Woman dons absurd costume to surprise sister at engagement: 'It totally made the moment'

A Wisconsin woman surprised her sister with a hilarious costume during her engagement last week.

Therese Merkel, 23, took to Twitter last Monday to share photos of herself dressed as a bush in order to capture the moment her sister, Rachel, said yes to her boyfriend's proposal.

"Sister got engaged this weekend and I dressed as a bush in the wilderness to watch/capture the moment," Merkel wrote. "We are 1 yr apart ... why are our lives so different rofl."

According to BuzzFeed, Therese and Rachel's boyfriend, Andrew Philibeck, planned the stunt in advance, since Rachel had reportedly requested that Therese be at her engagement, should there ever be a proposal.

"We came up with a ton of hilarious ideas that were totally ridiculous," Therese recalled. "We were like, 'How funny would it be if I was a bush or something?'"

Two weeks ago, Philibeck followed through with the plan and ordered her a ghillie suit — a type of camouflage outfit meant to blend in with the wilderness. Therese, however, was worried that the prank would wreck the couple's special moment.

"I even told Andrew, 'Is this going to ruin the vibe of the romance?'" she said.

Philibeck assured her it wouldn't, and the two surprised Rachel at a local conservation site.

"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," Philibeck told BuzzFeed.

After Rachel said yes, Therese jumped out of the bushes, to her sister's bewilderment.

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

Therese's post has since gone viral, garnering more than 21,000 retweets and hundreds of people tagging their better halves or relatives to do something similar.