A Texas woman was testing her AI-built wedding texting system when a bug sent her save-the-date to all 250 guests before her boyfriend had proposed

Alexi Cortez, a Texas woman, accidentally sent her save-the-date to all 250 of her wedding guests while testing an AI-built texting system, before her boyfriend Luke Little had even proposed, as reported by People. The couple officially got engaged two weeks later in Italy, just as they had planned.

Cortez said she was trying out a new follow-up feature and meant to send a test message only to herself and Little. Instead, a software bug sent their save-the-date to the entire guest list with no explanation attached. “Next thing we know, both our phones started blowing up, and my face goes white,” Cortez said. “I completely panicked, threw my phone across the room, and was shaking so badly I barely remember the next 20 minutes.”

Cortez, a 30-year-old client solutions manager, and Little, a 33-year-old transportation engineer, had already discussed the proposal, with Little planning to pop the question during their August trip to Italy. With her heart set on a spring 2027 wedding in Mexico and an engagement of less than a year, Cortez said she knew she couldn’t wait until the summer to start booking venues.

Her family took it a lot better than she did

The first congratulations came from her cousins, and then the notifications kept coming. While guests celebrated what they thought was an engagement announcement, Cortez said she was convinced she had spoiled the moment Little had planned for Italy. She even considered whether he should just propose right then in their apartment.

Little, however, wasn’t about to let a texting mishap derail everything. “Luke stayed incredibly calm, even as I spiraled into the biggest panic of my adult life, and kept insisting we needed to ‘call the adults,’ so we each called our parents,” Cortez said. Her parents were far less concerned, seeing the accidental announcement as a convenient way for guests to start booking hotels.

Other friends and family found the situation funny. Cortez said her favorite reaction came from Little’s aunt, who assured her, “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” after hearing the text had gone out by accident. The aunt had no idea the rest of the 250 guests had received the same message. Not every wedding surprise gets such a warm reception, as a bride’s viral dress stunt showed.

Two weeks after the mishap, Little surprised Cortez with dinner at a flower-covered private boat dock at sunset on Lake Como. He had originally planned to propose on a hike in the Dolomites but quietly changed his plans to keep an element of surprise. “He gave me the sweetest speech, and we were both crying until he opened the ring box upside down, which immediately sent us into a fit of laughter,” Cortez said.

By early 2026, the couple had already booked a wedding planner, DJ, photographer, and hotel block, and designed their wedding website, invitations, and save-the-dates. Instead of physical invitations or impersonal mass texts, Cortez used an AI coding assistant to build a custom texting system. It sent messages from a dedicated number and automatically personalized each one with guests’ names, nicknames, accompanying guests, and preferred language, such as English or Spanish.

Cortez has since added safety measures to her software and is turning it into a new wedding planning platform called Merrier. “I guess there’s no better way to test your software than to have it fail spectacularly in front of 250 of your closest friends and family!” she said.