Alhambra couple says they’re the mystery lovebirds in viral Yosemite proposal photo

Charlie Vo was scrolling through his Instagram feed when he came across a photo showing a sun-kissed silhouette of a familiar man on bended knee proposing to a woman on a rock outcropping perched precariously over the valley in Yosemite National Park.

At first glance, Vo, 34, thought the pair looked like him and his fiancee, Melissa Ngo, 31. The Alhambra couple had gotten engaged around sunset on Oct. 6 atop Taft Point.

As it turns out, he was right.

“At first, I was hesitant to say it was us, but we compared it to other photos on our phone that our friends took,” Vo said. “It’s basically the same image. It was shocking.”

It seems as though the couple was one of the few people who hadn’t seen the image, which quickly went viral online over the course of a week. Michigan photographer Matthew Dippel had snapped the shot of the intimate moment on a whim as Ngo reached her hand toward her future husband to accept a ring. Dippel posted the image on social media and asked for help finding the couple.

Vo said what Dippel captured was actually his second proposal. He first asked for the hand of his girlfriend of two years in February to give her grandmother a heads-up that a wedding was on the horizon.

“She’s always telling us that we better get married soon so she can attend,” Vo said.

The two plan to exchange vows on April 20.

However, he wanted to give his future bride “a really epic engagement photo,” he said. So Vo waited until they reached Taft Point on a recent hike, dropped to one knee and popped the question to an unsuspecting Ngo.

Mission accomplished.

“Huge congratulations to you two,” Dippel wrote on social media Saturday to announce that the couple in the photo had been found. “I wish I was able to meet you in person and hug you. I’m glad I finally found you to share this special moment with you.”

The popular overlook is the same one where two people died last week in a fall.

Yosemite deaths highlight the danger behind those glorious Instagram posts »

UPDATES:

12:50 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 8:30 a.m.