'My Girl' 's Anna Chlumsky Engaged

The 26-year-old plans to wed an Army reserve member who served in Afghanistan

Photo: Peter Kramer/AP

Anna Chlumsky is going from My Girl to soldier’s bride.

The 26-year-old actress, best known as Macaulay Culkin’s gal pal Vada in the 1991 film My Girl, is engaged to Shaun So, 26, an Army reserve member who served in Afghanistan, she tells PEOPLE.

The couple, who live in Brooklyn, N.Y., are currently planning a wedding to take place next March.

“Shaun’s family is Chinese, and my family is Catholic. So we’re going to do a fusion of the two cultural traditions,” Chlumsky said Thursday night at the Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards.

“There will be Lai See … [money given in red envelopes]. That’s what the children get during Chinese New Year. And you’ll have a big feast. Both of our fathers are chefs, so food is number one.”

Chlumsky’s father is a culinary instructor in Chicago at Kendall College, while So’s dad owns a Chinese restaurant called China Town in Topsham, Maine.

As for the location, it’s “my church and then a Chinese restaurant,” she says. “Flushing [N.Y.] is the place to go for good Chinese. I picked one dress, but you’re supposed to wear a Chinese dress as well.”

While the couple said that they will skip the traditional Chinese tradition of “kidnapping” the bride, they would like to include a tea ceremony. “You pour tea for members of both of your families,” said Chlumsky, “and that’s a consolidation of the family.”

My Girl fans may be distraught, but Chlumsky says it’s unlikely her old costar Culkin will attend. “I don’t have his address,” she said.

The pair plan to honeymoon in Italy for both the “food and the wine.”