So tell me about your proposal to your SO

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Discourse tells me that this hasn’t been done since 2003, so let’s do it again.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a proposal of marriage - a proposal of commitment to your SO is the key thing.

We were making out on the couch when my now-husband blurted, “Will you marry me?” My reaction was a wrinkled brow and “Are you sure?” He said he was (he told me later he’d been planning on asking and it just … came out in that moment). I told him if he was sure, then yes.

That was February 1988. We got hitched in May 1988. We’re still hanging in there. You?

2

No real proposal, we just knew where things were going. Announced we were enagaged almost 25 years ago, our 24th wedding anniversary is in June.

3

I have a fairly elaborate proposal planned out, but haven’t done it…yet.

4

The doorbell rang. My ring arrived. I called her dad (because I’m traditional that way, and I knew he’d appreciate it.) Got his blessings. She was sitting on the couch, working on some code on her computer. She looked a little irritated that I interrupted her. I proposed. She accepted.

Not the most romantic, but efficient.

5

I asked my wife-to-be if I should do that. She told me he would say, “Why are you asking me? She’s the one you want to marry.” He was a pretty cool guy.

To answer the question. We had talked about getting married, and we both knew that things were inevitably headed in that direction, but she told me that I had to officially propose to her. Okay, cool. So one evening we were sitting in bed eating ice cream, and I said, “Want to get married?” And she said “Okay.” And that was good enough for her to consider it official. In keeping with her dad being pretty cool, she’s always been pretty mellow and low maintenance.

6

My wife would probably said do it if you want to. Her father is a conservative, old/fashioned guy who grew up her in a working class neighborhood in Chicago. He wouldn’t have cared if I didn’t, but seemed touched that I did. I also don’t think I asked — I just let him know first.

7

The missus and I knew each other for 10 or so years, wasn’t so much a proposal. more of a meeting of the minds. What really spurred the timing of the marriage was an impending back surgery, needed to have her on my insurance to have that happen. 15 years later we’re still in love, and now I’m on her health insurance :joy:

8

I’ve told this story before, but it’s been a while and I’m sure there are people here now who hadn’t heard it.

We had been living together for a few years; originally we were just roommates but things … developed. She had come along with me to a few family get-togethers without anything ever being said about the nature of our relationship. Then a few days before Easter we were discussing the plans to go to my Mom’s and out of the blue she said something about not feeling comfortable “imposing” herself on the family as “just a friend”. No idea where that came from, but my reaction was to start talking about making wedding plans. On Easter we told the family we were getting married, with the expected congratulations all around. (My Mom practically knocked me down to get to hug her and welcome her to the family.)

At some point it occurred to her that I had never actually proposed to her. Being who I am, I brushed it off as an unnecessary formality, and it became a running joke. She (jokingly) complained about it to our friends; she tried to propose to me and I always changed the subject.

So the Big Day arrives. She gets walked up to the altar and is handed over to me. I lean in close and say, just loud enough for her to hear, “Hey, lady, if you’re not doing anything, do you want to get married?” On the wedding video, you can see her trying not to laugh (and probably fighting the urge to belt me).

I maintained afterwards that I wanted to be sure she would say yes when I asked.

9

We were in Glacier National Park for a week. Stayed on the east side of the park a few days, the west side the next few. On our last day in the park we took the shuttle up to Logan Pass and hiked the trail up to Hidden Lake. Once we got to the overlook, looking at this:

I figured there wasn’t going to be a better moment than that, so I took the ring out of my pocket that I’d been carrying around all week and asked her.

10

We dated first in late Aug., 1963 and a number of times until Nov. 22 (Kennedy assassination) when we spent the entire weekend hugging. After that I knew. Still I waited till New Year’s eve because my favorite uncle (he was only 12 years older than me, lived around the corner and was more like an older brother) had proposed to his wife on a New Year’s eve. My wife-to-be knew the story and was totally prepared, so when I asked her, it took 5 msec for her to say, “Yes!”. We married in mid-March (pi-day although that meme didn’t exist then). It will be soon 59 years since I proposed and we are still going strong. Well, still going, anyway.

11

First saw my future wife on a dance floor spinning, long hair flying. We were together for a couple years after, but I was an immature idiot. Saw her now and then for the next 3 years, then I left town (got moved to another USAF base). Saw her once 2 years later. 5 years after that (about 11 years after first sight), I had a dream about her and realized I still loved her.

Got back in touch, and dated a few times (we were about 2 hours’ drive apart then). On one phone call, which she took while watching TV, I impulsively asked ‘Why don’t we get married?’ She’d only been paying half-attention to my chatter, watching her show, so didn’t even actually hear me ask it. She knew by my silence that I’d asked something, so, recovering beautifully, she said ‘I don’t think I heard you right.’ (After all, what idiot proposes over the phone (in 1997)?)

25 years later, I’m still an impulsive idiot and she’s still putting up with me.

12

We started talking about it during a trip to Key Biscayne, and pretty much agreed to move forward. When we got back to Manhattan I officially “proposed”, even though it was a done deal. She replied, “uh-huh”.

13

It depends on whose perspective:

Her side:
It was weird and awkward. I knew he was going to propose but it kept getting ruined by one thing or another. I practically had to drag it out of him. He didn’t even have a ring. Even the weather was kind of gross.

My side:

In Paris

14

My girl (now Wife of 26 years) and I had already bought property together. She was living at ‘my’ house.

After a couple of years, we where siting on the couch and she said ‘We should probably get married’. I said OK.

15

We were in bed one morning (yes, we were Living in Sin at the time (Sin is a small suburb in Melbourne). We were doing the usual ‘Damn, now we’re going to be late for work’ jokes, and one of us (I honestly can’t remember which) said something like ‘we should actually get married’.

That was it. No discussion after (the respondent probably said ‘yeah’ or something equally romantic).

We still have a (private) tradition that the date we decided to get married is more significant that our actual wedding anniversary. Making the decision was significant - the date of the actual wedding was driven by availability of venues, travel arrangements for relatives etc.

16

Technically my husband proposed, but we both saw it coming a mile away. It was our three year dating anniversary. I’d already given him pictures of rings I liked. We spent the day in the local arboretum and I knew it was coming any minute, but this couple near us was in the middle of an argument. So we were just looking at each other laughing to ourselves waiting for the right moment.

He surprised me, however, with two enormous three-ring binder volumes of the emails we sent to one another when he was studying abroad in Spain. It’s basically a record of how we fell in love. It was affixed with a lovely plastic bow that our friend apparently made out of a trash bag. I was seriously impressed.

And the ring - perfect. I had asked for a colored gemstone instead of a diamond and he got a gorgeous sapphire ring, which I’m sorry to say was lost several years later. What I got to replace it is a lot flashier, but I don’t feel the same way about it as I did my original engagement ring and wedding band.

We were 22 years old then. We are almost 40 now. Sigh. (Dreamy sigh.)

17

Much more picturesque than our couch. We still have it, though and I’m sitting on it as I type (it is a nice couch - Italian leather :slight_smile: )

18

Is this a confession?

19

I undoubtedly shared our story in the old thread, but here it is for the new thread:

My then-girlfriend and I had been dating for a year and a half, and we both were pretty sure we wanted to get married. At that time, we were spending our summer weekends working at the renaissance faire (we worked at the blacksmith shop which was owned by some good friends of ours); another acquaintance of ours who worked at the faire was a goldsmith, and he had a jewelry shop there.

My girlfriend and her friend went over to that jewelry shop the morning of the first day of the faire (which would have been the end of June), and she found a ring that she fell in love with. My girlfriend’s friend then dragged me over there, to see the ring, and I bought it, to serve as an engagement ring. So, my girlfriend was pretty certain that I was, from that point forward, in possession of an engagement ring.

But, immediately after that weekend, she then left the country for several weeks, on a long-planned trip with her sister. I knew that I wanted to make the proposal special, so I waited until after she got back, and then we arranged for a dinner date, at a nice restaurant. By that point, I had had the ring in my possession for at least a month – my friend the goldsmith kept asking me, “Didja ask her yet??”

After a lovely dinner, we went back to my apartment. I told my girlfriend, “I have a few gifts for you” - the plural “gifts” confused her. :slight_smile: Then, in order, I had her open up this series of small, gift-wrapped packages:

  • A mint-condition baseball card, of San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark (Will)
  • A little ceramic sheep, with a pink ribbon around its neck (ewe)
  • A cassette tape, “The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary,” with an arrow-shaped sticker on the label, pointing to the final word of the title (Mary)
  • A pair of two kids’ wooden alphabet blocks, an “M” and an “E,” glued together (me)

After the first two gifts, my girlfriend looked very confused. “Baseball and sheep? I don’t get it.” After the third gift, the light dawned, and as she opened the fourth gift, I dropped to one knee, and pulled out the box with the ring.

20

Extra points for creativity!