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Whenever she tells it, she always cries.
Needless to say, the best advice is make it memorable. Nobody wants to have a lame proposal story.
Just for Clarification. =)
What I *didn't* do was hide the ring in anything. Besides the danger of her chipping a tooth on it (!), or me losing it...since it wasn't a heirloom, I wanted her to help pick out one she'd like. To my surprise, Emily Post and Miss Manners agreed: the proposal is about asking the question, and the ring can come later.
Friend of mine proposed to his wife, a schoolteacher, by getting her class to hold up letters to spell out WILL YOU MARRY ME.
You can listen to couples tell their own stories on my site:
http://makelovereal.net/category/multimedia/
And look for a nice ping back to you here in a couple days!
We were courting 4 months later, and engaged just over a year after we met.
After courting for 7 months, we were at a point of having to decide whether to get married this year or wait for her to finish school, 2-1/2 years distant.
We chose this year and confirmed that on Valentines' Day, I asked her that day to marry me, but I did not have a ring, so we weren't really "engaged" and it was just a sweet time of quietly considering the future together.
I purchased the ring from a jeweler who attends my church and had it within 2 weeks of Valentines' Day. He delivered it to me that Sunday and I was casting about in my mind how I might make this extra special. I was trying to decide whether to make it something special (downtown Chicago has many beautiful locations and vistas) or somewhere we'd be regularly and could remember fondly.
She did not know I had the ring yet.
I settled on frequent.
She was attending school in Downtown Chicago, but I decided that it were better to do it somewhere we were close to emotionally.
Which worked perfectly.
I always open her doors for her, and so as we walked out to the nearly empty parking lot, and I opened her car door, she got in and sat down, reaching around to put her things in the back seat. I positioned myself down nearly on a knee (the ground was wet) and when she turned around I had the ring out and the question on my tongue.
She was not expecting it then, by any means. It was a few feet from where we had first met and not much further from where we'd really got to know each other. And it was somewhere special to us.
I had no idea I was doing it right. :)
How did I propose? I didn't.
She was going to Germany for a month, and I wanted to give her something as a remembrance, so I bought a ring. I put it on her finger in the car.
When she got back, we started pre-marriage counciling at our church and decided the ring was our engagement ring.
The closest I came to actually proposing was after our weekly swing dance lesson, and I said "we should hire Brian (a friend of ours) to teach swing after the wedding."
At some point, we both assumed we would get married. It was all a matter of scheduling.
The rest of these are cute though.
The house was in Kisumu, right on Lake Victoria and the sunsets were unreal. There was a veranda on the second floor overlooking the lake. A few days before we were set to leave, her parents left the house for the evening. The Indian restaurant down the street brought a rad meal for us to eat at a set table on the veranda. By the time the sun was setting we had finished eating and so I got on my knee and asked.
It was bad to the bone.
First off, my wife's name is Monica. After Monica and I discussed getting married, and decided that when the time was right, we would get married. I asked her father and mother, who both approved wholeheartedly, and then I hatched a plan. I gave her a lilly (her favorite flower) and told her I would give her 12 lillies, and after the 12th, I would propose. I gave her a surprise lilly every few days/weeks or so until I got to 6. I decided it was taking too long, and wanted to surprise her with a proposal.
We live in Austin, and the plan was this:
* Dinner at Cheesecake Factory
* Ice cream at Amy's Ice Cream
* A stroll through the park nearby where she would "discover" a bouquet of six lillies, after which I would drop to a knee and propose.
The flaw in the plan is that if you eat dinner at Cheesecake Factory, you don't go to Amy's for ice cream afterwords. You have dessert there. Duh! When Monica said she didn't want to go to Amy's, I had a small tinge of panic, and changed the plan. We went next door to Barnes & Nobles, and I called my friend Chris. The plan was to have Chris put the flowers out as we were buying the ice cream and then hide. I told Chris we had nixed the ice cream, and were at B&N about to head over. He said he would text me when the trap was set. We looked at some books, got the text, and we were off.
I didn't realize at the time, but I was a bit eager, and practically dragged Monica to the spot where the flowers waited for us. Monica stopped to look at some other flowers, to which I said "How about these?" She saw the flowers, instantly knew what they meant, and started crying. I dropped to a knee, proposed, and she immediately said yes. Unbeknownst to us, we had an audience, who all cheered and clapped. Chris popped out from around a tree, yelled "Surprise!" and took our picture. When Chris dropped off the flowers, he told someone nearby "Some guy is about to appear with a woman and propose. These flowers are part of the proposal, so please don't disturb them." That's how we got the audience. The people nearby heard the message, and stuck around for the festivities.
I wanted Monica to have a romantic story to tell people about our proposal that was original. The slight twist with the dessert made the whole scenario even more romantic, and she loves to tell the story whenever someone asks.
We had been dating a couple of months when I decided she was the one, but she must have read my mind because she mentioned her 90-day rule. No major relationship decisions until after 90 days.
Even though it wasn't quite ninety days, I couldn't stand it any more and asked if she'd marry me. She was completely shocked and said if I could propose while she looked like Death warmed over I must really love her, and she said yes.
When I tell that story I usually add that I realized I'd never find her more physically or psychologically vulnerable. I wouldn't recommend such a short period of dating normally, but I was 50, she was 46. We know who we are and we had chemistry from the moment we met. We've been married for four years and each of us learned many lessons from our starter marriages. We've had moments of friction but no arguments. We've realized most marital arguments are to decide who's right. We take the approach of "How can we solve this problem to our mutual satisfaction?"
It's made all the difference.
Write that down.
................................
Nishantha
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Turns out though that the ring was the source of a dark lord's power and I then had to embark on a perilous quest to cast the ring into the flames of Mount Doom. Also she said no.
Love is a cycle. It goes up and down - just like everything in life (like stocks, real estate, etc.) Marriage is the #1 cause of divorce. Be careful - don't overthink things ... and don't rush into marriage - no!!! Just wait until you have been "around the block" a few times ... stuff like what you have written here won't even enter your mind!!! But the innocence I see in your writing is sweet - reminds me of me in my mid-twenties ... ha ha. Good luck to you!!! OMG!!!
Greg Smith, Founder
www.midlifebachelor.com
I took the sneaky approach when I popped the question. My girlfriend had suggested that we go have lunch at a restaurant she liked in a small town along the Missouri River some distance north of the city. I have my private pilot's license, and the town has a small airport, so I suggested that we fly, stuff our bikes in the back of the rented Cessna, and ride the short distance to the restaurant. (yes, two bikes can be crammed in the back of a Cessna 172) She thought that would be a great idea and planned the whole day out. But after lunch along the river I pulled out the ring. She was totally blindsided!
By the way, she did say yes, and has repeated the story time after time to her girlfriends. My original idea was to propose in the air, but I decided I had enough to think about up there and it would be safer to do it on the ground.
Plan yes! But don't be afraid to improvise if it all falls to shambles.
......................
Nishantha
Social Media Marketing
I was picking up my niece, who went to the same school we had gone to, and brought Charlie (my now-husband) with me. I went in my niece's classroom while Charlie opted to stay outside, and upon exiting noticed that Charlie was gone.
I then got a text message clue, which brought me to the classroom we had first met in, and there were flowers outside. I began to get excited.
I then got another text message clue, which brought me to the cafeteria, and there were chocolates outside. I began to get REALLY excited.
I got a final clue, which led me to the teacher's lounge. (which was the same room it had been 15 years ago- who knew?) The freezer door was open (just as it had been when we won the scavenger hunt thing 15 years ago), but instead of popsicles, this time the grand prize was a black ring box. I opened it, and it was empty. I began to despair- someone had stolen the ring? and turned around. There was Charlie, holding the ring, on one knee. (can't you tell I've told this story a thousand times to anyone who would listen?)
Along with a romantic proposal, I believe a ring which suits the recipient and is beautiful is just as important.
I am an advocate for a sentimental proposal like the one I received- even though it does call for the right circumstances and the right relationship, (if you met at a bar, you can't very well do something like this and produce the same effect, can you?) how can you say no to a proposal that took this much planning?
http://www.thainigirls.com/men.php