Romantic and Surprising Proposal Takes Flight During Holiday World’s Drone Show

At Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, there are some very creative uses of the prefix ‘holi.’ For example, one of the theme park’s beloved mascots is Holidog. The park’s annual coaster enthusiast event is called Holiwood Nights. Then, there’s this term- HoliCouple. As it turns out, love is in the air at Holiday World and sometimes, pretty routinely, employees fall in love.  At Friday night’s Platinum Season Pass Holder sneak peek at the Holidays in the Sky drone show, one of the park’s most notable Holicouples celebrated a surprise engagement.

Amanda Ellsworth is Holiday World’s Entertainment & Events Manager. She has been at the park for nearly 25 years. She started way back in 2001 when she was hired as a costume character. She was hired full-time in 2011 and now oversees a variety of special events at Holiday World- including the brand new Nerveless Nocks Show, Happy Halloween Weekends, and the park’s massively popular drone show. But, it’s that drone show that delivered her quite an unexpected surprise Friday night.

Get our free mobile app

See, Matt Woolems, Amanda’s boyfriend and Holiday World’s Project Manager, came up with an incredibly unique way to propose to her.  He worked with other park leaders to orchestrate an airborne proposal. As Holidays in the Sky wrapped up at the sneak preview, the drones went a bit rogue. They spelled out “Amanda, will you marry me?” As you can imagine, the crowd went crazy as Amanda got the surprise of her life.

**If you're having trouble with the video loading, WATCH HERE!**

Though Matt started working at Holiday World way back in 1999, he became a full-time member of the Holiday World team in 2022. His history with the park goes back even further. In 1995, he sat in the front seat of the Raven for its inaugural television commercial. Now, he’s another part of Holiday World history- the proposal heard ‘round the world!

Amanda and Matt both attended Heritage Hills High School. Matt graduated in 2003; Amanda in 2005. Interestingly enough, they didn’t really know each other back then. When Matt starting working full-time at the park, he ended up meeting Amanda’s mom in the park’s laundry facility. Fun fact! Yes, Amanda’s mom works for Holiday World. So does Matt’s mom. In their laundry-room meeting, Amanda’s mom made certain that Matt left knowing about Amanda. Shortly after that, Matt volunteered his evenings helping with the drone crew. He got to spend a lot of time with Amanda and the rest is, well, history!

With the help of those 500 drones, Matt popped the question to Amanda. Though she wasn’t able to spell out her answer in the air, she quickly answered, “Yes!”

A big congrats to the latest HoliCouple!