An elaborately styled picnic spread with an important question at Berkeleyside’s waterfront park on Thursday, Oct. 29. Credit: Tracey Taylor/Berkeleyside

A UC Berkeley architecture student got the answer he was looking for last week, but not before creating intrigue on the Berkeley waterfront. 

Late Thursday afternoon, several strollers and dog walkers on the western perimeter of the area that may, or may not, soon be called Sí Se Puede Park, were surprised to chance upon an elaborately styled picnic spread. 

A wreath and a basket overflowing with treats, some edible, had been artfully arranged on a red-and-white checkered tablecloth, along with a sign that read “Erik ♥️Kassandra? 10-29-26,” and candles that spelled out the words Puedo Ser Tu Novio (Can I be your boyfriend?). The finishing touches: a scattering of rose petals and seven red balloons. 

But the lead players destined for this romantic stage-set were nowhere to be seen. As the balloons swayed gently in the breeze, people paused to snap photos and ask others if they knew what was going on.

Then a young couple came around a turn in the path and made a beeline for the picnic blanket. She let out an exclamation of surprise, and the two embraced with a big hug. She’d said yes! 

It turned out getting Kassandra Alvarado, a business major at Cal, to the park had taken longer than Erik Bonilla had anticipated.

Kassandra Alvarado (left) said she and Erik Bonilla have known each other for some time, but the picnic made it official. “We met through a few mutual friends and it truly was love at first sight,” she said. Credit: Tracey Taylor/Berkeleyside

“I just got out of class and then we were going to go get food,” Alvarado told Berkeleyside, still beaming and a little dazed from the surprise move orchestrated on her behalf. “And then we came over, but I was taking my sweet time, and he was like, ‘Oh, we actually have to go now.’ And I was like, ‘The park isn’t going anywhere!’”

Erik Bonilla said he wanted the proposal to go steady, often a significant milestone in Mexican dating culture, to happen at the park because the couple had been there on one of their earliest dates — although his original plan was to set something up in the trunk of his car. A friend helped him to put everything together, and stuck around, hidden in a grove of trees, to ensure the picnic set-up remained intact.  

Alvarado said the two have known each other “for quite some time,” but the picnic made it official. “We met through a few mutual friends and it truly was love at first sight,” she said.

“Once we met we just never stopped seeing each other and we’ve been together ever since.”

Bonilla noted that he likes making up baskets. “I’ve done one for her before, for her birthday,” he said. Photos of the two students together were strung around the basket and also attached to the balloon strings — an idea Bonilla borrowed from Alvarado who’d done something similar for his birthday.

At this point, Berkeleyside’s reporter felt she had gatecrashed the party long enough, so she agreed to take some photographs of the couple on Alvarado’s camera, then retreated to let them enjoy their special moment, just as the sun began to set over the bay.

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