As promised, here are some photos and details of my marriage proposal.

Bea and I enter the room

Down on bended knee

Putting on the ring

Congratulatory photo with champagne

[Some background info after the jump]

Some months ago, after a few emails describing what kind of rings and diamonds and other gems she liked, Bea sent me an email with a link to this Tiffany ring, which Bea described as exactly what she wanted.

Her desire thus defined with such precision, I contacted one of my Orthodox Jewish friends, who has some good connections for this sort of thing. It turns out his wife went to school out in New York with a gentleman who works in the diamond wholesale/shipping business, and he was able to secure for me an extremely nice diamond and have a ring made for me that looked exactly like the picture Bea sent me. Also, by coincidence, his last name was Diamond–no joke!

In the mean time, aside from having to face the incessant barrage of, “So are you finally engaged yet?”, and “When are you going to propose?”, I also was facing a self-imposed deadline: I had promised to Bea over a year ago we would be engaged before the summer of 2006 (this I promised to hold firm, after a couple earlier deadline extensions). As time began running out, Bea was getting to be in fish-or-cut-bait mood. By late April, I had the dinero ready to buy the ring, but I needed to meet up with the New Yorker. With the spring being filled with Jewish holidays and other events, he was not able to get out to the West Coast, and I really only had until June 10th to make my deadline because that is when Bea and her brother were to leave for Germany (she would still be at the World Cup for the official start of summer on June 21st). Facing the prospect of not making my deadline, I was forced to be honest with Bea and let her know a ring was in the works but I might not be able to get it until after her return from Germany.

Finally, I got a call from my New York acquaintance; he would be traveling to Las Vegas for a jewelry tradeshow on Monday, June 5th. As I had plans to visit Bea that prior weekend in Sacramento, my original plans of driving would make a side trip to Vegas after Sacramento very difficult, so I scheduled a last-minute flight to Vegas. In order to hide my trip to Vegas, I printed out my itinerary before heading up to Sacto, put white-out over the itinerary, and made a photocopy to give to Bea. She fell for it, even though some of the fine print on the paper had destination listed as “Las Vegas” (she noticed, but assumed it was an error as maybe the plane’s final destination after Long Beach was Las Vegas). Once in Vegas, I met up with my acquaintance, got the ring, and flew back home early Tuesday morning.

Now the most difficult part: How to propose!

Of course, having been there for Brendan’s proposal to Becky, I had quite the example to match. But Bea, who also was there for that memorable event, made it clear to me she wanted no part of a stadium jumbotron or airplane banner-ad proposal, so I had to think of something else. With time quickly running out, I made a few phone calls and attempted to set up a surprise dinner on Friday night before she left for Germany and after she had returned to LA from Sacramento late Thursday night. The location: Claes Restaurant at Hotel Laguna, where Bea worked for a few years while in college (and which I kept mistakenly referring to as “Caery’s Restaurant”, to the confusion of everyone who attended!).

I did my best to gather close family and her local friends, some of whom she had worked with for many years at Hotel Laguna, and a couple of which were working that very night. Because of the lack of time, a couple of Bea’s closest friends were out of town and couldn’t make it, as were my closest friends and even my mom (she was in Tennessee with her sisters for a country music festival, but she got to see the ring before she left and was very excited about my plans). Still, with the help of her former coworkers/friends, I was able to reserve the private wine cellar at the hotel, where everyone was to wait until Bea and I arrived. In the mean time, not only did I have to keep Bea convinced that I was just taking her out to dinner, everyone else had to keep up their alibis as well. That turned out to be the most nerve-wracking of all, as every time Bea called one of her friends or vice-versa, I was beside her cocking my ear nervously hoping that nothing in the conversation was tipping her off to my plans.

Fortunately, everyone came through and kept the secret marvelously, and as you can sort-of tell from the pictures, my plan worked– Bea was totally surprised to see everyone there! As the shock wore off and before she could begin to ask too many questions (and as many of you know, she talks fast, so she was piecing her suspicions together quickly and beginning to ask good questions!), my sister handed me the box with the ring in it, I turned to Bea, and proposed. My heart was pounding and I was so nervous–things happened so fast and worked out so perfectly–I ended up barely being able to voice the question above a whisper, while she sobbed her acceptance. Her tears didn’t last long though–soon it was endless pictures and congratulatory phone calls with seemingly endless friends and family.

So that’s the story behind the pictures, and here are a some more with my comments:

Bea and I enjoy a moment together

The devil and the vampire

The new family, from left: My dad Mick, my sister Heather, me, Bea’s dad Olmedo, Bea, Bea’s mom Mavi, and Bea’s brother Jaime

Bea and her friends, from left: Brooke, Heather, Bea, Marissa, and Jamie

More photos will continue to be added in the photo gallery as they become available.