We're engaged! And as excited as ever to continue building a life together + writing our love story - and what a story it is.
Mario mentioned at dinner a couple nights before that he was planning a surprise for me. We were at Disneyland and I could tell that something was up with him because he seemed super nervous about something. I just chalked it up to him being both jet-lagged + anxious about making a surprise to me. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not one to love surprises, so to his dismay I asked A LOT of questions. All of which I received the same answer: "Relax and trust me." Now if you're a calm, go-with-the-flow type of person, it would be absolutely easy to do that. In most situations, I am that person. But in this case, I just wanted to know what the damn surprise was. So over the next few days, I badgered him. He didn't budge.
Fast forward to the day of the surprise. He stay tight-lipped, which I absolutely have to praise him for. It wasn't until we arrived to Cuvier Park in La Jolla that I realized what the surprise was. It was one of those beautiful picnics that became super popular over the pandemic. Shoutout to Sarah of Picnic by Nature for the picnic we'll always remember! The setup was overlooking the Pacific and I was just so happy to be there with him. About 30 minutes later, he surprised me again by getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him!! It was the easiest yes of my life.
After the proposal, we decided to go back to a spot we first went to last Christmas. It's called Cesarina, which is the quirkiest Italian restaurant located in Ocean Beach. You would think that with Mario being Italian himself he wouldn't be so keen to eat Italian food outside of Italy. However, we can always count on the cuisine to give us everything we wanted and more. So when we had to decide on a place to go to celebrate, Cesarina was at the top of our list.
But word to the wise, if you can help it, please make a reservation. We did hope to score a table for 5 last minute so we could celebrate with my family, but it ended up just being the two of us in the end. Which fortunately they were able to accommodate.
And we're very happy they did! As we sat there drinking our celebratory Prosecco glasses, we recounted everything leading up to the proposal and the big moment itself. We took the polpo for a starter, the pappardelle and paccheri for mains, and the millefoglie di latte for dessert. Overall, it was such a special evening for myself and my fiancé (!!!)
Now it's time to plan a wedding! Stay tuned here for wedding content - coming very soon!
