I thought I was going to an influencer event in Central Park. It was actually my own surprise engagement.

Rachel Martino thought she was attending an influencer garden party.

Photo Credit: David Alan Sauerhoff

Rachel Martino, 34, first met her fiancé Leo Camacho, 41, on a content creation trip in 2019.After a year of long-distance, Camacho relocated to New York from LA to be with Martino.In 2022, Camacho orchestrated a surprise engagement for Martino that she didn’t see coming.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rachel Martino. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In August 2022, I thought I was attending a garden party to celebrate the launch of a new line of Sunglass Hut glasses. It turned out to be my dream Central Park engagement.

Our creativity connects us

I’m a fashion influencer covering beauty and lifestyle. My fiancé Leo is also a content creator focusing on Disney, gaming, and comic con. While our interests differ, being creative has been a huge part of our relationship.

Leo and I met in March 2019 during an influencer trip to Disney World. Although we didn’t run into each other during the first few days in Orlando, we eventually met on the Disney Dream Cruise. A lot of the creators during this particular trip had a focus on family blogging. Those of us who were single would often hang out in the adult-only section of the cruise.

We met in the adult-only hot tub and ended up chatting about work and our lives, with him based in LA and me based in New York. I had an outfit planned for the 30th anniversary of The Little Mermaid, and I learned that Leo had a shtick of dressing up as Prince Eric, and we did a photo shoot together on the cruise.

After hitting it off, we decided to stay in contact as friends. Facetimes and consistent communication allowed us to really get to know each other, and I started feeling sparks. About a month after we first met, I was in LA for Coachella, and I decided to stay a few extra days to see Leo. Our first date was at a Mexican barcade in LA, where we really got to dig deep, and I just felt such a connection.

That year, we made it a point to travel back and forth to see each other. While the first year of our relationship may have been non-traditional, we really had to jump in because, with long-distance relationships, visiting your partner means essentially living with them while you’re there. When the pandemic hit, being in New York was a particularly scary experience, and I told Leo, “I would love to come and stay with you,” to which he agreed.

Leo and I met later in life, which made a huge difference in our connection. At our age, you already know what you want in life and what you seek in a partner. You’re just trying to figure out if your visions are aligned with theirs.

I couldn’t wait to end long-distance with Leo because he brings light to even the mundane moments in life, like grocery shopping. After living with him for a few months at the height of the pandemic, we decided that he would move to New York full-time in May 2020.

I thought I was attending a work party, not my own engagement

On August 31, 2022, I headed to the conservatory garden in Central Park, ready to work for what I thought was a white garden party celebrating the launch of a new line of Sunglass Hut frames. When I’m working on getting content for a brand, I’m hyper-focused on getting the perfect shot and everything they might need for photos and videos, and this day was no exception.

I headed to Central Park in full work mode. That morning, when I left for the event, Leo was still in his pajamas and told me he was heading to the gym. After checking in with the woman holding a clipboard of names, I made my way toward a semicircle of flowers. I turned around and noticed my three friends were holding their phones up, and at first, I thought, “Why aren’t they wearing white? Didn’t they get the memo?” before it hit me. A guitar player was playing “Fools Rush In,” which is one of our favorite songs, and I realized the man standing at a distance in a suit was Leo.

Although we discussed getting engaged before, I believe an engagement should be a surprise, and ours was the most incredible surprise.

People always think that I knew about the proposal because I was wearing a poofy white dress, but my friends worked behind-the-scenes to help make that happen. When my best friend Noelle got engaged in Paris in 2017, I helped her fiancé plan to surprise her. Her luggage did not arrive, and when we went shopping, she didn’t find any options she liked. I ended up giving her a dress that she wore while getting engaged.

Then before my engagement, Noelle casually asked me if I was going to the influencer sunglasses launch and shared she ordered a dress that didn’t fit her but she thought would look great on me. Looking back and knowing that I wore her dress to get engaged and that she wore my dress to get engaged was a very special part of the day. My female friendships are so important to me, and knowing that my girls were involved in the planning process meant the world to me.

We find ourselves at Leroy’s Cocktail Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, at least once a week, so it was only fitting that Leo rented out the restaurant that same night to have our engagement party. Our friends and family were there, and we enjoyed a custom menu, signature cocktails, and even a cake. We’ll be getting married in September 2025.