Jesse Csincsak and Ann Lueders

Jesse Csincsak managed to make his proposal to girlfriend Ann Lueders a surprise, but he admits that took a lot of work after an engagement snafu with her father.

“When I first asked for Ann’s hand in marriage, her dad didn’t realize that Ann wasn’t supposed to know,” says the former Bachelorette winner, who was engaged to Pappas in 2008 before proposing to Lueders, who competed in Jason Mesnick’s season of The Bachelor.

“He went inside the house and Ann and her mom were just chatting and he goes, ‘So Jesse just asked me a very interesting question. He asked me if he could marry you.’ And she goes, ‘DAD! You’re not supposed to tell me that!’ “

“He didn’t do it on purpose!” Csincsak adds. “He was just trying to be the happy go lucky dad!”

But in no way did it ruin her excitement when the moment came.

On Aug. 6, after a private flight to his hometown in Amherst Ohio, The Pro Snowboarder popped the question with a $22,000 princess cut diamond designed by Ohio based Levitt Jewelers as the pair stood on the shore of PUT IN BAY island in Lake Erie.

Suffice it to say that despite her dad’s spoiler alert, the bride didn’t expect it. “I told Jesse, ‘I wish I knew this was coming,’ ” Lueders tells PEOPLE. “I would have ran a brush through my hair!’ ”

The pair will wed before the end of August in Las Vegas with a ceremony at the Rumor Hotel.