Shaun White made a number of different plans to propose to Nina Dobrev, but they were always thwarted. The first, during their summer vacation, was demolished after Nina injured her knee in a dirt bike accident. Then he thought about early November, when they were in Cape Town for the Earthshot awards ceremony. But he could tell that to Nina thought it could happen in South Africa because all her friends kept asking if it would happen. And here’s the thing about Nina, says Shaun: she is an extremely organized person who is rarely surprised, but she loves being surprised. He had to surprise her.

So White decided to propose on an otherwise mundane week in late October. He had it all arranged: the date, location (The Golden Swan restaurant in New York City), flowers, a photographer. For weeks, he moved Nina’s future five-carat Lorraine Schwartz ring around their house so she wouldn’t find it: first in the safe, then in his sock drawer, and finally at the very back of the tool shed. (“The garage?Nina exclaims as Shaun tells me his hiding place. He shrugs, “I was like, She’s not coming out here.”)

A few days before he was to pop the question, Nina told him she wasn’t feeling well. She wanted to rest before Africa, and not go out at all until they left. But this time he refused to make another appointment. Instead, he decided to do something drastic. He had his publicist send Nina a fake invitation to an intimate CFDA/Fashion dinner with Anna Wintour at the Golden Swan in New York City. Nina accepted. “He made the invitation look so legitimate,” Nina says, laughing.

Photo: Andrew Arthur