"Is the light on?" he asked.
"No," she said.
And so, the GoPro camera Abraham Williams set up to document the moment he proposed to Tulsi Gabbard had sputtered. Timing and GoPro glitch aside, Gabbard still described the occasion as "a perfect, magical moment."
The second-term Hawaii congresswoman was home from Washington, D.C., for the Thanksgiving holiday, and the day started like any other, with her agreeing to a sunset surf after a day of meetings.
"The meetings ended up running long, and by the time I got out, the sun was already starting to set," Gabbard said in a phone interview from her office Thursday. "We got stuck in traffic, and at one particularly long red light, I could see him looking at the sun, looking at the red light, looking at the sun, looking at the red light, and wondering why he was stressing out."
At Ala Moana Beach Park, Gabbard casually paddled out and watched Williams, a Hawaii-based cinematographer, race full speed ahead. Seeing his GoPro on board wasn’t unusual, given his love for capturing the surf on video.
"Usually, he’ll paddle out at my pace, but he sprinted way ahead of me, so I was like, OK, whatever," Gabbard said.
In fact, he had some wrangling to do as he wrested an engagement ring from a rig he created to keep it safe while hidden from her. Just before the sun dipped below the horizon, he managed to paddle back to her and blurt, "Will you marry me?"
Her answer was a resounding yes, and when word of her pending nuptials got out in early January, it sent the media on Capitol Hill into a frenzy. (She made the announcement without revealing the identity of her fiance.)
"Now who are we to refer to as Congress’ ‘most eligible’ if not Gabbard?" asked The Washington Post. The political website The Hill had dubbed the 33-year-old Democrat "the Hawaiian Heartbreaker," putting her No. 6 on its list of 50 most beautiful people on Capitol Hill.
"I don’t understand that, I don’t pay attention to that noise," said Gabbard, who will keep her maiden name.
"Both Abraham and I are generally kind of private people. He has nothing to do with politics. He’s a humble, great guy who doesn’t want to be in the limelight, so this is something new to the both of us."
They both consider Hawaii home, so although the couple do not live together yet, she said there is no question their household will remain in the islands after they are wed.
Gabbard served in the state House of Representatives and Honolulu City Council before being elected to Congress in 2012. Her workdays in Washington begin at 6:30 a.m. and end around 10 p.m., which was the time she was finally able to take a break and talk — not about Syria, Iraq, the Islamic State or the economy, but about her April 9 wedding, a casual affair that will take place "on the water on the Windward side."
Invites will go out this week. Fellow kamaaina President Barack Obama is on the guest list, but she doesn’t know whether he will be able to attend.
The date, just three days before her birthday, has no particular significance. "It’s just a day that worked," said Gabbard, who will head straight back to the nation’s capital when the weekend is over.
Inquiring minds wondered, How did she even have time to date?
It turns out she knew Williams, 26 — a freelance cinematographer who has made some short films and worked on commercial and political advertising campaigns — a long time before they started dating.
"We never ran in the same circles. He’s a talented cinematographer, artist and musician, and we didn’t get to know each other until he helped during my campaign for Congress."
They didn’t go out on their first date until April, when they reconnected during a birthday party at a friend’s house.
"It was the first time we had a chance to kick back, relax and have a conversation on a personal level, and we kind of realized we had a lot in common."
Williams asked her out, and she said she was pleasantly surprised.
"It was one of those things I hadn’t thought of before, but I was open to it. We just clicked together naturally."
Not one for being wooed by flowers and expensive dinners, Gabbard said that on their first date they simply went on a long walk that ended with a pickup volleyball game with friends in Kailua. She suggested a surfing date next and said Williams was nervous because he hadn’t surfed in a while. Gabbard said that even if he had embarrassed himself on the water, "I would not have lost respect for him.
"He’s pretty athletic and one of those who can pick things up pretty quickly," she said. "The fact that we can get out on the water, relax and have fun with each other enabled our friendship and relationship to grow."
Gabbard said she guessed Williams was going to propose at some point, but didn’t know when. While she was away in Washington, he had taken pains to have her 1.17-carat round, brilliant-cut champagne diamond engagement ring in 18-karat rose gold designed. He also asked her parents, educators Mike and Carol Gabbard, for their blessing. (Mike Gabbard serves as a Hawaii state senator.)
"I think he was more afraid of asking them than me," she said.
IT WILL BE the first marriage for Williams and the second for Gabbard, who married her childhood sweetheart Eddie Tamayo at age 21 in 2002, the same year she became the youngest person elected to Hawaii’s House of Representatives.
A year later she joined the Hawaii National Guard and in 2004 deployed to Iraq, serving two tours of combat duty with the 29th Brigade. She was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The deployment, she said, "was tough for both of us. I was away from home for two years." The couple divorced after six years of marriage.
There had been no fancy wedding for them. A tomboy growing up, Gabbard did not have romantic visions of wedding gowns and lawn parties in her head.
"I was more into martial arts than Barbie dolls, so it never crossed my mind to think about what kind of wedding I wanted to have."
Her first marriage took place before a justice of the peace with only a few family members in attendance.
This time she is planning a Vedic wedding ceremony in keeping with the couple’s Hindu faith. "For us it’s about having a shared sense of spiritual values and what we hold important," she said. "We try to live our lives in service to others and God in a way that has a positive impact on others around us. It was something I learned from a young age."
In light of crises at home and around the globe, Gabbard said she cannot devote as much time to her wedding plans as she’d like, with less than two months until the big day.
"My sister is a U.S. marshall in D.C., and we’re very close, so she’s taken the lead on planning," Gabbard said. "She’ll text me pictures, and we’ll work through a checklist of things that need to be done.
"Nothing is set. I’m looking at a couple of dresses. I’ll go with what feels right, but it’s not easy.
"The most important thing to me is that we’re able to share that special day with our family and friends. I’m not too stressed out. It’ll all come together. I believe that."
