PW Reader Ring: Sarah & Patrick!

By Carrie Denny Whitcraft· 1/13/2014, 10:50 a.m.

Sarah’s ring!

The couple: Sarah Bentzel and Patrick Kempsey from Philadelphia.

The ring: Patrick completely surprised me with the proposal and the ring! We never looked at rings together and we actually barely even discussed getting engaged (even though we had been together for over four years!). He blew me away with a custom-designed platinum ring with a cushion-cut center diamond held secure by a four-prong basket that rests on a pave-set string of 14 round diamonds. He is a personal trainer in the city and one of his clients, Ed Giosa, is a jeweler in Cherry Hill who helped him design it. It’s jaw-dropping and absolutely perfect! I could never picture what I wanted my ring to look like—it was always changing—but now I can’t picture any other ring on my finger. He definitely knows me better than I know myself!

The proposal: It was around 5:30pm on a Friday, I had just finished work and was supposed to meet Patrick in the lobby of my office building, but was running late. We had dinner plans at Mama Palma’s before heading home to South Philly for the night. I hadn’t really spoken to Patrick at all that day, so of course I was talking a mile a minute to fill him in on all of the day’s events. It was a good thing, too, because I didn’t even notice how nervous he was!

We walked down 19th Street and started walking through Rittenhouse Square. We were about halfway through the park when Patrick cut me off from talking and said that he had to ask me a question before I finished my story. Just as I turned to ask him what could possibly be more important than my story, he was down on one knee with a ring in hand and asking me to marry him! I instantly started to cry and could barely mutter a yes. He got to his feet, we hugged, and then I finally got a chance to look at the ring. It was gorgeous! I couldn’t believe it and I couldn’t wait to hear more, but before I knew it, I was being whisked away to a reservation waiting for us at the Four Seasons. On our walk, I asked him how he planned on getting into the Four Seasons since he was in his gym clothes, having come from work. He pulled up his jacket and sweatshirt and showed me his suit that he had on underneath! I couldn’t stop laughing! It was all so perfect!

Dinner at the Four Seasons was amazing, although I really don’t remember a single thing that we ate. We randomly ran into the managing partner of the law firm that I work for, and he had a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne sent to our table. Our desserts came out with “Congratulations!” written in chocolate along the edges of our plates. I thought the entire night was absolutely perfect. Little did I know there were more surprises to come!

After dinner, we jumped in a cab to continue the celebration with my favorite cocktail in the city, a Grape Crush from 10 Arts at the Ritz-Carlton. Once I walked through the doors, I saw one of my best friends, her fiancé, and Patrick’s brother sitting at the bar, waiting for us. screamed and started crying again. I was so incredibly happy, and couldn’t believe this whole night was happening! It was the best night of my entire life!

The band: I’ve been doing a lot of research into what kind of band I want. I love how sparkly my ring is—that was actually the first thing that Patrick told the jeweler: “It needs to really sparkle.” —so I think I’m going to go with a band to match my ring’s band. A girl can never have too much sparkle!