When Paul Slobodzian took on a side job as an UberEats delivery driver to help pay for his wedding, he knew it would be a tough ask to raise the money he needed. But now, thanks to a kind customer, he can give his fiancee the big day she dreamed of.
Slobodzian left a hopeful message asking for a tip on one of his deliveries. His customer went on TikTok to show off the note left with her Chipotle order — and the internet did the rest.
Erica Hernandez posted a picture of her meal in a clip, adding text running across the screen that read: “Ordered some Chipotle and our delivery guy put this on our Chipotle bag.” Slobodian had left a note explaining his side hustle, and leaving his Venmo account details on the card in case a customer wanted to contribute.
“Thank you for your order!” the note began. “I’m driving for [name of company] on the side to give my fiancee the wedding she deserves. Any additional tip through the app or Venmo is greatly appreciated. I don’t have a lot of followers but hopefully this reaches the right people,”
It certainly did, with Hernandez posting the note on her TikTok. In an interview with Fox 10 Phoenix, she said: “I just felt really inspired to post it and see if my friends would be willing to donate or [if] any followers that I had on there [would] donate,”
That TikTok now has more than 33 million views. Many people had turned to the comments explaining how much they loved the gesture or to let others know that they also donated to the wedding fund. “And it’s handwritten. could u imagine him just sitting there late at night writing a whole bunch of them,” one commenter said approvingly.
“This is why I love TikTok so much,” another said. “It gives me hope for humanity that people who don’t have a lot of followers can still get the reach out like this and change peoples lives hopefully.”
Slobodzian said that within a week of Hernandez posting, they had enough money for their September wedding. “I never set out to leave those notes with the intention of somebody making a video about it or even trying to broadcast it to anybody besides the person I was delivering to,” he said.
His fiancee, Aly Perkins, added: “We didn’t really expect anything to come of this and the fact that a stranger got our note and felt so compelled to post it on the internet and advocate for two strangers is unbelievable.”
Slobodzian has been keeping people updated about the wedding donations on his own TikTok account, including one from Chipotle, giving the couple $500.
Hernandez was even able to score an invitation to the wedding... which she accepted. The video announcing the news got more than 3 million views (and counting).
“This is the coolest thing to happen on social media in a long time,” one person commented, with another saying: “This reminds me of the lady that accidentally texted a random dude on Thanksgiving & now they spend that day together every year. So wholesome.”
