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Here at HelloBeautiful we just love celebrating Black love. Each week we’ll profile newly engaged couples as they describe the moment he decided to “Put A Ring On It”.

Steven’s Story:

During my second semester of graduate school at Vanderbilt I left the lab to go to the bank to make a cash withdrawal. I was robbed by someone on the way to Kroger. After feeling extremely angered by the situation, LaToya brought me back to my senses and I knew at that moment we should get married. Using my pathetic graduate student stipend, I went and found a nice ring and decided to propose to her during her upcoming trip to Nashville.

When she arrived it was extremely gloomy outside, very dark and dank. We went to a restaurant and it was raining so hard that we were one of two or three couples in the restaurant. After ordering food and drinks (I consumed her drink to calm my nerves. I also learned this night that I have a two drink sanity limit) we left the restaurant and went to a horse track. After sitting on the stands for a few minutes I got down on one knee and asked the big question. She laughed and said “Yes”.

Latoya’s Story:

It was April of 2006 and Steven and I had been dating for almost two years. We agreed that I would move to Nashville (I was in Michigan) where he was after I graduated in May. He began asking me to come visit him and I declined. He kept asking so we finally agreed to the trip.

I wore my cutest outfit at the time and arrived late on a Friday night. There had been tornadoes earlier in the day so the restaurant (J Alexander) was empty. We enjoyed dinner and wine. He told me he had written me a letter so we stopped by the apartment after leaving the restaurant to pick it up. We then went to Percy Warner Park, (one of our favorite places in Nashville) and sat on the observation deck for the Iroquois Steeplechase. We ate popcorn, read the letter, and then he got down on one knee and proposed. I laughed (nervous laughter) and said “Yes!”

We got married at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on 11/10/07 and now have matching tattoos of the hotel’s symbol. That was almost 4 years ago and are still as happy as can be! We live in NYC where he is a Post-Doctoral Scholar at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute and I am graduate student in Columbia’s School of Social Work.

Marriage Rocks!

Put A Ring On It! Torian & Chriny

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.