Woman Reads Proposal Plan At Her Brother's Wedding That He Wrote At Age 9

Wedding gifts are often costly, but the one Hope Carew gave her brother on his wedding day was priceless: a reading of his long-tucked-away childhood fantasy of an extravagant proposal.

Hope's gift was nearly a decade in the making and was finally revealed to her older brother, Griffin Carew, 32, on Oct. 11 after his wedding to Alyssa Carew, 31, at Arrowhead Park in Monroe, New York. Before wedding guests and her brother's new wife, Hope Carew read aloud a globe-trotting engagement plan — filled with private jets, yachts and a $130 million diamond ring — that the groom wrote when he was 9.

"Found my brother's proposal plan from when he was 9," Hope Carew wrote in a TikTok video of her reading it at the reception. As if the wedding guests weren't already a large enough audience, the post went viral, wracking up 8.8 million views within five days of being shared.

The video shows Hope Carew standing at the microphone during her brother's wedding reception, grinning as she says, "Don't kill me," before reading from the piece of paper he wrote as a child.

"We are 25, and I am a multi-billionaire," she reads her brother's opening line, prompting a roar of laughter from the room.

Laughter fills the room as Hope Carew shares her brother's childhood vision of himself as the ultimate smooth operator: "sneaking" his future fiancée onto a private jet at midnight, giving her a kiss only to whisper, "Everything's taken care of." His plan continues with dreams of butlers, trips to Cabo San Lucas, French Polynesia and Paris.

"We drink a few glasses, then begin to make out, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot," Hope Carew reads.

"He had more date-planning ability at 9 than most men have now at 30," one TikToker commented on the post.

"Your brother wanted to grow up and become a book boyfriend," another replied.

Speaking to TODAY.com, Hope Carew says she suspects her brother's big plan might have been inspired by one of their favorite childhood movies, "Blank Check." The 1994 family comedy follows a boy who goes on an ungodly spending spree after filling out a criminal's blank check for a million dollars.

Years later, Hope Carew's discovery of her brother's proposal plan felt just as fun. She remembers struggling to contain her laughter when she found the paper tucked into his 2002 yearbook while she was in college.

"I think I found it in, like, 2014," Hope Carew explains, recalling how she stumbled upon it in a box of old items her father had given her.

"I was going through (my brother's) yearbook ... flipping through it, and this, like, folded-up piece of loose-leaf paper fell out of it, and I read it, and I was, like, dying laughing."

It was then that she decided she would hold onto it for the perfect moment.

"I'm gonna save this, and I'm gonna read this at his wedding," she recalls telling herself at the time.

Cut to the present, where her brother's reaction was everything Hope Carew hoped for.

"He immediately went beet red," she recalls. "He, like, put his head down on the table at one point."

Still, Hope Carew wasn't too worried about upsetting him. She knew he would take it in stride.

"He's not the type to be embarrassed. We're all kind of big personalities in my family, so not really a shy type."

Though Griffin Carew wasn't above trying to save face at first.

"He was like, 'I didn't write that.' And then he, like, looked at the handwriting and was like, 'That is undeniably my handwriting,'" Hope Carew recalls.

On social media, users couldn't get enough of the family's humor and close bond.

"I've had the nicest comment section on TikTok and Instagram," she says. "Not a mean comment to be found, which is crazy because I was expecting there to be some hate, and so far, it's just been nothing but love and support."

Reflecting on her brother's real-life proposal, Hope Carew says that, while it lacked the extravagant price tag of his childhood vision, it was unforgettable and romantic all the same.

Particularly for Griffin Carew, who fulfilled his dream of proposing abroad, getting down on one knee on a cliffside with a picturesque view.

"They went to Portugal," Hope Carew explains. "They're both really into traveling, so they're well matched on that."

And for the question we're all dying to have answered? "He is not a billionaire," Hope Carew says. "He doesn't have a yacht or a jet or a butler."

Still, as Hope Carew points out, her brother ultimately got what he wanted most from his plan: the woman of his dreams.

"She's really awesome," Hope Carew adds, noting that the couple decided to skip a big honeymoon so the bride could run in the New York City Marathon to support the Navy SEAL Foundation.