This is how I remember the whole thing: We were sitting at dinner with the brothers, and suddenly Neej tells Krutika that he needs to go meet up with his new med school friends that live close by and asks if Keshav wants to join. Keshav being single and ready to mingle, jumped to the occasion to meet some new friends. After being interrogated by his future sister-in-law, the two left on their mission. In the meantime, we have about an hour to finish dinner and be at the proposal site. Krutika and I walk into Kilwin’s for some fudge and ice cream (Krutika, later admits she had no interest in the ice cream). As Krutika is trying a dozen of the flavors, I’m frantically looking for an Uber or Lyft off my phone in one hand and hers in the other. We had to be at the beach before the 9:22 sunset! Finally, after 20 mins and having a disguised panic attack, I was able to get an Uber to the beach! Krutika was so distracted with her double scooped cone she didn’t realize we had gotten to the beach. When we got to the beach, she was holding a wad of tissues along with a half-eaten scoop of ice cream. I asked if she would like to toss her uneaten cone and the wad of tissues as we go to the beach for the sunset, but she insisted on wanting to munch on the cone.

At this point, she is lost in her own little world. I hear in the distance a shout, “BHAIIIII” I turn and see Neej hiding on top of the brush-covered sand-dune eagerly waiting with his phone in one hand and his arms flailing up and down, to get my attention. Finally, we start walking to the beach entrance. As we get closer and the story of her cousins in Nice keeps going, she sees the first picture of us and freezes. Krutika starts spinning around in circles as she realizes she needs to ditch her ice cream cone. We walk down memory lane hand in hand as I turn to see her reaction I can see her eyes tearing up and from that moment on I don’t remember what happened, besides her saying YES!

I remember flying to Michigan with my brother, Keshav, for what I thought was a siblings’ weekend. Neil had planned out the entire weekend and told me he had a few surprises in store for the brothers and me. It all started with the four of us visiting different vineyards in St. Joseph, Michigan.

The first surprise was the proposal, Friday night. After enjoying some delicious ice cream from Kilwin’s, Neil took me to Tiscornia Park to catch a beautiful sunset at the beach. As we approached the entrance of the beach I saw a picture, that looked like Neil and I, so I stepped a little closer and saw that it was a picture of us! I quickly realized what was about to happen and immediately started twirling around in circles to find a trash can for my ice cream cone. We started walking through memory lane along a path on the beach lined with pictures from the first moment I met him to the most recent selfie we took. We followed the rose petals leading up to a candle-lit heart made of roses in the sand. As I started to get really emotional and teary-eyed, the only thought going through my head was how lucky I am to be marrying my best friend who is such an outgoing, loving, and caring man! He got down on one knee and I blanked. All I remember was saying YES to spending forever with him!

The next morning, Neil had told me we had brunch reservations. When we got there, I was surprised by a group of our close friends. After enjoying a delicious boozy brunch, I found out that Neil, the brothers, and all our friends had planned yet another surprise, a BOAT DAY to continue the proposal celebrations!

Sunday morning, we had plans to head back to Detroit and meet up with Neil’s parents for lunch. Little did I know, that inside the restaurant in a private dining area my entire family, including my grandmother, Kaka, and Kaki had flown up from Florida and were eagerly waiting to surprise me.

The final surprise for the weekend came with my all-time favorite activity, photoshoots! Monday morning, Neil had asked me to get ready and to wear something nice. He had surprised me with a photoshoot at Belle Isle Park!

Every girl dreams about the day she will get proposed to, but I had never dreamt of such a thoughtful proposal day, let alone a whole weekend full of amazing surprises.