That left the outspoken Wilhelmina with just one question: “Are these real diamonds?”

Her mother and Mr. DeLuca were married Sept. 9.

Mr. Alderdice did not want anyone else to know about a secret proposal he planned for Ms. Abugo back in April 2016, so he took an old ring and a picture of her to a jeweler. From that, he picked out a diamond-encrusted double band as an engagement ring he thought would fit her.

A few days later, having enlisted the staff at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx to assist in his plan, he got down on one knee and proposed, with “Marry Me Uzezi” spelled out in wooden letters covered in flowers behind him.

She said yes, but the ring was not as accommodating.

"It didn’t fully fit,” Mr. Alderdice said. “But we had to have the picture of the ring in the proper position with the flowers in the background, so she kind of pushed it on.”

Unbeknown to him, Ms. Abugo’s ring finger was a size 8½. The ring he gave her was a 6½.

A few minutes later, Ms. Abugo realized that the blood had stopped flowing to her finger, which was turning a dark shade of purple, and after trying and failing to remove the ring, they jumped into a cab and headed for the emergency room at Montefiore Medical Center.

“I told him, ‘If you don’t get this ring off soon, I’m going to lose my entire finger,’” Ms. Abugo said, laughing as she recalled the incident. “I told him, ‘I can’t marry you without a ring finger.’”