In a move that stunned a nation, DeAnna Marie Pappas, star of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” accepted the proposal and engagement ring from Breckenridge snowboarder Jesse Csincsak on Monday night.
Csincsak was the long-haired longshot from the first date, showing up in a wild jacket and pink shoelaces. He dealt with the cut-throat competition as if it were an excellent adventure — a strategy that paid off. He didn’t even kiss Pappas until he brought her to Breckenridge toward the end of the series.
“Will you spend forever with me?” he asked her Monday night on bended knee.
She said she could not imagine living without him.
In the live “After the Final Rose” program that followed “The Bachelorette,” the twosome couldn’t keep their hands off each other. They revealed that they have set a date for the nuptials: May 9, 2009, in the Bahamas.
Both are 26-years-old, so they’ll have a long time to make it work.
Pappas and Csincsak are the fourth couple to emerge from “The Bachelorette” series. Trista and Ryan Sutter, who famously hooked up in the first season, were married on an ABC special a year later and now live in Avon with their son, Max.
No one was more surprised that Pappas wanted to be Jesse’s girl than his finish-line rival, Jason Mesnick. A single father from Washington, more self-assured than the often tongue-tied Csincsak, Mesnick and most viewers thought he was a shoe-in. “I was so ready to love again,” said the dumbfounded bachelor after getting kicked to the curb.
It is not known where the couple will live, but Csincsak plans to continue his snowboarding career in Breckenridge for at least four months each year.
