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In April, five months into their courtship, Rob went to L.A. to secretly enlist celeb jeweler Cynthia Wolff to help design an engagement ring. On May 9 he waited until just before the live show to tell Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett he had a surprise. "I was thinking he's gonna get engaged or punch [his nemesis] Tom Buchanan," says Burnett. "I told Colby Donaldson, 'if anything happens I need your help.' But it didn't become Jerry Springer; it was a wonderful moment." No slouch in the scheming department, Amber changed at the last minute into an I Love Rob T-shirt she made herself. "That," he says, "took my breath away."
Then came the big moment – and we're not talking about the lousy million bucks. "All of a sudden Rob turned towards me, and it hit me," says Amber. "I was shocked." Some All-Star castmates, less than enamored of the devious duo, did not feel the love. "Once the hype dies down," says Alicia Calaway, "I wonder if they are going to be looking at each other the same way."
Bank on it, says Amber, who did just that with her loot. (Rob got his $250,000 runner-up check from a CBS executive at a finale afterparty, "when I was three Jack-and-Cokes deep into the night.") On a break from working construction and tending bar, Rob says he and Amber are looking for a house in Boston or Pittsburgh or "somewhere in between." Or they might end up further west – in Hollywood. Though neither has an agent yet, "I would love doing the host thing," says Amber, who has appeared in commercials. So far, the couple haven't made wedding plans, though they could always ask Probst, an ordained minister, to preside. "We don't have a date," says Amber. "But I see something barefoot in the sand."
Wait a minute, a beach wedding? After all those soggy nights on an island? At least this time there'll be plenty of breath mints – and no naked fat guys. And, decidedly, no prenup. "The fact that Rob proposed before he knew who won just seals it right there for me," says Amber. "This is for real."
