Question THE

Will you marry me?

ose four words are enough to make anyone emotional, as well as nervous, excited, nauseated, ecstatic and a host of other adjectives.

According to an article posted on wedding website e Knot, “bigger and better” engagements are trending this year. So how does one go about popping the question these days? Answer: Unique proposals a re in—picture getting down on one knee, on a rooftop covered in greenery, with the sun setting, while a videographer captures every second. ere’s a lot of pressure to get the proposal right. Should you take photos? Yes, if you want to preserve the moment or share it on social media. e couples we talked to documented their proposals; in some cases, the proposer hired a photographer on the sly. Do men still present women with an engagement ring? Of course, but that question doesn’t apply to everyone.

Here, seven couples share their engagement stories. Spoiler: ey said yes.

FROM COWORKER TO FIANCÉ

Five years ago, Bianca Almeida started a new job at a utility company. She ate lunch by herself because she hadn’t made any friends yet. Secretly, she thought Matt Perotti, one of her co-workers, was handsome. She approached the table where he was eating lunch one day and asked if he watched “ e Bachelor.” at conversation turned into many more.

“ at 30 minutes at lunchtime was all we had. It was all we looked forward to every single day,” Almeida says. ere were a couple of time was all we had. It was all missed proposal opportunities before Perotti fi nally popped the question. ey talked about getting engaged in 2019, but Almeida’s dad had recently passed away, and then COVID put everything on hold. Perotti also planned to propose on a trip to Maui, but the ring wasn’t ready in time. Almeida kept getting her nails and hair done—just in case—until Perotti told her she could relax.

Last year in January, Perotti planned a weekend in Sonoma, one of the couple’s favorite places. It was windy and the power had gone out. ey walked around the almost deserted Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen; Almeida was wearing boots with heels, despite the mud and horse droppings. She wanted to go home.

A stranger told Almeida to move because a photographer was waiting nearby to shoot a proposal where she was standing. “I looked at Matt and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’” en he got down on one knee. “I think I blacked out,” she says. “I don’t even remember what he said. I couldn’t believe it. It was so special.”

“[ at stranger] defi nitely gave away my whole plan and then joyfully walked away like he’d done a good deed for the day,” Perotti says, “but it was funny and made for a good story.” eir wedding was set for April 14 at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, with a reception at the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. ey’d found Wilding’s contact information on e Knot. Wilding reckons she’s performed more than 600 weddings in the past 13 years, with more than 60 of them taking place in Yosemite. It was important for Maddie and Krystina, who live in Nebraska, to hire LGBTQ+-friendly vendors to help them plan their wedding in California. e couple met on Tinder in 2020. Both fresh out of other relationships, they matched immediately. ey spent the fi rst couple of weeks texting and talking on the phone—hello, COVID. eir fi rst date included takeout sushi and crime documentaries.

Afterward, they had a lavish meal at Layla in the MacArthur Place hotel. Perotti says, “We were like little kids with stars in our eyes.” A stranger (not the one who tried to ruin Perotti’s proposal) paid the couple’s hefty tab; no one has taken credit.

Almeida and Perotti work from home now, and they’re still employed with the same company. ey continue to eat lunch together every day.

Local wedding officiant Cindie Wilding sometimes has to turn couples away; she’s that busy. But she couldn’t say no to Maddie and Krystina Koepke when they asked her to perform their wedding ceremony on Oct. 7 on Sentinel Beach in Yosemite National Park.

Krystina proposed to Maddie on a scenic hike in Phoenix that included Maddie’s friends; they were in on the plan. She hid the ring in her backpack during the hike, transferred it to her pocket and got down on one knee. She’d secretly purchased the ring. (She told Maddie she was saving the money to buy a bike.)

On that fall morning in Yosemite, it was just Maddie and Krystina, Wilding, a photographer and that stunning scenery. ey saw only four other couples getting married that day. Krystina wore a suit, Maddie a dress. ey shared a ham sandwich in the car and changed into casual clothes. Later, the couple celebrated on the deck of their rental house with wedding cake and champagne. the their

Sarah Kolb met her husband-to-be, Dan Kolb, on what was supposed to be someone else’s fi rst date.

Sarah’s friend had connected with someone she’d met online (who turned out to be Dan’s friend) but wanted reinforcements in case the meetup went south. Sarah was a last-minute replacement when another friend got sick. Dan showed up to round out the group. at was more than 22 years ago.

In 2021, Sarah and Dan started talking about getting married. “For the longest time, we just didn’t feel like getting married was necessary. We had already made the commitment to each other. We’d been living together for 16 years; we were everything but legally married,” Sarah says. “And then Dan said why don’t we just get married and that was our little moment of let’s just do it.”

Another unscripted proposal took place when Dan told his future father-in-law, who was visiting from Hawaii, that it was time. e three of them were at a restaurant and Sarah got up to use the re stroom. Dan picked that moment to tell Sarah’s dad that they wanted to get married. Sarah could tell something had changed when she got back to the table.

“Obviously, I wanted her dad’s approval, but I had an instinct he would be excited about it,” Dan says. “We talked about it and then we kind of all talked about it together …” ey met on Bumble, the online dating app, after they’d both graduated from college. Stephanie saw Matt’s profi le, which stated that he’d attended Chico State (even though he got his graduation date wrong), and thought, “I would have recognized that smile and those blue eyes.” e two were married on Sept. 10, 2022, on their sixth-year-dating anniversary.

“And then the wedding planning com menced,” Sarah says, fi nishing Dan’s sentence.

“I think everyone’s initial reaction was shock because they never thought it would actually happen because we’d insinuated that it wouldn’t,” she says.

“It’s not within the parameters of what’s considered normal,” Dan says.

Doing things differently worked for the Kolbs. ey were married on Feb. 2, on what they’ve always thought of as their anniversary. Dan is grateful that he can introduce Sarah as his wife now.

Stephanie and Matt Rhoades attended Chico State around the same time, but they never ran into each other. She worked in the campus bookstore, which Matt frequented, but they didn’t meet there. She probably attended a few backyard parties at his house (they discovered later), but they didn’t meet there, either.

Making up for those missed moments, they went on three dates in one week. ey’ve been together since then.

It was five years before Matt proposed on a road trip in September 2021. “Matt likes to take his time,” Stephanie says. e morning of the proposal, the couple got an early start. Matt was eager to get to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast, but he said he wanted to check out a Nordstrom near their hotel so he could purchase a new shirt and dress shoes.

At dinner, Matt spent some time in the bathroom secretly communicating with the photographer he’d hired to hide on the beach where he planned to propose. Stephanie feels silly that she didn’t realize what was happening—the spontaneous shopping trip, all those minutes in the restroom. Matt’s heartfelt proposal included a walk on the beach (sans shoes), a well-timed sunset and that sneaky photographer.

Young Angie Eserini watched a kid fall off his bike and thought, “I should check to see if he’s OK,” and also, “He’s not riding his bike very well.” at boy was Garrett Spencer and he was fi ne. ey were both 7 years old, both in the second grade, and they were neighbors. ey dated for a solid seven years before Spencer proposed, leaving no doubt they could handle the change in their relationship status. ey decided to meet at a Starbucks. Both took turns getting coffee at the drive-thru, then parked their cars “copstyle” and chatted.

Spencer remained Eserini’s best guy friend through elementary, middle and high school. “I could always talk to him no matter what,” she says.

Eserini developed more-than-friend feelings for Spencer the summer after their sophomore year. eir text messages became fl irty and also confusing. Were they friends? Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? A trip to the movies (“Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise), which should have been no big deal for the longtime friends, developed a date vibe. But did they want to risk losing their friendship?

Last anksgiving, Eserini traveled to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate Spencer’s stepmother’s birthday with his family. Eserini says she knew a proposal was on the way, but she didn’t know when. at morning, they went snorkeling and then dressed up for what Eserini thought would be holiday photos on the beach.

Picture a beautiful sunset in Cabo. A family friend who happens to be a photographer arranges everyone according to height except for Spencer and Eserini. She’s not sure why she didn’t suspect right then that everyone but her was in on Spencer’s secret. He dropped to one knee, as if he had fallen, holding the engagement ring, and told her he’d loved her since eighth grade.

Eserini says Spencer received a lot of pointers from his stepmom and step-grandmother because he wanted the proposal to be perfect.

Spencer will have the opportunity to once again tell Eserini how he fell for her all those years ago when they’re married on Oct. 7 at Monte Verde Inn in Foresthill.

In 2020, Janelle Mills had been on the dating website eHarmony for about three months before she clicked on Sean Mills’ profi le. His photos reflected that he had children, but their faces were blurred to protect their privacy. Janelle respected that.

She reached out to Sean and then left on a solo trip to Donner Lake. Sean replied within a day and they exchanged phone numbers. Janelle estimates their longest call lasted three hours.

Sean told Janelle that his wife had passed away from cancer in 2014. ey had two sons and a daughter together. Janelle was impressed by the love he had for his late wife. He’d gone through the unthinkable but had no fear. She felt like the lucky one to have found him, but she worried about being accepted. ey were married on Nov. 12 in Loomis, with a pond, an apple orchard and longhorn cows as backdrops. It was an intimate wedding. Janelle says she was on “cloud nine.” Sean’s youngest son was the ring bearer. eir children passed the box holding the wedding rings to each other and back to their parents, creating a circle of love.

Janelle had been a single mom for 14 years. (She has one son.) With her fi rst marriage, she didn’t experience a real proposal. She ordered her own wedding ring from the Spiegel catalogue.

She’d also been a caretaker to an aunt who died from cancer. “ at completely turned my world upside down. And that was my aunt and to think about those kids losing their mom, and this man losing his wife,” Janelle says. “I loved hearing him talk about his late wife because he had so much love for her. And that, ultimately, I tell him time and time again, is the one thing that really made me fall in love with him, because he is all about love.” Before she died, Janelle’s aunt had promised Janelle she would get a second chance to fi nd love.

Sean proposed to Janelle at sunset on Fair Oaks Bridge. She was surprised. His late wife’s sister was in on the secret and took photos of the couple. Before he proposed, Sean asked Janelle’s dad for permission to marry her.

The Other Side Of The Lens

A mutual friend introduced wedding photographer Ryan Greenleaf to Tommy Abeyta in March 2012. ey went bowling and then watched “ e Hunger Games.” Greenleaf says they haven’t done much bowling since then. ey’ve been busy with other things. ey’ve lived together for about 10 years and purchased a house, and the couple share two dogs. When it was time to propose, Greenleaf asked Abeyta to do the honors. “I’m in the wedding industry. I don’t want to plan a proposal,” Greenleaf told Abeyta.

In 2017, Greenleaf was hired to shoot a wedding in San Diego, and Abeyta accompanied him. ey visited Coronado Island, where Abeyta dropped to one knee, ring in hand, a photographer hired by Abeyta waiting nearby. Greenleaf recalls he said, “Oh my God. What are you doing? Get up.” He was completely surprised and also worried that someone might shout something derogatory. He asked the photographer to take their photos at a more private location, so he could relax and be in the moment. Greenleaf agrees it’s difficult being on the other side of the lens.

It’s also difficult to be the photographer trying to capture a proposal, he says, and way more frightening than photographing a wedding. You have to be discreet and get the right angle. People constantly walk into the frame. It’s difficult to plan.

Prior to Coronado Island, Abeyta made a special visit to Greenleaf’s parents and told them he was going to propose to their son.

e couple wanted to get married in 2020, but COVID changed their plans. ey’re not in a rush. Greenleaf would love to have a lavish wedding, but his vision doesn’t match their budget. ey’ll likely choose a small wedding with close family and friends. Another wedding photographer will have to worry about getting the perfect photo on that day.

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Over owing With Adventure

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Heroes and Villains

BY MARK BILLINGSLEY

Hidero Yamasuki considers himself a connoisseur of comic books and all things anime. So when the 22-year-old was seen leafing through the latest issue of the comic book “Impound” while sitting at DOCO, he was asked how it stacked up against the titans of the industry: Marvel and DC Comics.

“I think the quality of the book, from the art to the color to the story, is definitely cool. There’s definitely no difference between this and the mainstream books,” says Yamasuki, a midtown resident. “The fact that ‘Impound’ is based in Sacramento is even better. That’s valid. I’m a fan.”

Yamasuki had just purchased the comic book from Brent Trayce Sands, who came up with the character and opened Impound Comics store in 2021 to feature his growing series of comic books. That number has now reached five, with a sixth coming in May. The business is growing as fast as the superpowers of his characters—so much so that Sands opened Anti-Hero in Arden Fair mall this past July. Impound Comics sells only t he series created by Sands, while his Arden Fair store is more of a traditional comic book store that sells books from the major publishers such as Marvel, DC and Image, plus toys, game cards and other merchandise.

Sands, 34, says he has a business agreement with DOCO operator CBRE , which takes a percentage of sales in lieu of a traditional leasing agreement. That’s allowed him to focus on expanding his comics universe rather than just growing the bottom line.

“That agreement is helping me grow the brand. When I started, I didn’t have that many books, but [CBRE] believed in the vision,” Sands says. “They were like, ‘We’re willing to take a risk on your company because we think you have something that could eventually become a Sacramento touristy thing.’ It makes sense in DOCO, and for the Sacramento Kings, to have a Sacramento superhero. It’s all about community. That’s where that idea came from.”

In April, Sands took another leap to expand the brand, hiring more employees to run the DOCO store so he could move to Hollywood and be closer to publishers, television and animation studios, and merchandising experts. “If this whole thing is going to become what I want it to be, then I had to make the move,” Sands says. “I need more people to see it, so I took the leap.”

His first comic book series, Impound, is based in Sacramento and centers around Anthony “Impound” Endsley, a tow-truck driver by day, an amateur mixed martial arts fighter by night trying to make it to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Without spoiling too much of the origin story in Impound #1, Endsley is offered money to take a dive in an MMA fight but instead beats the local champion. That incurs the wrath of a Sacramento crime lord named Christ Jones, who exacts his revenge by attacking Impound’s family. The rest of the story line features Impound developing his powers to avenge what Jones and others have done to him. Sands has branched out with five additional comic book series, featuring characters with names such as Lady Monarch, Blasted and Decymus.

“Impound was pulled from Spawn (Image Comics) and ‘Mortal Kombat’ (video game and movie), and ‘Pulp Fiction’ was a big inspiration on this story, too,” Sands says. “He’s pretty much a melting pot of my favorite things. Impound is more like (Marvel’s violent vigilante) Punisher, more of an anti-hero, especially in the more recent books. He’s got a lot of rage, and if you’re in his way, you’re probably going to die. I don’t have too many ‘true blue’ heroes. Lady Monarch is true blue and Blasted is more on the true-blue end. Everyone else is either an anti-hero or true villain.”

The “Lady Monarch” series also takes place in Sacramento; the cover of the debut book features the titular superheroine sitting on Tower Bridge. The book’s logo is scripted in the font used by the defunct Sacramento Monarchs WNBA team, although the main character has nothing to do with basketball, Sands says.

Lady Monarch is the alter ego of Brooke Bolton, a social media influencer who discovers she is the reincarnated Egyptian goddess Ma’at. Superhero strong, she can fly and control cosmic energy. Brooke is the first name of Sands’ sister, and Bolton is an homage to Ruthie Bolton, the Sacramento Monarchs’ most famous player.

“I love dropping Easter eggs into my work,” Sands says. “True comic book fans eat that stuff up, and if Sacramento residents see something familiar in the books, then that’s even better.”

Blasted is his newest superhero and was born and raised in Stockton. Blasted’s main superpower is called melanokinesis. He can manipulate the ink from his tattoos to turn the images on his body into weapons. The debut book comes out May 6.

“Blasted is based on Acat of Mayan mythology,” Sands says. “I once saw a guy on Instagram with a tiger tattoo, and he did a Photoshop effect where he pulled

Villains

the tiger off. I t hought that was cool. No comic book character is 100 percent original. Marvel and DC have characters that manipulate tattoos, too, but none of them are heroes; they’re all villains and had nothing to do with the Mayans, and they didn’t hit.”

In Mayan mythology, Acat was the god of tattooing. The belief was that if a Mayan had a tattoo of a god, then he would be given some of that god’s power. Blasted has crossed swords inked on his back. When he needs them, he reaches for them, and the swords appear in his hands ready for slicing and dicing bad guys.

Sands says pre-orders of Blasted’s debut comic book have exceeded pre-orders of all his other series combined. “He’s been a force taking us to a next level,” Sands says. “[The number of] my TikTok followers—186,000 as of early March—has basically doubled since we announced the launch was coming.”

Sands’ experience as a concert and club promoter has served him well in creating social media buzz around his comic book business. The money he made from royalties and managing Sacramento-based R&B singer MarMar Oso seeded Impound Comics’ startup. About a year ago, Sands was able to concentrate full time on Impound Comics.

Sands graduated from Sacramento State with a degree in fi lm and has written, directed and produced a seven-minute animated video of the fi rst Impound comic book. A second Impound video just dropped, and more videos, and a video game, are in the works, he says.

Representation is important to him, he says, and it’s why his fi rst two characters—Impound and Lady Monarch—are Black. The fact that they’re both based in Sacramento was important, too, he says.

“Where else was I going to make them from?” Sands asks. “Since I was born and raised here, that just made sense. In the beginning, I wanted a hero that looks like me, but they’re not all [Black], though. Seraph is from the Philippines. Decymus and Alyna are aliens. Blasted is Mexican. In the books, Impound’s lead Sacramento Police detective, Carol Moseley, is Indian American, and Cautious is Irish. We have diversity in our universe because Sacramento is so diverse. Adding representation is important.”

Sands is responsible for the stories and the dialogue. He farms the illustrations out to five illustrators around the world. His main artist is Philippines-based Vash A. Sands says he and Vash have never actually spoken. Instead, they trade ideas, rough drafts and fi nal products over the internet.

“We communicate over the WhatsApp app,” Sands says. “I’ve never spoken to him, and we’ve been working together for two-and-a-half years. I don’t know if he even speaks English or if he’s ever been to the United States.”

Sands handles the bulk of his social media e orts from the Impound Comics shop in DOCO, producing between two and four TikTok videos every day, along with other content. He doesn’t sit at a computer and bang away on scripts. He already has the three-year original story arc fleshed out for Impound and writes dialogue after Vash comes up with the art panels. Then the final product is shipped to a Michigan-based printer specializing in comic books and sent back for distribution to Sands’ ever-growing customer mailing list and to stock Sands’ two stores. Each comic book takes between three and six months to go from concept to fi rst drafts to fi nal proofs and o to the printers. Sands’ goal is to bring out one book every month from each of his six series.

“Six books is enough to grow, but I have more ideas,” Sands says. “A short-term goal is always more books. But we also just got our fi rst toy deal with a small company (Zig Studio 3D based in Omaha, Nebraska) that’s just starting out, too. But we’re both at a stage where we need each other. They’ll be producing toys for Impound and Blasted.”

Through Sands’ imagination, hard work and marketing prowess, the Impound Comics universe is growing and has already achieved legitimacy thanks to Anthony “Impound” Endsley and his friends and foes.

“My goal when people saw my books is that they’d become like true comic book fans and would feel like they were missing out, like they’d look at it and say, ‘Oh my God, am I behind on something new?’” Sands says. “I didn’t want people to tell we’re clearly an (independent). I think I accomplished that goal.”

And, in the parlance of his young fan and customer, Yamasuki, that’s valid.