PW Reader Ring: Andrea & TJ!
Andrea’s ring!
The couple: Andrea Luistro and TJ Hazinsky, from Philadelphia.
The ring: My ring has a oval center stone surrounded by a diamond halo and set in white gold. It’s a Neil Lane engagement ring from Kay Jewelers.
The only detail I told TJ about the ring I wanted was that I wanted an oval cut. He did a great job with the rest on his own! He said he didn’t find a lot of oval cuts in our area, but after searching for weeks he finally found the perfect one.
The proposal: If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with lanterns (thanks to the movie Tangled)! I’ve been wanting to go to a lantern festival in Arizona called the Rise Festival for quite awhile, where thousands of lanterns get lifted up in the air all at once to light up the night sky. We were planning to take the trip, but never followed through. Finally, another event, actually called the Lantern Fest, was set to make a local appearance. It was about an hour away from us, which was better than flying to a different state. My goddaughter got me tickets in a card for Mother’s Day. I was beyond excited! My sister told me that our close cousins would be joining us, as well.
Finally, this summer, the day came! We drove to the Lantern Festival and it was already pretty crowded. We met up with my cousins, then found a spot to set up our chairs and blankets. There were 5,000 people at the event, enjoying live music, dancing, games, moon-bounces, face-painting, food, drinks and a gorgeous background.
As the sun started going down, we all started to decorate our lanterns and lit our fire pit to make some s’mores while we waited for the appropriate time to light the lanterns. Once the sky was fully dark, we were allowed to light up our lanterns. We lit up TJ’s lantern first as a test. My cousins lit theirs up. The sky was beautiful!
I had seen a picture on Pinterest of a girl and a guy kissing under a lantern, and I wanted to remake the picture. (I had told TJ about it beforehand.) As we were lighting up my lantern, I told my cousin to take our picture. Then it happened! I leaned in for a kiss, and TJ popped down on one knee and said, “It’s been a long time coming, but will you marry me?” I still had the lantern in my hands and was afraid to let it go because I thought it would burn my hair (LOL). I said yes and the rest was history! What a beautiful night!
The band: I’m still deciding on the band. I would like one that matches the ring I think, but we are still looking for ideas!
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