{About Nisha and Krish}

Where do you take a girl that hasn’t travelled much outside of the USA apart from India…the world is your playground!  Krish shares his story of planning the perfect engagement by giving Nisha her very own Ticket to Paradise.

{Deciding Where To Propose}

Nisha and I had been dating for over a year and I was excited about taking the relationship to the next level.  Because we had been dating long-distance, the time we spent together every month was extra-special.  Not only were we together and in the same city, but we had the opportunity to explore places with each other.  We looked forward to planning adventures in San Francisco (where I lived), Atlanta (where Nisha lived), or some fun city like Miami or New York where we would both meet up for the weekend.

As I was thinking about how and where to propose, I knew I wanted to recreate the magic of exploring places together and plan a once in a lifetime adventure that Nisha would never forget.  In June, I asked her to take some time off work in September for a special trip.  Unfortunately her vacation request was denied but she was given the option of taking 10 days off work in August instead.  That meant that I had only 6 weeks to plan and execute the trip of a lifetime!

I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to extensively travel the world over the last decade.  As I thought about all the amazing places I had been or new destinations on my bucket list, I kept asking myself what places I would want to revisit in the future.  The rationale was simple – pick a place where we could come back periodically to remember the special occasion…somewhere eternally magical.

While I could not settle on a single place, I picked three:

Paris – the city of love, a place I had visited on several occasions indulging on amazing food, wine, and culture.

Venice – the city of romance that I had fond memories visiting as a young hopeless romantic, where time stands still, canals replace streets and everyone lives life in the moment.

Amalfi Coast – a place full of picturesque post-card views, where I had always wanted to go and the place I knew would be perfect to pop the question.

{Planning The Proposal}

I decided to keep the whole trip a surprise to Nisha.  Despite all her attempts to get me to tell her where we were going or what we were doing, she was kept in the dark.  The only clues she had were to pack for a warm climate, bring lots of dresses, and find an amazing gown (preferably in red).

I set about getting everything ready.  I nervously called her dad and asked his permission to propose to Nisha (phew, passed with flying colors!).  I had her passport, and proceeded to book the flights to Europe.  We would spend a weekend in Venice, head to the Amalfi Coast for the week and end the trip with a weekend in Paris.  The flights were easy compared to the hotels – booking a trip to Europe in August (peak travel season) with short notice is quite a challenge.  I spent weeks getting hotels finalized and definitely got lucky with some waitlists on the Amalfi Coast where hotels get booked solid, several months in advance.  Being a foodie, I also planned for a series of amazing dinner experiences in each city.

To plan the special night itself, I hired a wonderful wedding planner who helped me find the perfect spot.  I really wanted a private proposal during sunset, and that is very difficult to do on the Amalfi Coast where where there are people literally everywhere, all the time. Luckily I was able to rent out the entire roof top at a gorgeous restaurant in the sleepy town of Praiano, just a short limousine ride from our home base of Positano.  I also created a special vegetarian menu with the chef that highlighted the regional cuisine and local wines, and hired a great photographer to capture the priceless moments of the evening.

Nisha has loved photo shoots her entire life, and as a final surprise, I arranged for a private photographer to do a twilight and sunset photo shoot for us in Paris.  We would capture the engagement with some nice photos that would come in handy for save the date cards, the engagement and wedding websites, and of course Facebook!

{The Trip of a Lifetime}

The trip turned out to be truly magical.  I met Nisha in Atlanta and helped her finalize packing the day before we left on our trip.  The next day we headed together to the airport and I handed her an envelope with her Ticket to Paradise…destination New York City.  She was thrilled and called a few friends and told them she was looking forward to spending the next week in the Big Apple.  After we landed in NYC, I surprised her with another envelope and she was truly confused.  I told her to open it and it contained another ticket…this time to Venice!  Her jaw dropped – she had no clue what was going on but was excited about going to Italy for the first time.  The Willy Wonka style surprises were working wonderfully! =)

And that is how the next few days would play out – a blitzkrieg of surprises every day.  She received a total of 8 “Ticket’s to Paradise” and never knew the destinations we were going ahead of time.  While she probably had a good intuition that I was going to propose when a limousine pulled up one day to take us to a nice dinner, the private rooftop, breathtaking sunset views, bespoke dinner experience, and professional photographer blew her mind.  While all of those things were nice, I was just thrilled that the love of my life said “yes”!

The rest of the week’s surprises also went without a hitch.  Romantic excursion to Capri, dinner for two overlooking the Eiffel Tower, carefully planned locations for our photo shoot…the list goes on and on.  The weeks of planning and execution had paid off…I was able to give Nisha a truly unique trip of a lifetime that neither of us will ever forget.  We’re both looking forward to revisiting these places in the future to reminisce and celebrate our love.

 Congratulations Nisha and Krish!