Survival Guide for Losing an Engagement Ring in Napa Valley

People travel from all over the world for that romantic gesture in Wine Country. Rick Bakas tells his story of his perfect proposal gone awry. Rick, I’m laughing as I’m reading this now, but I’m sure it was a challenge then! Congratulations for your Happy Union.

In May 2007 I was planning on being in San Francisco for the Broadbent Selection annual wine importer sales meeting. At the time I was a broker for Bartholomew Broadbent, one of the most well known people in the world of wine. Bartholomew’s father, Michael Broadbent has been a major force involved with Decanter magazine and Christie’s wine auctions for decades.

The annual sales meeting is always a great time. My girlfriend’s father, Jim, worked for me representing the portfolio in the state of Colorado. Jim and I were planning on attending the sales meeting together, however, I was planning something bigger.

I was planning on proposing to his daughter, Jaimie in Napa. Both of our families are all about wine and food, and early on in our relationship I had the notion of proposing in a wine-related setting.

The little wheels in my head started turning as I thought about Jim and I being in San Francisco at the same time. I really wanted our families there for the event. My challenge would be to get his wife and Jaimie out there at the same time without Jaimie catching on. We had talked about getting married, but Jaimie is a pretty smart cookie. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to sneak one by her. At Christmas it’s almost pointless wrapping gifts for her. She’ll pick up a box, and shake it. Then she’ll guess what it is. If I was going to surprise her, I had to plan carefully.

As if the heaven’s opened and the planets aligned, my Mom’s 60th birthday just happened to be that same week. Jaimie’s Mom was also turning 60 the following week. Long story short, I used the 60th birthdays as an excuse to get everyone out to Napa to celebrate first class-style.

Once her parents and my Mom booked their flights I moved onto phase two of the plan–getting the ring. I had been saving my pennies to eh’er…uh, what am I saying pennies?? I had been saving my Ben Franklin’s waiting for the day to buy the ring. I went to our family jeweler. . .

. . . he tells me the ring didn’t show up. . . .

...CONTINUE