Chilean FIFA women’s World Cup star Maria Jose Rojas will be marrying an Adelaide women after proposing at the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower was the perfect setting when Adelaide-based Karlea Williams asked for Chilean women’s soccer star Maria Jose Rojas’ hand in marriage.
Adelaide-based Karlea Williams had a beautiful vision that she would ask Chile’s FIFA women’s World Cup star Maria Jose Rojas for her hand in marriage in Paris – the city of love.
So she followed up on her dream, planning a perfect way to surprise the love of her life at the Eiffel Tower on June 28, after watching Rojas playing during the Cup in France.
“I hadn’t seen Cote (Rojas’s nickname) for five months before the World Cup,’’ Williams said.
“We needed a couple of days to reconnect after the World Cup – we had a look at the Louvre museum, we hired scooters and we had a great day.
“The next day I booked a really nice hotel and the day after that I said ‘Hey, we’re going out for lunch and that’s all I’m going to tell you’.”
Williams planned an amazing setting after designing the engagement ring herself.
It is a diamond cluster cathedral halo holding a brilliant cut round diamond, supported by brilliant cut diamonds in an 18 carat white gold. “My idea behind the design was to symbolise our different lives and cultures represented in the infinity band design but coming together as one through the halo cluster,’’ Williams said.
“We got dressed up, we had breakfast, it was really hot. I remember I was worried and I contacted the company who specialise in picnics in front of the Eiffel Tower, Love Picnics,” Williams said.
“So we started walking towards the museum. That’s when I proposed. I said ‘I love you very much and feel like it’s time and we made a commitment to each other’. I got down on one knee and gave her the ring.”
Rojas said she was very emotional. The couple met 4½ years ago in Adelaide when the Chilean was looking for a soccer adventure.
She played for Adelaide University in the Women’s National Premier League.
“I hugged her (Williams) and I didn’t say anything and she was like ‘Is that a yes?’,” Rojas said.
“Of course it was; I just couldn’t talk.”
The couple are now planning their wedding next year but must work around Rojas’s international soccer commitments as Chile is vying for a place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Our families haven’t met before and we’d still have to have another ceremony in Chile – two weddings – but I really like the idea of having a tropical wedding,’’ Rojas said.
“We’re looking at having it in Thailand.”