Fresh upon her return to Malta from a cruise she’ll never forget, with her now-fiancée, Carlo Gerada, Valentina Rossi spills the beans about how he popped the question, and how the moment was “simply perfect.”
“This was our first cruise together and we wanted it to be a relaxed one. Usually, I know when Carlo has something up his sleeve – he doesn’t hide things like this very well!” she says. “On the night, we were booked for dinner at an Asian restaurant, and Carlo chose a table that was quite private without many people around, because he knows that I don’t like to make a big fuss about this stuff.”
Valentina says that although many people know her as being very out there on social media and on air, as a radio host, she’s different in instances like this. “I’m quite reserved about my private life, and when it comes to something like this, which is such a special moment in my personal life, I like to treasure the intimacy of the moment as much as possible.”
Back to the proposal. After placing their food order, a photographer appeared at the couple’s table. “There were many Indonesian photographers going around on the cruise taking photos of people, for them to buy them at the end of the cruise as a keepsake. We weren’t interested in having our photo taken at any point, but when this particular photographer came around, Carlo insisted we have our photo taken,” says Valentina.
“I kept telling him ‘Ara biss, ta’!’, but Carlo insisted, and I was like, ‘Int biss serjeta?!’ But I gave in and turned towards the camera with the fakest smile. As I kept wondering why the photographer hung around even after taking our photo, I see Carlo reach into his jacket, and he said, ‘I know how long you’ve been waiting for this moment and it’s finally here.’ After that, it was quite a blur. I was so blown away by what was going on that I had this ugly crying look on my face the whole time – you know that famous meme of Kim Kardashian’s ugly crying face? That was my face throughout the whole proposal!”
Afterwards, Carlo admitted to Valentina that he was rather relieved. “He told me he was worried he’d ruin the whole trip stressing out over this moment, and he was thankful that it all went off without a hitch, and that I said yes. We then remembered we had ordered some very fancy food for dinner but we both had no appetite to eat – we were both feeling sick to our stomachs with the excitement of that moment!”
Valentina says everything about the way Carlo executed the proposal was flawless – from the intimate setting to the uncomplicatedness of how he asked, to being in the middle of the ocean without a phone connection… “It was simple, sweet and perfect.”
Onto the next hot question – do they know when they’re getting married? “Everyone’s been asking us if we have a date, but we honestly haven’t started thinking about it yet. What I’m thinking about right now is how I’m going to fit into my jeans after this cruise!”
However, she does have a clue about the kind of dress she wants for her big day. “I’ve modelled so many wedding gowns in my life, and after party dresses, that I know how most dresses and styles fit me, and what I like. It will be like browsing through my very own catalogue of dresses!” she laughs. “I often joked to Carlo that we wouldn’t even need a photographer for our wedding day when we got married – I could just Photoshop his face onto a male model’s from a past shoot and voila, sorted!”