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Vanessa Ray is off the market! While the Blue Bloods actress hasn't exactly been hiding her new status on Twitter (she gushes how her ‘fiancé’ facetimes The Bachelor for her among other wedding sentiments), HELLO! can exclusively reveal exactly how musician Landon Beard proposed recently, and it is seriously so sweet!
“He convinced me to go for a walk to one of our favorite spots — Pier 84 — on the Hudson River in the freezing cold,” Vanessa tells HELLO! of the moment a few weeks ago on her "lazy day off."
“I literally spent the morning reading food magazines and doing nothing but surf Pinterest for cool side braids," says The Pretty Little Liars star, 33, before the two headed out for a winter walk in Manhattan.
“Thinking about it now, I could feel his heart pounding even through the many layers of clothing we had on out there," she continues. "He pulled out the ring, we cried, and I started asking a million questions. ‘Did you ask my parents? My brother? Does Kelly know? Does she like the ring?’"
Actress and wellness guru Kelly Sullivan is her best friend, and thanks to Landon’s planning, not only knew but was able to witness the entire January 23 proposal. “Totally unbeknownst to me, he had Kelly fly out from L.A.,” she explains. “She was disguised in a black wig pretending to be a tourist taking pictures during the whole thing.”
Once Vanessa began to understand what was going on, Landon, who is currently touring with Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, turned to the “photographer” to reveal herself. “It took me a long time to realize the lady with the camera was my best friend and she'd witnessed all of it,” Vanessa mentions. “There was a lot of dancing and tears of joy. Only regret: Not wearing waterproof mascara.”
One other thing missing was a fresh manicure. She jokes, “Landon had tried to set up some girlfriends to take me so my nails would look nice when everyone inevitably would be looking at my hands that day.” It didn’t work, but the sparkler was still on full display for everyone to see.
“My ring is just the prettiest pink gold sparkly ring custom designed by Jeano Georgiano,” the blonde beauty says. “Landon is the best and made sure to get as many friends’ opinions for me as possible. He took Jillian [Bell, the Workaholics actresss] with him on the day he bought it, I trust her taste implicitly.”
And now that they have been engaged a few weeks, the planning begins!
“Thinking about it, dreaming about it, but I have not made one decision,” Vanessa admits. “My costar Marisa Ramirez was like, ‘You must get a wedding planner! Details aren’t so much your thing.’”
As for her male costars Will Estes and Donnie Wahlberg, “They really just lovingly tease me calling Landon a saint for taking me on!”
What wedding planning advice do you have for Vanessa? Tell her (or just offer your congrats) on our Facebook page.