Robbins Brothers Engagement Rings, Proposals & Weddings

The Orange County Register

ByDoug Irving

SO, WHADDYA THINK?: Luis Delgadillo gets a first look at the moving billboard displaying Jasmine’s marriage proposal.Steve Zylius, The Orange County Register

This love story begins in the blacked-out belly of a C-130 transport plane hurtling toward Iraq.

Jasmine Chopra sat in the darkness, scared, alone with her thoughts. She was imagining what would happen if she didn’t make it through, if her parents heard the knock on the door that every soldier’s family dreads.

She wasn’t thinking much about the young man to her left, the young man who had told her just hours earlier that he was falling for her. She and Luis Delgadillo had grown close as they trained for what was ahead.

But when he offered his heart, all she gave was a hug.

Now, flying through the darkness, bound for a combat zone, he leaned in close and reached for her hand. He pulled out her earplugs and, above the roar of the jet engines, whispered into her ear.

“I’ll follow you into the dark.”

Her parents will tell you that Jasmine makes her own decisions. They cried when she announced eight years ago that she was enlisting in the Army Reserve. She told them they could talk all they wanted, but her mind was made up.

Jonah Light Photography

She met Luis three years ago. He was a “hoo-rah” soldier, the kind who volunteered for danger and seemed to know every last Army rule and regulation by heart. He had already spent time in Iraq.

She didn’t give him much thought, not at first. But as they trained side-by-side for active duty, she began to notice that he could be charming and supportive, a shoulder she could lean on. She found herself laughing along with him when he told stories with a made-up British accent.

Sometimes, exhausted from hours of combat practice, they would sit together and listen to songs on his computer. One of their favorites was by a group called Death Cab for Cutie, and it went like this:

If there’s no one beside youWhen your soul embarksThen I’ll follow you into the dark.

They sat together the day after they landed in Iraq, outside his trailer, putting together his body armor. He was leaving in the morning for a base in Baghdad. She was staying at a different base in Balad.

But, before they parted ways, she wanted him to know what she had realized during that dark plane ride into Iraq. “I love you. I really, really love you,” she said.

THE RING: Jasmine Chopra slides the new engagement ring on her fiance Luis’ fingerSteve Zylius, The Orange County Register

She gave him a tiny Buddha charm to keep him safe. He gave her the name tag from his uniform to keep in her pocket. And then she gave him what she would later call her first “I’m-in-love-with-you kiss.”

Jasmine, 28, and Luis, 27, both worked as sergeants for Army public affairs, taking pictures and writing dispatches, venturing “outside the wire” to accompany other soldiers on missions. They kept in touch by email; and every week or so, Jasmine would invite Luis on a “virtual date” to San Francisco or Santa Cruz, Austin, Texas or Florence, Italy.

She would send him a link to the Web page of a hotel where they could stay, and another link to a fancy restaurant for dinner. She would send links for jazz clubs that stayed open late into the night, or a park where they could go for a walk in the morning.

On their make-believe date to San Francisco, for example, she told him to imagine a dinner together at Café Millenium. She even sent him the online menu, and told him she’d be having the black-bean torte and a mojito.

They signed every email IFYITD. I’ll Follow You Into The Dark.

Luis had once told Jasmine that, whenever she decided she was ready to get engaged, “it would be the easiest question you could ask me.” She had never taken it too seriously – until an email from a friend popped up on her screen.

Jonah Light Photography

The email said that Robbins Bros. jewelers and a Texas charity called “Dallas Is Love” wanted to help someone in the military get engaged. In her application, Jasmine wrote about “friendship, loyal and true,” and said that she was ready to ask that question.

She and Luis both had a few weeks of vacation, she wrote, and were planning to spend it back home in Southern California. She wanted to surprise him then.

And so, on a gray afternoon last week, she led him to the chapel at Chapman University, where she had gone to school. She told him that she was going to get an alumni award there – a white lie that he bought completely.

As they walked through the chapel and talked about life and love, a Robbins Bros. truck rumbled into place in front of the main entrance. The white letters splashed across its red side spelled out: “Luis, Will You Marry Me? Love, Jasmine.”

They pushed open the doors and stepped outside. Luis thought at first how strange it was that a truck had parked so close to the chapel. Then he read the words, and read them again.

His eyes went wide. He caught his breath.

And then: “Of course I would,” he said.

“Yeah? Really?” Jasmine said. She was laughing

KISS: Jasmine kisses Luis outside the chapel at Chapman University.Steve Zylius, The Orange County Register

Robbins Bros. had donated two rings for the occasion. A company official stepped forward and handed one of them to Luis, a one-karat, princess-cut solitaire. He dropped to one knee.

“Jasmine,” he said, “I know I’ve loved you from, probably, the first two weeks that we spent time together. I think, uh, I know, in fact, that for the rest of our lives, I don’t want there to be anyone else but you.”

Jasmine had picked out the other ring herself. It had two bands of white gold, held together by a seam of yellow gold. When she gave it to him, she explained that the two bands represented love and friendship.

Inscribed around the inside were the letters IFYITD.

Jasmine and Luis will return to Iraq later this month. They both have about five more months of active duty before they come home. Luis is studying Journalism at CalState Fullerton, and the wedding will probably wait until he graduates.

And, Jasmine said, “we’ll get through the war first.”

They’re planning a weekend trip to San Francisco before they go back to Iraq, to celebrate their engagement. They’ve got reservations at Café Millenium, and Jasmine already knows that she’ll be having that black-bean torte and a mojito.