At Dianna Rae Jewelry, we enjoy sharing the love stories of our customers because your story is our story. Congratulations to Blaise & Melissa, and thank you for sharing your love story with us.

How They Met

Blaise found Melissa through a mutual friend on Instagram and they began conversation 2017. Melissa had just started graduate school at ULL and was commuting from New Orleans to Lafayette where Blaise happened to live. So it all just worked out perfectly. After a couple of months Melissa finally agreed to meet her mystery man in Baton Rouge. Their first date was at Sullivan’s Steak House. She knew Blaise was the one by his wine selection that evening, “Caymus”. The rest was history.

The Proposal

I knew the proposal had to be something special, something different than the norm. This brought the idea to take to a vineyard of which we’ve always wanted to visit and what better place than for this special occasion. I let her know to take off work specific dates a couple months in advance for a surprise trip, her anticipation began to build. Behind the scenes on a daily basis I coordinated everything from flights to private wine tastings. On March 5th 2020, we left Lafayette and drove to New Orleans’s airport to throw her off. We then celebrated our surprise trip in the Delta Sky lounge. I made it all the way through check-in, security and boarding the plan before she heard the pilot announce the destination “Los Angeles, California. She thoroughly enjoyed the champagne that first class had to offer, while trying to image what we were going to LA for. Plot twist was, we landed in LA and had dinner before boarding our next flight. We were headed to San Francisco. Arriving in San Fran, we then rented a car and began heading over the bay. After, driving about 1-2 hours she noticed the exit ” Napa Valley” and we took it! She was very excited… happy tears =D. We stayed at a wonderful hotel in the valley. The next morning we had brunch and headed off to my second surprise. The Napa Valley Wine Train. This has been one of her dreams and we had an amazing time. The service and food on the train was amazing. We recommend the “Legacy Tour”. The next morning was the big day, little did she know. I had arranged for a private driver to pick us up from the hotel. I brought her to the lobby and she pulled me in the direction of our rental car.. but we headed back to the bar for a mimosa, while awaiting “Reggie” our drive to pull up. I had been talking to Reggie for a few weeks and planning the best locations to stop at. We highly recommend Reggie from Ram Wine Tours. He did an amazing job driving us through the valley and up the mountain to our first stop Cade Winery. This was an organic vineyard that was state of the art. We then drove past a valley and he pointed out Caymus and a few other vineyards as we drove in the opposite direction to through her off incase there were any suspicions. I asked him if he minded stopping somewhere to grab a bite to eat, in reality I had strategically, with the help of Reg, booked us a table at Auberge de Soleil, a top rated michelin star restaurant with amazing views. We had a five star meal and took some great pictures.By this point in the trip it seemed as if every thing we already experienced that day was more than expected. On the way back to the hotel, we of course made a stop at Caymus Vineyards. Which was my plan all along. I worked with Eddie to arrange the scenario. We walked up and were sat down as if we were waiting for a regular tour, but we were actually waiting for Eddie our private host to welcome us. We began with a few tastings under a gazebo in the gardens. Eddie then came out with our second tray of wine… which was a bottle of Caymus 2015 Vintage. This was the bottle I ordered on our first date. He presented us with the bottle then sat down the tray with a flowers and the ring. I had a secret camera crew with my GoPro behind Eddie. It was a pretty awesome moment, captured in such a memorable place. Then, she said “YES”. We than enjoyed our wine and took pictures before we were given a personal tour around the property and the Wagner Families house. We also had the chance to meet VP of Caymus who was sweet enough to gift us with a magnum bottle of their special selection wine and many other gifts. It was the best day of my life.

The Ring

We absolutely loved our experience at Dianna Rae. We did go together and look at the diamond that Dianna especially found for us and ordered to view. It was pretty simple, being that she just wanted a big diamond on a gold band. I brought her there 1-2 times to look at different diamonds and then worked with Dianna months later to keep it a surprise and find the perfect one. Melissa loved it and was blown away. She thinks it’s classic and timeless.