Woman pretends to be a bush so she can watch her sister's engagement

If your sibling is your best friend, you'll know that the two of you are pretty much inseparable. This is definitely the case for Therese Merkel, 23, who grew up in Wisconsin with her sister, Rachel, with the two being best friends to this very day. 

So, when Therese learned that her sister's boyfriend was planning a proposal, she knew she wanted to be there. In fact, she had to be there. The two are so close that among Rachel's proposal requests to her boyfriend, Andrew Philibeck, was that Merkel be there. 

But inviting his girlfriend's sister on a romantic evening might spoil the surprise. Therese and Andrew quickly set about planning how they could pull it off. 

"We came up with a ton of hilarious ideas that were totally ridiculous," Merkel told BuzzFeed News. "We were like, how funny would it be if I was a bush or something?" 

Thankfully, Amazon sells just about anything. Just a few days later, Andrew had ordered Therese a ghillie suit. 

"I even told Andrew, 'Is this going to ruin the vibe of the romance?'" Therese said. Andrew assured her it would be fine. 

Fast forward a month later, Andrew proposed at a scenic spot which he'd decorated with flowers and lanterns. It was perfect, but little did Rachel now that her sister was creeping on the whole thing just a few meters apart.  

In photos that Therese has since posted on Twitter to an overwhelmingly positive response, she can be seen crouching in a bush and watching the engagement. 

And yes, the disguise worked. "She was so well hidden with the ghillie suit in the bushes that I couldn’t find her so I was nervous that she wasn’t even there," Andrew said. After Andrew had popped the question, Therese waited a moment before popping out and yelling: "SHE SAID YES, SHE SAID YES!" 

"She was so confused, she was like, 'What are you, a weird bush?'" said Therese. "It totally made the moment." 

Unsurprisingly, the tweet quickly went viral, with more than 180,000 likes and 22,000 replies. People were very impressed. 

"If we ever get married I expect this kind of energy from the both of us," one user wrote. 

Unsurprisingly, people are expecting this level of commitment from their friends and siblings from now on. "This is something I would do for you lmao," another user added. 

"I was really just there to cheer them on. It’s all for them," Therese added. "I'm just so excited that I was a part of it." 

Editor's Note: The article was originally published in October 2019. It has since been updated.