rain boots — and the couple, who'd been together for eight years, headed out the door.

As they walked through Central Park, Wilayto, 32, began to hear faint music in the background. Soon, they stumbled upon a man — whom Wilayto would later learn was a close friend of Spellacy’s she'd never met in person — sitting by a tree with a speaker playing a song.

"Blake turned to me and said, 'This song reminds me of you,'" Wilayto, also an actor, recalls. "And I was like, 'Okay?' " At that moment, their friends, including two of Wilayto's best friends from college, popped out from behind the tree and began a flash mob.

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"I was really, really surprised," Wilayto says. "It felt kind of out of body. We do theater; we met doing musical theater, so we're actors and do shows, but to have something like this happen in real life — when I saw my friends Mike and Zach pop out behind the tree, I thought, 'Oh my God, you're doing this right now. I can't believe it.' "

"The first thing I said was, 'I look awful,' but of course that didn't matter," she continues, laughing. "It's funny because I usually dress up, but he caught me on that one day. I was just so overwhelmed. He timed it perfectly, too; there weren't many people around in the park, which was nice because it wasn't this huge spectacle."

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The dance was set to "Still the One" by Orleans, which Wilayto says the couple considers their love song. Later, she learned that Spellacy, who is also a dancer, choreographed the entire flash mob routine himself and taught it to the group. For two months leading up to the proposal, he gathered everyone each Monday after work in Riverside Park, where Wilayto wouldn’t be.

"He just told me he was doing landscaping for a rooftop installation," she explains. "He’d say, 'Oh, this install is going really late; I'll be home later.' I never thought anything of it, but it was funny to know my friends were involved."

Not long after the proposal, Wilayto posted a video on TikTok, which went viral with more than 8 million views. After the original video was unexpectedly deleted, she reposted it in the summer of 2024, almost one year after the couple tied the knot on Sept. 9, 2023. Since then, her new TikTok has garnered close to 7.5 million views and more than 4,000 comments.

"I screenshot so many of them and have a little book with all the funny ones," she says. "A lot of comments are from people asking about my friends — especially the guy in the blue shorts. Everyone’s been calling him 'blue shorts.' "

"Blake got such a kick out of it," she continues. "It’s funny because he’s an actor, but he wasn’t thinking about social media when he did this. He knew I’d find it funny, but I think he loves it because it was his idea and everyone else thinks, 'Wow, this is a dream.' He’s a keeper."

"As for my family, they would've loved to see it, but I’m very close with them, so he didn’t tell anyone except my dad," she adds. "He asked my dad for permission, so my dad knew something was going to happen, but my mom and I are best friends, so he didn’t tell her. Afterward, I had to FaceTime her, and Blake said, 'Sorry, Susan, I couldn’t tell you because you and Caitlin are best friends.' She was so surprised. It was great that they had this video to be a part of the moment."

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