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Credit: Instagram

Bozoma “Boz” Saint John and Keely Watson are engaged.

After Keely got down on one knee with a custom-designed 8.43-carat diamond engagement ring and a “mega bouquet of 100 roses” at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood, California, on Friday, surrounded by 35 of their closest friends and family members, and Bravo cameras, the 48-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star is admitting she’s “still in shock and disbelief.”

“This engagement is my testimony: you can rise from grief, reclaim your joy, and still find a love worthy of your ‘yes,’” Boz gushed to PEOPLE on September 3. “Keely is proof that God’s timing is perfect — and so is His plan. I’m saying yes to life, to love and to the miracle of second chances.”

“Even though I knew we wanted to get married, I wasn’t sure where or when Keely would ask,” Boz continued. “I am still in shock and disbelief. I was nervous because I thought about how it would be when he asked and I wanted to be able to be composed through it but that was hard to do because my emotions were at an all-time high.”

According to Keely, he began planning his proposal to Boz, who was married to Peter Saint John for 10 years until he died of cancer in December 2013, in early summer, and knew he wanted to make it happen before she traveled to New York to promote her new NBC reality competition series, On Brand with Jimmy Fallon.

Credit: Instagram

“I really wanted that element of surprise and so it was a lot of planning and coordinating on my part with the help of her daughter, Lael, and also her assistant, Nico,” Keely explained, sharing that Lael and Nico helped put the guest list together as his nieces offered additional assistance.

As he put together the surprise without the help of an event planner, Keely aimed to create a proposal space that “[embodied] beauty.”

“I lined the walkway with a red carpet and candles, and I built a canopy draped in red to propose under. Around the canopy, there were more roses and candles,” he revealed.

While he was “a little anxious” beforehand because he “wanted everything to go perfectly,” he left Boz speechless with his stunning display as he spoke from the heart and requested her hand in marriage.

As for the ring, which features a 4.2-carat center stone and additional diamonds on a gold band, for a total of 8.43 carats, Keely created the piece with 3 Soul Diamond Jewelers in Mumbai, India.

“The ring needed to embody her elegance, her prestige and be a display of my love for her and really highlight how much she means to me,” he said.

“After waiting so long to find the one, the right decision had been made and I felt like our love for one another would multiply,” Keely continued. “I knew our families would integrate well. I was immediately relieved that all the planning went over so well and the pre-build in my garage led to such a perfectly executed proposal. I was immediately looking toward our future.”

Boz and Keely first met through her friendship with artist Harmonia Rosales, the wife of Keely’s nephew, who had showcased several images of Boz that caught Keely’s eye at an art exhibit in Atlanta.

“My nephew put us on a group text and from there, the rest is history,” Keely shared.

From there, Boz and Keely met one another in Ghana for their third date, where they realized they’d found “The One.”

“I love her consistency in her communication with me, her personal ambition and drive, her love for her daughter, family and friends, her love and affection towards me and towards the people who meant the most to me, her consistency in her thoughtfulness, her approach to life and the way it aligns with mine, her optimism and positive outlook on the future and her ability to find the silver lining when things or outcomes were less desirable,” Keely gushed. “All this is in addition to her beauty inside and out.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 is currently in production and expected to begin airing sometime later this year or early next year.