Grand romantic gestures are nearly a love language in and of themselves. And Alisha, if you've been listening recently experienced the biggest grand gesture of all a proposal getting engaged to the man of her dreams was no simple affair, as her fiance Kai is going to tell us. Hi, I'm Alisha Ray. And I'm Sarah Wendell. Welcome to lovestruck daily, where we deliver a daily dose of love and joy to your earbuds every weekday. I'm in love with that. With you, Alishia, we have absolutely nothing to talk about here. Do we? Not at all? No,
no, nothing's really going on with me. No,
no plans, no big events,
nothing to feverishly search on the internet.
Well, I want to say thank you. On behalf of Alicia and Kai to everyone who wish them congratulations on their engagement. That was one of the most fun episodes to produce. And what
an outpouring of love just from utter strangers like so nice. Really nice.
Well, you have made a really beautiful love story come to life. No, I think so. Yeah. Today, we're going to talk about big, grand romantic gestures. And I'm curious, aside from the one that happened to you on the boat, have you experienced one like this before?
One thing, one thing that I always thought was really funny was a few years ago, my mom had my astrologer uncle call us and he said something to the effect of, Oh, you're such a romantic, you're going to find another romantic. And at the time, I had never really dated a romantic person. Like they'd always been very science minded, very logical, practical. And I kind of told myself, well, that's fine. I can be the romantic one. Sure. But I didn't realize until I got into a relationship with like an extremely romantic man who loves romantic gestures and loves planning things like it's his favorite thing in the world. How much I missed that all my life like it was a need, that I hadn't realized had gone unfulfilled until I had the need filled. Does that make sense?
Absolutely. Makes sense. Yeah.
So I think the first thing one of the first things he did, he, like, I had a conversation, maybe a month or two prior, and I said something like, oh, I never went to prom. Like I didn't really have a prom I went but it was like kind of miserable. And I went by myself and had nobody to dance with. And it was just a mess. And so for my birthday, this was in the height of COVID. This was June of 2020. He had my best friend and her husband and their new son, he was like, you know, a year old. Throw a prom for me. So it was just the four of us. And we had a prom. And like, it was like he went to their house and decorated it with like prom, you know, oh, we got on from Party City. Oh, my gosh, we have a low crowning of prom king and Prom Queen. And of course, I won. So that was nice. It was really cute. And it was really romantic. And actually, my best friend forced us to say, I love you because she had these props, like those little photobooth props with the sticks on them. And one of them said, I love her. I love him. And she handed them to us. And girl, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? Because I hadn't said it to him. He answered it to me. Neither of us wanted to be the first one really to say it, I think. And we were both so nervous in that picture. And you can tell in our smiles. We are Oh, and then later that night, he was like, you know, I just like I really do think I love you. And I was like,
and it was perfect. Well, I want to hear about Kai's side of the great romantic gesture. You know, you told us about your engagement from your perspective last week. And you know, dual point of view is a very big deal. We are going to have Kai join us. Yeah. Tell us about the man and the plan and how it went. Kai, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us.
Oh, thank you, of course. Thanks for having me.
First of all, I know I've already said this to you, but Congratulations on your engagement.
Thank you. It's awesome. It feels great being gauged to Leisha is it sort of a relief to have it done. Yes, it is relieved because I had a lot going on in my head to how I wanted to propose to her. And after I made it more simple, how it happened. It was very beautiful. It was very nice. And I feel like Ah now I can relax and then you know take on more challenges like you know planning a wedding.
Yeah, because you know, that's a piece of cake. Of course. What did you think on your first dates with Alicia,
I even told you that the first like five minutes of meetings and like a really nice smile and she always wild thing. You know, she looked great smile, like amazing smile. So like my whole thing on that first day was like, if I can just make her smile and make jokes and be sarcastic I the best thing ever because I can see her smile. Like the whole night. We're together so yeah, that's one thing I want me over. That's her like, how can she was sincere. She was about her love for Pacific Rim, which I thought was a joke, but it was she's really loves to death.
We do not joke about Pacific Rim in this house.
It's a fairy movie and like, Okay, I was lying. I thought she was like, I should dress Park, my dog good movie, Pacific Rim like, because it's an action movie thing. I like action movies. But now she says about that love for Pacific Rim.
When did you know you wanted to marry Alicia?
Oh, wow. That's a great question. And he's a good, great question. Well, I'll say this right now. I'll say I was so good to her first birthday with me. I was I was first time I told her I loved her. And then that was, that was yeah, that was that moment. In our second year of dating. I think we went to Vegas. No matter what we did, we had a lot of fun doing it. And at that moment, I'm like, I want to meet this woman. I can see myself doing everything and anything with the recovery. sitting down watching TV. We can go into Vegas, we can go here with my parents friends didn't matter what we do. Like she's there. Like I can't see myself without her. So like that's what I want. I do want a man this woman. Oh,
now I understand the often the most frightening part is talking to the parents. What happened when you talk to Alicia is Mom. Oh, wow.
So so this already started? We're talking about like getting permission. Because I'm old school. I'm thinking like getting permission from the from the parents before you propose to you know, daughter. So I got the phone number called her. I rehearse this like 10 times. And wow, over and over and over again. Like kms itself is very important question to ask. Here we go. So I asked her like, Hey, how you doing? I said it's fine. And then I just went into the hole like I I love your daughter. We've been dating for two years, she was loving the world to me. I can't see myself without her. So I want to ask you if your permission for me to marry her. And she said, Okay, you know what, that's good for me. Well, then she's like, You know what? It's great. Because if she's happy, then it makes me happy and you make her happy. That's very important. If you two together can find happiness. That's great. So I owe a blessing like, whoa. So I get a little teary eyed, a little choked up. I'm like, that's fantastic. And ever since then, we've been like Best Buddies. When we're here.
Yeah, she's like, best buddies with my mom. She left him so much food, like she was here when we weren't here. And she came into our place and like, left us like oodles of food. And she was like, was he like, awkward? He likes
you so in? Yeah, yeah. So I want to ask you about this original engagement plan. I understand that you had a viggle theoretical binders full of plans. And I understand that you removed Alicia as nail polish on several consecutive weekends thinking that the proposal was going to happen but then plans fell through. Can you tell me about your original plan?
Oh, goodness. So yes, plans. Sorry, I've got a 20 step plan. Where do you think that plan probably too much? Oh,
yeah. Sounds that way.
So I had a call it I had a council you had a council I had a council my friend Kevin and the phone with like an hour and a half going over doing plans like Oh, how about a breakfast in bed? And then we'd go walk in the park and then we'd go bowling Wait, no scratch that. Then go to you know, In and Out Burger because it's fries with frames of our fries on the first day and I had all this stuff in my head, the planet like and I went over my family too. And they even told me like, Kai, come on, man. Just do it. Let's just get out of the way. I said no, I can't just deal because that's be special. Has to be perfect that she's perfect. She's amazing. And we miss her. And like fine, do what you want to do. But just tell us what happens please. Calls to my parents like have you done it yet? Have you done again? Like no, not yet. I'm almost done with my plan. So my 20 point plan came to an end when we watched episode of New Girl where she showed me like you know where Winston had his whole crazy plan I'm like oh god that's amazing it and he made it simple in posts was his girlfriend and like there it is like fine. I'll make it even simpler. So I booked the yacht for the both of us. And the Marina del Rey beautiful marina on the on the water on pillows laying down relaxing. And I told her oh look over there because still look this way. So we got a picture of you like you don't know that cameras around like Okay, sir. So she loves posing for pictures. And while she's posting my plans, okay, I'm gonna put her favorite song, little wonders. And I'm going to play the song while I proposed to her surprise with the ring. I pull up the song on Spotify. If doesn't work as I'm sitting there, taking pictures for like 10 seconds like the longest 10 seconds of my life. It's not working like What the hell's going on right now. So I close the app out I see almost sounds recommend like No, no turn off that cannot wait till that way you just keep looking keep looking. I'm not done taking pictures. I messed up the picture, right? It's just like okay, fine, fine turn this way. And I got the song up there finally. And then I turn around look as to the round, and then the rings right in front of her. She's laughing and she's crying. And then I say my little spiel, and then boom, a post. We're on the boat. On the water. It was fantastic. It was the perfect way to do it. It was simpler than what I had in my head. So I'm happy I did that way.
Yep, there's a there's a saying I've come across shipping beats perfection. Getting it out and done. beats being perfect. can never be perfect. Yo. So I want to ask you about buying the ring. Yes. I understand that you made good friends with the gentleman that designed this ring with you. Is he invited to the wedding? Are you guys gonna have lunch? Like?
Honestly, we should invite him to the warehouse. He was very involved in the whole process because Oh, yeah, I was very nervous about buying the rings. I read those articles and watch videos beforehand, like you know, it has to be this way and that had to be this size of carat ring and all this kind of stuff. It's not big enough to cover all this crazy stuff in my head. So you know, knowing me I'm already nervous enough. So go to the store. And great man name is Kieran and we're talking about it. And I'm like pointing out what I want what I think I want for the ring and he's like, No, the ring has to be this size. It was bigger. Don't Don't listen to one carat this one carat that we're not Hollywood right now. Okay, when on Hollywood good. So this would you want? How big is her hand like Oh, seven and a half this like okay, this is what the size of ring you want. That's that's the carrot you want. He was very thorough. And I told him I want a different style of ring. So I said okay, anything you want. I can do a custom made. We can we're going back and forth like literally, I texted like one of the morning like have an idea for the ring. Nothing he will answering into a minute later. Okay, what's the what's idea? I said, Are you always up so that I said, this is what I want? Like six weeks later here the ring ready for me? I didn't tell her this. But I got a little teary eyed looking at the ring in my car. I was like sitting like it like, is it? This is this is it. This is the one. Oh, yeah.
And then you had to hide it and walk around with it in your pocket for how many months? Did you hide this room
for three months, three months. The perfect fled the story with my 20 point plan in my head. I could not narrow it down, narrow it down to one thing or one scenario. My dude, I know. I know. I know. I was embarrassed myself thinking about it. I still went like like, Why did I wait that long? Just give her damn ring. Yeah, I said I put it in the closet to hide it from her. And the funny thing was like this one closet, you know, like we walked into our door and our house. So she'd go in there to storage. So you go in there to take things down like tissue paper or whatever. And everybody went in there. I got anxiety like, Oh, God, find the rings gonna find it. So I'd make excuses like I got it. Not only what do you want? It's like, I'm just going into my shoes. Oh, which one? I'll get it for you. But the yellow ones cool right here. It looks nice. If you think in my course course. I'll do that for
you. No problem. I'm here for you. I mean, you also are. You're also the tall one. Oh, yeah. Yes, I
can reach a lot of things. Yeah.
Congratulations, you guys. I'm so happy for you.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes, I'm so excited for this journey. And which
is Wait planning a wedding. It's like, it's it's you thought you had plans. You thought you had a checklist. Get ready. Get ready. Is a checklist a
lot. We're going to a Bridal Expo this weekend. So I'm excited for them. And I'm excited for everybody. I've noticed that whenever we go anywhere, and Kai's just his normal self, people are like, wow, you're such an amazing man. So I'm just ready for him to like, go into the bridal registry and show like a small degree of interest in anything. And for people to be like, Oh my God, he's planning the wedding with
you walking with you to the booth.
So that'll be fun. Yeah.
Chi, do you have any advice for anyone who might be listening and planning a proposal right now?
Make it simple. Yeah, don't be like me and torture yourself for three months planning the perfect proposal because as you said, like, if you're gonna be sitting in bed one day and just talking and then boom, the rings right there. Yes. If you think about doing it, you know this person. You want this person in life for the rest of your life. Just do it. You know, you can make your personalized special but making simple. That's all I can say.
Shipping beats perfection. Exactly. Congratulations, you guys. And thank you for doing this interview. It's been such a pleasure. We definitely have to have you back on to talk about all the plans.
Oh, absolutely. I'll tell you all about it.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I I've done it once. Don't want to do it again. It's still the best party I've ever been to.
So Sarah, what is your love to go from today's episode? What
do you want our listeners to carry with them? Like I said to chi shipping beats perfection? Yes. And I don't mean shipping as in mailing. I mean shipping as getting the thing that you're doing done and sending it out into the world before it's perfect.
Yeah, sometimes you just have to, you just got to do something got to go with whether it's perfect or not is is irrelevant.
And it's also not about whether the gesture is perfect. It's whether the intention is perfect and his intentions were absolute perfection.
Yeah, they're very pure, pure hearted intentions.
If you would like to tell Kai about your proposal plans and how absolutely haywire they went, you know, we all want to hear this right. You're going to email us, you can send us an email at lovestruck daily at Frolik dot media if you have a love story, a promposal you want to tell us about your prom? We want to hear about it. Please get in touch. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at lovestruck daily for extra content. Please leave a review subscribe and tell a friend because we would love to bring some love and joy into everyone's earbuds each weekday. Our researcher is Jesse Epstein. Our editor is Jen Jacobs. We are produced by Abigail steckler and little Scorpion studios and Gillian Davis with executive producer frolic media. This is an I Heart Radio Podcast. Thank you for listening and have a happily ever after today. I'm in love with love with you. I'm in love with you
