Lakewood Man Proposes Pizza For Dinner, Then Actually Proposes

LAKEWOOD, OH — As a part-time independent professional wrestler, Derek Klein has a knack for theatrics and when the time was right to propose marriage to his girlfriend of 4 years, he made sure there was no shortage of drama.

Derek, 28 and Alexis Donahue, 22 both work at Fairview Hospital and they are both huge fans of Angelo's Pizza.

Derek lives in Downtown Lakewood and says that Angelo's has been his "go-to" pizza place for the couple for quite a while. In fact, Derek and Alexis had their first official "sit down/dinner" date at the popular Lakewood restaurant.

With support from Alexis' mother, Derek began brainstorming over ideas about how he could pop the question to his girlfriend. Then one day while driving to work he had an inspiration when he saw Angelo's while waiting at a traffic signal.

Derek said, "I figured it out, I wanted to ask Alexis to marry me at Angelos, Via spelled out with pepperonis. 'MARRY ME?'"

That morning, he found contact info for Angelo's and sent an email with his idea to Karen Hedge and to his surprise, she responded right away. She was all-in with his crazy idea.

Karen arranged a meeting with Derek and her right-hand man, Shawn the day before the proposal to go over all of the details. Waiters, cooks and even the delivery guys were in on it. Angelo's even brought in special smaller pepperonis to accommodate the "MARRY ME" text spelled out on the pizza.

The waitress was definitely a part of the entire plan and in the video below, you can see how surprised Alexis is and she said "Yes."

"You can see her go from confused, shocked to completely emotional when I popped the question all within seconds. October 23rd quickly became one of the greatest nights of our life."

Derek said that his new fiancé wasted no time getting started with plans, "Alexis has planned for her wedding her entire life. She has her own vision. As an engagement gift her sister Madison, took her to look at Wedding dresses the following Sunday. After a day of family shopping, my fiancé texted me letting me know she bought her dress. After two weeks of looking for venues we as of last night, locked down our venue and our date. June 1st of 2019 will be the day we tie the knot."

Will Angelo's be catering the reception?

Derek exclaimed, "HAHAHAHAHAHA!! I’ve been nothing but grateful for all of the hospitality everyone at Angelos have shown us. My Fiancé and I definitely entertained the thought of Angelos definitely being our late night "after-tizers". If Angelos wants to be a part of our wedding by all means."

Photos by Lori Uldricks and Derek Klein.