The creator of hit Netflix series Nobody Wants This has revealed that one of its key scenes was inspired by her own real-life proposal — an elaborate surprise in Napa that involved a fake wedding vow renewal, family members hiding in a barn, and an engagement ring transported from New York.
Erin Foster shared footage of the surprise proposal on social media on October 28, 2026, according to reports of the reveal, detailing how her husband Simon Tikhman orchestrated the whole event without her suspecting a thing.
A fake schedule, a hidden family, a real question
Tikhman created a fake wedding vow renewal, complete with a fabricated schedule and attire list, and co-ordinated with hotel staff to provide a false itinerary, ensuring the true nature of the trip remained hidden until the moment of the proposal. Family members hid in a barn, waiting for their cue, while the ring made its own journey from New York to Napa.
It is the kind of deception that only works when everyone involved is committed to the bit — hotel staff, family, and a husband willing to invent an entire event to protect a surprise. When the reveal finally came, it became a story Foster would later build into fiction.
From real life to the screen
The surprise proposal served as the direct inspiration for a pivotal scene in Nobody Wants This, which premiered its first season in 2024 and released its third season in October 2026. Fans of the series have responded to the reveal with delight, recognising a scene they loved and learning that its emotional core was not invented in a writers’ room but lived in real life.
There is a reason this kind of reveal travels. Audiences love a show; they love it more when they learn that its best moment actually happened. Foster’s Napa proposal is now both a personal memory and a piece of television history — a real question, asked in a barn, that went on to shape a fictional one watched by millions.
