'Still oblivious to the proposal, I said 'You got me a present?! What is it?' and Cole opened the box, saying 'I want to spend my life with you, will you marry me?' It was funny, real and perfect for us.'Ī mutual love of the redwood grove on the sprawling grounds of the Santa Lucia Preserve in Carmel, California, solidified the perfect location for the nature-loving couple.

' went to hand me the ring box, but the box flew out of his hands, landing next to me,' she remembers. 'With strangely sweaty palms, he served our dinner and said 'I love you, you are my best friend–here,'' recalls Kelsey of the memorable night. There wasn't a perfect moment, so the ring remained in my bag and I nervously carried it home,' explained Cole, who got his bended-knee moment upon returning to Los Angeles during a quiet dinner at home. 'Our group of ten was all guys except for Kelsey, so the evenings were all beer, rum and cigars. While dying to give his bride-to-be the perfect ring during a planned trip to Cuba, Cole soon realized that no moment would present itself as proposal-appropriate the entire weekend. 'He took his great grandmother's ring to my grandmother's favorite jeweler, Julius Cohen,' remembers Kelsey, 'Cole met with the granddaughter of Julius Cohen and together they created an engagement ring that combined our two families and histories.' He had been secretly designing the engagement ring he would give Kelsey nearly six-months prior to popping the question. 'My plan turned out to be flawed,' Cole confessed. Three years later, we will be attending this year's Holiday Movable Feast as a married couple.'īefore walking down the aisle, the couple found that their smooth-sailing relationship would soon be interrupted by a not-so-smooth proposal. That afternoon, we jokingly started telling everyone that we were married. 'After the luncheon, we went to the Soho House West Hollywood to kill time before that evening's Moveable Feast, an annual fundraiser hosted by the Los Angeles Nomadic Division. She took advantage of the scheduling serendipity by coordinating to see Cole in-between the two events. 'We were originally introduced as artist and gallerist,' recalls Kelsey, who soon discovered that her future-groom would be attending the same luncheon and holiday dinner the following day. California native Kelsey Lee Offield, owner of the contemporary art gallery GUSFORD in Los Angeles, first met globally renowned visual and conceptual artist Cole Sternberg during-what would ultimately become-a life-changing trip to Miami's Art Basel in 2013. Take two mavens of the art world, a planned proposal in Cuba that wasn't and a wedding surrounded by 900-year-old Redwood trees in Carmel, California, and you get a pretty unique love story.

Kelsey at black forest salon