I decided to purchase an engagement ring 3 months before proposing to Priya. Once I had the ring, I couldn't make a decision as to where to pop the question. Two of my friends, Ripal & Sejal, helped me everyday until I chose Malibu, but the challenge was getting Priya there without her having any clue that I would be asking her to be my wife. Luckily, Priya and I have our birthdays one week apart in April. She wanted to go on a birthday trip and decided on Malibu! Once we got to LA, I came up with a fake plan to get her to El Matador State Beach, where I planned on proposing. While walking on the beach, she "randomly" found a bottle with a note, which my best friend Jigar planted hours before we got there. As I saw her read the note I noticed a smile growing across her face and that's when I got down on one knee and popped the question, and she said YES! When I asked her if she had any idea that I was going to propose, she said she didn't because she thought all of our friends and family would be there to celebrate with us. Clearly, I didn't listen, at least in her mind. Our first celebratory stop was a brunch reservation for 2 at Taste on Melrose in West Hollywood. At the restaurant, Priya was greeted by 20+ of our closest friends and family that flew from Chicago, New York, and Florida to surprise her! For the remainder of the day we celebrated and explored everything that LA has to offer.
We are so fortunate to have been able to share the most important moment of our lives with the ones we love so much. I can't end this without saying thank you to those who made our day so special. Thank you to Ripal, Sejal, Tarun, Anup, Harry, Jay, Roshni, Ronak, Reema, Ravi, Neel, Anjali, Pavan, Jigar, Bindi, Maulik, Rushi, Nikesh, Dhara, Roshni and Udit!
Because Binit and I have our birthday's so close together, I wanted us to go on a birthday trip. Since I've never been to LA before, I decided I wanted to go there. Little did I know it would be the best weekend of my life thus far. We were going to have a nice morning walk at El Matador Beach but unknowingly to me, Binit had bigger plans of making it the most memorable day of our lives.
Before we got down to the beach, I made a joke asking Binit where the ring was while patting his pockets down looking for a ring box. Lucky for Binit it was in the one pocket I did not pat. At this point, I had no clue what was yet to come. As we were walking down the beach, we found a bottle with a note in it. Binit asked me to open the bottle, but I said no a few times because I thought it was there for someone else and I didn't want to move it. Finally, he picked it up and gave me the bottle. From the moment I started opening the bottle, I knew it was finally the time I have been waiting many, many years for. This moment was straight out of a fairytale and I would not have wanted it to be any other way. It was truly the best day of my life thus far.
Once we were engaged, I wanted to share the news with everyone! I first called my mom and we were both ecstatic since she had no idea it was happening that day either! Next I wanted to called Roshni and Reema but for some odd reason Binit was insisting to call later since we had to check into the hotel and make our lunch reservation. Even once we were in the Uber on our way to lunch he still wouldn’t let me call them and I thought it was strange but decided to not think too much about it. We finally arrived at lunch where our closest friends and family were waiting to celebrate with us! This is the reason he didn’t want me calling Roshni and Reema. I was super excited and beyond happy to have all of them there! My trip to LA was better than I could have ever imagined!