Noel D'Allacco and Joseph Ammirati

Noel D’Allacco and Joseph Ammirati had been living together for eight months in Eastchester in the home they bought. They had dated for 10 years before that. A long relationship. And the 30 year olds were in no rush to get married. She, a Yonkers native, runs Operation PROM, a nonprofit organization based in Elmsford that collects and distributes prom dresses to high school girls who can’t afford to foot the bill. He runs his family’s coffee and tea distribution company in Pelham.

“Because of our careers and having a great, trusting, loyal relationship all these years, we never felt l there was any rush to get married,” Noel says.

On Friday,  December 30, 2011, the couple did what they always do on Friday—eat at Japan Inn in Bronxville. And like most Fridays, “we were closing out the place,” Noel recalls. It was three days before her thirtieth birthday, so when the lights shut off and Joseph stood up, she thought, of course, a birthday cake must be on its way out. Instead it was an emerald-cut diamond ring—in Joseph’s hand. “Are you crazy?” Noel recalls crying. “I was really shocked.” But not too shocked to say, Yes.