Our Moment
San Diego has always been a place that Shreya and I both hold close to our hearts. We both went to school at UC San Diego and we met each other in April of 2017 in Hillcrest, San Diego. Although this is where our love story began, Shreya's love of San Diego started quite a few years earlier when she was visiting San Diego for the first time during a convention that her dad was attending. Shreya stayed at the Catamaran Hotel and Spa while in San Diego and this trip is where she decided that she wanted to go to school in San Diego - making it possible for us to bump into each other so many years later at UC San Diego.
Fast forward to 2021, I knew that I wanted to propose somewhere meaningful to the both of us - and San Diego was the obvious choice. I reached out to Shreya’s sister Tanya first and asked for her permission to marry Shreya which Tanya thought was weird because “why would that be up to me?”. After asking Tanya to help plan a surprise proposal, I knew that I had to reach out to Jess, Shreya’s best friend, and to enlist her help. All I said was that, “it’s happening” and Jess knew exactly what was going on, no explanation needed!
I secured the ring after much internal deliberation and asking for many opinions - to be honest, I had no idea what I was doing but I think I made a pretty good choice! I told both sets of our parents and they were very happy and gave their seal of approval instantly! Getting Shreya to San Diego wasn’t the hardest part because she already had a trip planned to visit Tanya in Irvine. So Tanya and I hatched a plan to get her to drive to SD on December 18th. The hardest part was making sure that Shreya was dressed up and that she was on time. And if anyone knows Shreya well, they’ll know that she always asks why we’re doing things this way and she gets easily sidetracked so getting somewhere exactly on time is always a journey.
Ultimately, Tanya was able to convince Shreya to dress up by saying that she wanted to take nice pictures on the beach. Except, this was not in character for Tanya at all? But, Shreya still went along with it because no one can say no to San Diego beaches. Shreya always reached out to Jess when she was in San Diego to hangout, so we had to pretend Jess was busy and could only hangout for an hour. Oh, I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I decided to propose Shreya on the beach at the Catamaran Resort and Spa in Mission Bay, so that’s where Tanya had to get Shreya to go to.
On December 18th, I flew into San Diego from San Francisco and had to hang around without bumping into Shreya. Of course, I was tracking Tanya’s location to see where they were at - as predicted they were running late - so I headed to Jess’s place to get ready to head over to the Catamaran.
I got an Uber with Jess’s husband, Jules and we drove to the Catamaran and I kid you not, my hearting was beating a million miles a minute. The only thing keeping me from bouncing out of the car was the seatbelt. We reached the beach and coordinated with the photographer I had hired to find the perfect spot for me to stand. I was stressed - I wanted it all to be perfect. So we waited for Shreya to arrive - and then she appeared with Tanya on the beach. And it all just fell into place.
I waved at Shreya and waited for her to come closer and then I grabbed both of her hands and led her to the beach by the water. I gave her my speech that I prepared in my head over and and over again for the past week (I’ll spare y’all the details) and I dropped one knee. I opened the ring box, really making sure not to drop it, and asked her the most important question I had ever asked anyone: Shreya Malik, will you marry me? “Yes” was all I heard before I slipped the ring on her finger and in that moment she became my fiancée! We spent the rest of the day celebrating with Tanya, Jess and Jules and I have to say, it has been the happiest day of my life so far. Can’t wait to spend the rest of my life on this adventure with you, Shreya! ❤️
You guys already know I’m a planner, probably to a fault. So in 2018 -- after I’d gotten the tingles telling me that David was gonna be the one -- I’d decided that 2023 would be the year we get married. And in order to *really* enjoy being a fiancée, 2021 would need to be the year of the proposal. Simple, right?
Fast forward to December 2021. Most of the year had gone by, and of course I’m getting impatient without a single hint of a ring on my finger any time soon. Mind you, we’d seen some incredible proposals in New York City, Positano, Hawaii, and Dubai earlier in the year and I was feeling extra salty that none of them were for us.
Setting the scene for December 18th, 2021 - On this day my sister Tanya and I were visiting San Diego for a nostalgic day trip and an opportunity to see one of my best friends, Jessica. Tanya and I had what I thought was a stacked but relaxing day planned: we’d drive right to Hawaiian Fresh Seafood for the freshest poke, Bobboi for delicious gelato in downtown La Jolla, and a beautiful winter evening ice skating in Coronado.
Tanya and I began the day on track, it was a gorgeous sunny San Diego day and as always, my poke bowl was delicious. Jess was able to meet us for gelato, but at that point things started to get chaotic. 45 minutes after seeing each other for the first time in months, Jess had to “drop off a friend at the airport” and leaves in a huff. While I was disappointed, of course I understood that Jess is a caring person just helping out a friend. Tanya and I then decided we should just head over to Coronado a little early so we had some time to soak in the view and take photos by the beach.
Five minutes into the drive, Tanya reminds me that the Catamaran resort might be on the way as we drove towards Coronado. For context, this hotel is where I stayed when I decided I wanted nothing more than to spend my young adulthood in San Diego. Tanya tells me a story about how she remembers a parrot show in the resort zoo during our stay and that she’d love to see if the parrot is still around. As a sucker for nostalgic memories, I agree to go back to the resort to look for the parrot.
We enter the resort at 2:40pm and park in a 15 minute spot. We first use the restroom, where I notice once again the lack of ring on my left ring finger and my salty salty self decides to start filming a “finish when he proposes” tiktok clip at 2:43pm. In search of Tanya’s parrot, we then head towards the zoo area which leads into the resorts’ private beach. When I look into the distance just FOUR minutes after I’d filmed my salty little clip, I see my man waiting for me in my favorite shirt of his.
Unbeknownst to me, David had flown down from the Bay Area to San Diego and over the past month, planned an intricate proposal for me with the help of Tanya and Jess. Turned out that the reason Jess had left so soon earlier in the day was to position herself to celebrate this occasion with us.
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with emotion in that moment. Over four years of incredible memories leading up to this moment. David had prepared a beautiful speech, of which I don’t remember a single thing except the way his brown eyes glimmered in the sun brighter than I’d ever seen before. But when he got down on one knee to ask the question, my answer was undoubtedly a YES.