Captain Sandy Yawn, 58, and Leah Shafer, 49, are engaged! The Below Deck Mediterranean star popped the question to her partner of five years during a romantic date, she revealed to E! News on Monday. “I have been thinking about marrying Leah for years,” she told the outlet while talking about the proposal. “I knew from the minute I met her, but the timing had to be right. I wanted to make sure we could truly do life together first.”
Sandy further revealed that although they got engaged last weekend, she had been thinking about asking Leah to marry her since April. Once she decided to ask her, she made sure she made it very special in the ways Leah wanted. “Leah wanted the fairytale, and to me, Leah represents elegance,” she explained. “I planned a boat ride to a beautiful cove. I had it decorated with flowers with a path to a small table accompanied by three violinists where we could sit and have a small date.”
Although she was nervous, Sandy went ahead with the proposal right after they arrived. “I truly could not wait!” she exclaimed. “I shared my vision list of love I had written and wanted, then got on one knee. Then, she said ‘yes!’ The look on her face was priceless, and my heart exploded! It was filled beyond capacity of anything I could ever imagine. Somehow I feel closer than I did before, and I can’t explain it. There is an energy that I have never experienced in my life. I love her beyond; as Leah says Yawn beyond.”
Sandy and Leah’s engagement comes after they first started dating back in 2018. The former previously revealed that the latter first reached out to her on Facebook that same year. “She sent me a nice message that said, ‘I came across your show, congratulations, many blessings,'” she told Cheat Sheet in 2019.
The smitten star also gushed over their “spiritual” connection. “It was like a spiritual connection in the beginning. She has a passion for inspiring through music and the youth. And broken people and so do I coming from the gospel industry,” she said. “That’s what brought us together. And then, of course, the attraction and falling in love with a beautiful soul and knowing you want to be with someone forever. I’ve never felt that way before.”