Public proposal: Prospective bride gets the message on hotel marquee

Monday, April 8, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

Neon lights dazzled Tara Klein more than the diamond engagement ring Bobby Stella offered her on Friday night.

It's not often that a proposal is written on a resort's marquee.

"Tara Klein, will you marry me? Love, Bobby," was the message appearing on the Green Valley Ranch Station Casino marquee Friday.

Did Klein, 31, accept? "Yes, she did," a relieved Stella said Sunday night.

"She didn't even look at the ring for like five minutes," Stella, 26, said.

The message went up in lights early Friday, but he wasn't scheduled to pop the question until after dinner, so Stella had friends keep Klein busy all day Friday. By 2 p.m. he had received 33 calls from friends who noticed the sign.

He had been confident that his proposal would be accepted, but after the calls, he started having second thoughts.

"I was a little nervous," Stella said.

He took Klein to dinner, driving residential streets to Green Valley Ranch Station rather than Interstate 215, where the sign was visible. After dinner, the two went out to the pool area, and Klein saw the sign.

"Is that amazing?" Klein said Sunday. "We had talked about getting married, I just didn't think it would be this soon."

Stella and Klein, who knew each other as they grew up in Las Vegas and had dated on and off before, started seeing each other seriously after Klein returned in September from New York, where she had moved to seek her fortune in public relations. She graduated from Bishop Gorman High School in 1989, he graduated from Chaparral High in 1993.

"When I was 11, I had the biggest crush on her," Stella said.

They are planning an April 5 wedding next year, the anniversary of the proposal, but they haven't decided whether they will return to the resort for the festivities.

"That's what we're going to shoot for," Stella said.