{"id":1596,"date":"2021-11-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sofarsoundsblo.wpengine.com\/blog\/articles\/sofar-love-stories-sam-nathalie\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T16:24:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T16:24:37","slug":"sofar-love-stories-sam-nathalie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/sofar-love-stories-sam-nathalie","title":{"rendered":"Sofar Love Stories: Sam &#038; Nathalie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We love <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/sofar-love-stories-stefan-priya\">Sofar Love Stories<\/a>: those magical date night concerts where one person decides to pop the question.<\/p>\n<p>When Sam Payrovi heard Sofar artist Odane Whilby perform the song \u201cAgree\u201d, he finally realized how he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, and coworker, Nathalie Paiva.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the most recent in our series of Sofar Love Stories. and get inspired for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/lists\/date-night\">a date night concert of your own<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Background: From Coworkers to Couple<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Sam and Nathalie run <a href=\"https:\/\/cstm.haus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CSTM HAUS<\/a>, a coworking and showroom event space nestled into the \u201clittle flatiron building\u201d in New York City\u2019s Meatpacking District. They met a few years back, \u201con what we call the Tinder for consultants\u2013\u00a0Upwork,\u201d Nathalie laughed. It didn\u2019t take long for the sparks to fly, though the two tried to avoid their feelings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll our friends saw it when we were ignoring it,\u201d Sam said. Eventually the two came to their senses, and became a couple. As they built CSTM HAUS, Sam and Nathalie also began collaborating with Sofar in 2018. One of the earliest Sofars included a surprise cameo from Miley Cyrus, who was walking by and happened to notice a hundred people gathered, and \u201cshe stepped in and everyone went crazy,\u201d Sam said. \u201cPeople were like, \u2018what just happened, Miley just walked in and stared at us,\u2019\u201d Sam said, smiling.<\/p>\n<p>As the two worked side by side, bringing Sofars and other events into their space, somewhere along the way, Sam decided it was time to pop the question\u2013\u00a0the big one. But, the planning took some time. The proposal itself was a year in the works\u2013 the ring took six months to arrive. When he got it, Sam suddenly had to figure out exactly <em>how<\/em> to propose. \u201cI had no idea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How Odane Whilby Gave Sam His Big Proposal Idea<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Three weeks before the big eve, CSTM HAUS held a Sofar. <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/4FncEnPHz0nPwPRR32zrC6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Odane Whilby<\/a> was playing that night. He introduced a song called \u201cAgree\u201d that he\u2019d written to propose to his wife. As Odane sang, suddenly the idea hit Sam. \u201cThe one thing I always knew was I wanted to do it in a way that was core to what we do and who we are,\u201d Sam said. \u201cYea I could do it on the top of some mountain or the Eiffel Tower, but we do so much beyond dating and raising a puppy\u2013 we\u2019ve been working together for years, and this has been way more than running a retail company. I just really wanted to integrate something that we do, and we just love these Sofar events so much. I was sitting there that night listening to Odane sing this song for his wife, and I was like, \u2018oh my god, I think I know what I\u2019m gonna do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It just so happened the CEO of Sofar, Jim Lucchese, was attending that evening. So, Sam went up and filled him in, then asked if they could schedule another Sofar with Odane, playing the same song, so he could take that moment to propose to Nathalie. Of course, Jim was on board.\u00a0 \u201cWe went into planning mode secretly, behind the planner\u2019s back,\u201d he said, nodding toward Nathalie. Sam and the Sofar team got to work, secretly sorting out the details for a new Sofar date with Odane. They set the evening for October 19th.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Wrench in the Plans? Nope\u2013\u00a0A Key to Surprise<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>About five days before the big night, Sam got an email update on a separate, important project he was involved in.\u00a0There was going to be an event for it\u2013\u00a0October 19th. \u201cI\u2019m like, you\u2019ve gotta be kidding me,\u201d he said. He asked to move it\u2013 that was a no. So the night of, he had to start the evening by running to his other commitment. Turns out, that was just the key to keeping the proposal a surprise. Sam had invited friends and Nathalie\u2019s family to Sofar. When they walked in, it could\u2019ve been a big tip-off that something extra special was planned for that night, but it wasn\u2019t. \u201cI was surprised to see my parents and sister\u2013 but Sam wasn\u2019t there, so I didn\u2019t think anything of it,\u201d Nathalie said. When Sam came back from his first event, Nathalie still had no idea what was ahead that night.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Set-Up:\u00a0Getting Nathalie in Front of The Room<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Later, when Odane was about to start, then came the next challenge: \u201cI had to figure out how I was going to get Nathalie up to the front during the song,\u201d Sam said. \u201cI told Odane just before he went on, \u2018listen, I see an empty table right by you, if I can get Nathalie to sit there we have nothing to worry about. If I <em>can\u2019t<\/em>, you have to figure out a way to get her up here in the middle of your song. I don\u2019t care if you kick a drink over, yell \u201crat!,\u201d whatever you want to do, you just have to get Nathalie to come up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, Sam was able to get her up there without any tricky maneuvering. As Odane began to play \u201cAgree,\u201d Sam grabbed Nathalie\u2019s hand and brought her up to the front. \u201cShe just surprisingly went along with it,\u201d Sam said. The two made their way up next to Odane.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought he was going to announce something about CSTM HAUS and I was like, it\u2019s the <em>middle<\/em> of the song,\u201d Nathalie said, laughing.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Big Moment<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Judging from the crowd, Sam got the vibe that most people thought they were about to slow dance. Still, it got folks to take out their phones and start snapping a couple pics. But then, Sam whispered in Nathalie\u2019s ear and got down on one knee. \u201cThat\u2019s when the crowd understood what was happening, and all the sudden everyone was like, \u2018oh my god,\u2019\u201d Sam said. \u201cI think that\u2019s when Nathalie fully realized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sam pulled out the ring, and then asked her which hand the ring goes on. \u201cI actually had the dog in my arms, and I had to move her over to give the correct hand,\u201d Nathalie said.<\/p>\n<p>Odane finished the song, and they celebrated at the end of the eve. Oh yea\u2013\u00a0Nathalie definitely said yes.\u00a0Check out the moment via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CVb0OLwlMgM\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Odane&#8217;s Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 4032px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/1665185636featuredimage.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"4032\" height=\"1816\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sam and Nathalie with Odane, family, and friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ready to start your own Sofar Love Story? Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/lists\/date-night\">Date Night Sofar shows<\/a> near you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We love Sofar Love Stories: those magical date night concerts where one person decides to pop the question. When Sam Payrovi heard Sofar artist Odane Whilby perform the song \u201cAgree\u201d, he finally realized how he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, and coworker, Nathalie Paiva. Check out the most recent in our series of Sofar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,4],"tags":[665,664],"class_list":["post-1596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sofar-love-stories","category-community","tag-date-night-concerts","tag-sofar-love-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}