Is January an engagement-boom month or something? Seems like the theme on the board lately.
So, how did you/he/she propose? Was it a bended knee affair? A “hunt for the clues” adventure? Romantic? Funny? Boring?
I’ve been proposed to a… few times. The most memorable? One was at the prom, in the middle of the dance floor. I was more mortified than anything else - how was I supposed to say no in front of hundreds of gawking kids? It was a short engagement.
Another was in a McDonald’s drive-thru. I swear, I couldn’t make that up. “2 quarter pounders with cheese, two diet cokes, please.” As he pulls up to “the first window”, he says, “Let’s get married.” I did get a ring a few weeks later. As we were driving. It was in the glove compartment, and he asked me to hand him the Celine Dion tape. It was about as romantic as he was capable of being. And I did marry him eventually, so I guess I didn’t mind too much. Of course, we’re divorced now…
I’ve been asked over the phone twice. Granted, both were long distance relationships, but still…
The most romantic, that ended up not happening either, was outside by a telescope, on bended knee. He had just shown me Saturn. He dropped to one knee, and said, “Speaking of rings”… Of course he didn’t have a ring, so he gave me Saturn. Yup, Saturn is my engagement ring. It was very sweet.
The WryGuy had thyroid cancer, which was treated before I met him. Cancer patients go through routine screenings for years, and there was always a concern that the cancer would come back. We were living together, and had talked marriage a bit, but he was worried that he’d be making a young widow of me. One day, he had a doctor’s appointment for a full physical, including a rescreening for the cancer. After the appointment, he phoned me AT WORK and said “Don’t make any plans tonight. We need to talk.” I went into a full-blown panic, worried that they’d found something bad.
He took me out to dinner that night and when I asked him about the doctor’s appointment, all he said was “everything’s fine, don’t worry about it.” This did not appreciably allay my fears, which got slightly larger when he started talking about his insurance policy, his estate and his will - he was telling me he’d made me the beneficiary of all the above. After dinner, he suggested a walk on a nearby bridge. It was 40 degrees out, and I boggled at him, but he said, “Ah, come on, let’s walk a little while.” We got halfway across the bridge when he stopped and said, “So… what do you think?”
“What do I think about WHAT?”
“Wanna get married?”
“Huh?”
He said, “And I just so happen to have the ring…(digging in his pockets) right here.”
I boggled some more, and he said, “I’m cancer-free - five years! We can have forever now.”
My husband and I had gone to a wedding on August 31, 2003 - it was his old high school best friend’s wedding. I was at the point where I didn’t expect him to propose for another 3-4 months - I’d gone to see him several times expecting a proposal, and finally just said ‘screw it, he’ll do it when he does it’, so I just wanted to have a good time. All day he kept telling me he wanted to show me an episode of the Simpsons that night, because he’d just gotten the 3rd season DVDs. I was like “Okay…”, but we’re both Simpsons nuts, so I didn’t think anything of it.
At the wedding, I noticed he was kind of nervous, but it didn’t click with me. We finally left, and went by the grocery store to pick up a couple of items. I noticed his hands were shaking. And then I realized - that’s probably what was going on.
We got home, sat on the couch, and he put on the episode. When I saw which episode it was, I almost started crying - it was the episode where Homer and Marge get married because she’s pregnant with Bart (no, I was not pregnant). When Homer pulled up to the romantic spot and pulled out his card, then asked Marge to marry him, mr. e. paused the DVD, turned to me, and said “I don’t need a card. Will you marry me?”.
I immediately burst into tears and said yes:). He didn’t have a ring yet, as we had to have his grandmother’s antique diamond re-set, but I didn’t care.
His parents had a little celebration brunch for us the next morning and his mom gave me a few items she’d bought in preparation. She actually made me cry - she had a coffee table book about the history of the wedding dress, and she said she’d bought it the first time she met me and put it away for this day - because she knew it was coming.
Only proposal I’ve ever had, and the only one I’ve ever wanted:).
Yes, late December thru mid-February are peak proposal times, according to my friend the former bridal consultant anyway. She said this was by far their busiest time of the year. A lot of guys give rings as Christmas or Valentines presents, or propose about six months before typical wedding season.
Anyway, Dr.J proposed in bed the night he got back from his trip to Italy during his fourth year of med school. He was acting a little…odd when I picked him up the airport, but I figured he was just tired from the trip. Then he started talking about all the stuff he’d bought, what he’d brought back for this person or that person. No mention of anything for me. A little odd, but not especially so. Then he started up about Florence, and this street that’s pretty much nothing but jewelry shops and how he spent most of a day poking around in them. A germ of an idea hatched, but I dismissed it, since if he wasn’t trying to surprise me he’d just say, “Hey, I got you ring,” and he was dropping waaaayyyy too many hints for it to be much of a surprise. (Hey, I was partly right. He hadn’t bought me a ring. Couldn’t find the absolutely perfect one.)
I climed to the top of a mountain in Sedona Arizona and got down on one knee. I’ve never been more in love and it’s been 11 years now that we’ve been married.
The first time, I proposed by fax. (‘Hello. I love you. Will you marry me?’) She passed it off as a joke. The second time (years later) was on the phone. She suggested I ask her. I was surprised, so I waited until the next day. I asked her on the phone (she’s over 2,500 miles away by road), and she said yes. That was last summer. When she came out for the holidays, she was sitting in my chair. I said, ‘Well, it’s Christmas Eve.’ ‘Yes,’ she said. I got down on both knees and produced a ring. I asked, ‘So will you?’ and gave her the ring. She said yes. We kissed.
I was worried that she’d have changed her mind in the five months since I first proposed. I was very relieved she said yes. But my relief was too soon.
We’d been living together for about a year and a half. He’d already given me a promise ring. Neither of us really felt rushed to do the engagement/marrying thing, so I wasn’t expecting it at all.
It was Valentine’s Day 2002. I came home from work and he was sitting on the couch. There were 2 dozen gorgeous long stem red roses on the dining room table, a small box of chocolates, and a small white box. There was a note of some kind that he printed off of his computer with a pixelated heart on it and something about “Sorry for taking so long to do this…” I started shaking and crying. He walked up to me as I opened the box and just said “Well, will you?”
I opened the box and saw the sparkles through my tears, squeezed him, said “Yes, of course” and put my ring on. He told me to get ready for dinner. We went to one of the best restaurants in town and took our time eating a wonderful meal. After dinner we went to a local club and had a couple of toasts of champagne and danced a little. I admit I was just a tad green the next day at work, but it was worth it.
I’ve had others, but never accepted them. (Well, except my kids’ dad, after his 3rd or 4th proposal I accepted, we were engaged for a couple of years, never married.) In fact, a marriage proposal was a sure fire way to get me to drop a relationship altogether.
) and asked “will you marry me?”