Lukas and Charlotte’s story began with an unexpected Instagram follow, followed by a message that Lukas had to work up the courage to send. What followed was a friendship of almost two years, with a few missed opportunities and neither quite realising the other felt the same way, before their friendship naturally blossomed into a relationship.

Four years later, Lukas planned an unforgettable proposal at The Ritz-Carlton O‘ahu, Turtle Bay in Hawaii. Inspired by their very first beach picnic date, he recreated the sentiment with a romantic seaside picnic, but with one incredible surprise. For an entire year, Lukas had secretly been taking guitar lessons to learn “I See the Light” from Tangled, a song with special meaning to them both.

After playing the song for Charlotte alongside his guitar teacher on violin, Lukas retrieved the Class A ring he’d secretly brought all the way from Australia, got down on one knee and asked Charlotte to marry him. With a beautiful sunset, plenty of happy tears and months of secrets finally revealed, it was their own real life happily ever after.

The Proposal

Lukas proposed to Charlotte at The Ritz-Carlton O‘ahu, Turtle Bay on 4th July 2026.

I had to move to Hawaii for work and when I found out about the location I instantly knew this is where I’d want to propose. Our first date was at the beach which was picnic related and I knew it would be a special place for us to be so I wanted to incorporate that into the proposal.

Work had also meant being in a long distance relationship and so that meant I was able to take the time to put all my effort into planning. I also had a small thought cross my mind about learning the guitar to play a song which then turned into reality.

I spent a year taking guitar lessons or as I’d call them “appointments” to Charlotte who I had kept the secret from. This was all to learn one specific song “I see the light” which is a sentimental part of our relationship as we both love the Disney princess movie “Tangled”. We have a soft spot for the “happily ever after” which Charlotte and I both like to think that isn’t something that can only be seen in movies.

In the mean time because I wasn’t able to go back to Australia too often due to work, when I was home for Christmas we were able to do ring shopping which I had claimed was only so I knew the ring she liked in advance for when the time would come. Little did she know was that the time was sooner than she may have thought.

During that Christmas we went to a few jewellers on the day however walking into Class A was a whole new experience and Charlotte was instantly drawn to one specific ring which definitely made it easy for me to decide what to get! That same day I had a pre made plan to be able to leave Charlotte and put a deposit down for the ring without her knowing. A few months later I conveniently had a wedding I flew back home for which was in time to pick the ring up. However being around Charlotte most of the time I couldn’t just hide the ring in her apartment until I had to fly back to Hawaii. So instead that ring was hidden through multiple households of friends and family which everyone was just in awe and excitement to see it in person and once again, Charlotte had no idea.

So the ring was back in Hawaii, I was learning guitar in the background and now all that was left to finish planning was the dinner/event. I knew the location would be seaside related and The Ritz-Carlton O‘ahu, Turtle Bay would be perfect for the event. After I told them my plans and ideas they were more than acomodating. For months emails were sent back and forth with what I had in mind and it all started to come together.

Now leading up to the proposal date Charlotte was still being clueless to it all because the only info being told from me was that I wanted a late anniversary celebration. She arrived in Hawaii on the 3rd of July with some jet lag but we went to our hotel that same day. We spent the day relaxing while I was secretly stressing and then it was the 4th of July, the official set date for the proposal. I spent the day playing this moment in my head a million times hoping it would all go to plan. With help from my mum and charlottes sister in law, a beautiful white dress was picked out that I could give to Charlotte to wear for the occasion.

It was that moment Charlotte knew what was about to happen. And I knew that she would know. I then left to finish finalising the set up of the picnic and also warm up with some practice of the song which I was lucky enough to have my guitar teacher beside me. He is a violinist which was a perfect addition to the song while also helping me feel confident to play. After practicing we were ready. I went and grabbed Charlotte from the hotel room and we were led by the concierge team to the picnic location. Charlotte looked gorgeous in her dress, emotions were running high since we both knew what was coming. We got to the picnic and I’m ready to play the song, I could finally reveal the secret that I had been learning guitar. I told myself to try and make eye contact with Charlotte while playing. Within the first second of playing I looked up and instantly started tearing up I knew if I kept trying to make eye contact I wouldn’t be able to finish the song but I made it, i finished the song and was happy with the way it played.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to string any sentences together so I kept it simple and grabbed the ring from the violin case, got down on the one knee which feels silly I had been practicing that motion but it meant I opened the ring box the right way! And then I asked “Char will you marry me“ which sigh of relief was a yes and I could finally fill her in on all the proposal details that everyone knew about except her. For the rest of the night we enjoyed our picnic with photos of course! and could truly bask in this beautiful moment as the sun slowly set.