Firefighter sells his beloved car to pay for his wedding, his wife surprises him

• In a TikTok posted on August 19, Laleh Vahedian said that her then-boyfriend Cole Eberson pressured her to quit a job that made her unhappy and said he would support them both financially
• When the couple got engaged two years later and found out their small wedding would be expensive, Eberson sold his Jeep Wrangler to pay for it
• Without her husband’s knowledge, Vahedian had raised money through TikTok so she could buy him his dream pickup truck

A TikTok video in which an Arizona woman revealed a secret she was keeping from her husband not only went viral, but also helped raise money for a special surprise gift for him.

In an Aug. 19 TikTok, Phoenix-based wedding photographer Laleh Vahedian, 26, said she has been lying to her husband Cole Eberson, 25, a firefighter, for the past four years.

“I worked as a barista at a well-known coffee shop chain,” Vahedian said in the clip, “and it honestly took the life out of me. I came home every day and cried.”

“My boyfriend at the time had just joined the fire department,” she added, “so he had a pretty stable job.” He saw how much I was struggling when I worked at the cafe. I also tried to pursue photography.”

Eventually, Vahedian says, Eberson told her that she should give up the barista job to pursue her dream of becoming a full-time photographer and offered to support them financially.

“He believed in me,” Vahedian said in the clip, adding, “I owe all my success to him.”

The couple got engaged two years ago. They couldn’t afford to pay for a small wedding as it turned out to be too expensive, and Vahedian was still struggling to make money as a full-time photographer. To make their wedding dreams come true, Eberson sold his beloved car, which he had owned since he was 16, to cover the cost of their wedding.

Vahedian told her TikTok followers in the clip that she is saving money so she can buy a new car for her husband to compensate him for encouraging her to quit the job that made her unhappy.

“My goal is to buy him a new car on our five-year anniversary,” she said.

It turned out that it took her less than five years to achieve this goal. As Vahendian tells PEOPLE, she was able to raise the money in just two months since posting this TikTok — which had more than 2.5 million views as of Thursday, November 21.

“He loves his (new) car,” she says. “I think he’s still in disbelief because it happened so quickly and he didn’t really have to do anything about it, and he feels like he has to get back at me somehow. And I’m like, ‘Dude, no.’ .’ That’s the whole point.’ ”

Never miss a story again — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Vahedian says she was in a serious car accident in 2020, just months after she and Eberson met. After recovering, Vahedian needed a new job, which led her to the barista gig at the cafe. Eberson, who was then becoming a firefighter, saw how dissatisfied she was with the job she had been working at for seven months and told her to pursue her photography dreams instead.

“I just started crying,” Vahedian remembers her friend’s gesture. “I said (to him): ‘No. This is too much for you.’ He basically said, ‘I have a permanent job now.’ It may not be much, but we won’t mind.” ”

After their engagement two years later, Eberson sold his special car – a 2001 Jeep Wrangler – to pay for the wedding; The two got married in October 2023.

“He says, ‘I’ve already decided. “I want to do this for us,” Vahedian remembers saying, despite her protests.

From the moment he offered to support her decision to leave the job, Vahedian knew she would do something special for Eberson.

“I also knew that he had always wanted a truck,” she says. “He is a person who constantly does everything for everyone else and never expects anything in return.”

Vahedian says she started creating and posting TikTok videos while monetizing them based on the number of views. The returns started small.

“One day I decided to make a video about how I was making money on TikTok and trying to save up for this lie I was telling,” she tells PEOPLE. “I just posted it on a random day of the week. Within a day it had about a million views.”

Eberson never knew what his wife was up to — he didn’t even have a social media account, which helped Vahedian keep the secret from her TikTok followers.

“It was around the end of September. I had earned enough as it was really easy for me to make the monthly payments (for a car),” she says.

One morning in mid-October this year, while Vahedian was browsing Facebook Marketplace to sell her old cameras to contribute to the fund, she came across an ad for a 2020 Toyota Tacoma posted by a car seller in Peoria, Arizona. was switched.

To her, the pickup truck looked like her husband’s dream vehicle. After contacting the dealer by phone, she finally told Eberson what she had done.

“He asked if I was playing a prank on him,” Vahedian says. “I cried and told him and he was like, ‘Is this a joke?’ And I say, ‘No, it’s not a joke!’ We got there (at the dealership) at 2 p.m. because it was over an hour away, and we walked out a few hours later with the keys in our hands.”

Vahedian said Eberson has been driving around with his fellow firefighters since he got his new pickup truck. “He won’t let me open my door. He has to open the door for me. He’s like, ‘You’re getting the princess treatment.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m here for it,'” she says.

Vahedian says she has now made enough money from her photography business that the couple was able to put a down payment on their house. She also has her eye on her own dream car — a 2024 Volkswagen Atlas — but she’s happy where she is now.

“Social media is crazy,” she says. “It can really make dreams come true. I’m just so grateful.”

The experience also sparked Eberson’s interest in social media after previously ignoring it. “He’s ready to be in TikToks with me now,” says Vahedian, “and I never thought he would. He is now ready to be in front of the camera. It’s so funny to see that he’s just a very private person.”

“He’s just so grateful for everyone who supported us,” she continues. “I showed him all the videos and he always asked questions. “How is the video going now?” How many views do you currently have?’ He probably won’t tell me he’s invested, but I know he’s invested now.”