Tell Me Your Engagement Stories

In My Humble Opinion
21

My girlfriend had gone back to school for theatre and went with on the department’s annual trip to England to see a bunch of shows there.

I’d ordered her ring and stashed it at my office. While she was gone I bought a video camera and recruited several of our friends to help me out/witness the event.

I had a largish rectangular sign made up, kind of a fancy version of the placards chauffeurs use, with her name on one side and WILL YOU MARRY ME? on the reverse.

The night she got back, we all went to the airport to pick her up. There was a group of about 20 people outside the security zone to pick people up, many of whom were on the trip with her. She has the uncanny ability to always be the last person off of an airplane; so by the time she finally came into view most of her theatre department had made it out and been told what was going on.

As she came into view, she noticed the sign and smiled. Then I flipped it over. For a second she looked confused, then she dropped her bag and did the Miss America hands fluttering up her face thing. Only problem was, she was still about 10 feet behind the THOU SHALT NOT PASS UPON PAIN OF DEATH line on the floor.

I motioned her to come to me, led her to a column, got down on one knee and gave her the proposal speech. I then popped the question, she gave an emphatic and tearful, “Yes!” I slipped the ring on her finger, scopped her up in my arms and turned to the crowd to announce, “She said, “Yes!”” We got thunderous applause, then several of us went to the airport bar for a celebratory drink.

22

I’ll re-post this part of what I wrote in the thread about wedding rings:

She was suitably stunned. I still remember her reaction very clearly. We just had our tenth (wedding) anniversary this year, so I guess she forgave my bungling. Besides, when I told her what I had planned, she said she’d probably have held that stunt against me for the rest of my life.

23

Now-DH was coming over to my place for dinner, and was uncharacteristically late. Really late.

FINALLY he shows up while I’m working myself into a monstrous snit.

He has 3 yellow roses (my favorites). He hands me the first one. “This is for it being a year since we met.”

Hands me the second one. “This is because I love you.”

Hands me the third one. “This is for if you say yes.” And gives me the ring.

It was just a lucky coincidence that the sizing was finished on the day that was a year from our first meeting.

24

ppbth are you trying to give your boyfriend a heart attack?

This thread is making me cry. I’m such a hopeless romantic.

My husband and I had always discussed marriage as occurring after we both graduated. But then I had to withdraw from school for over a year, which means he graduated before me. We ammended our engagement to be after HE graduated, but before I did. I gave him full color copies of rings I liked per his request. We didn’t actually discuss the date outright, but it was pretty obvious that we were going to get engaged on our three year anniversary on June 1 2005, which was conveniently soon after his graduation from college.

June 1st arrives. We had planned a picnic in the arboretum where we had spent one of our first dates. The weather was perfect, the food was yummy. All the conservation just served to dance around the issue at hand, which is that we were about to get engaged.

Hilariously, a couple nearby was arguing loudly. So my soon-to-be-fiance and I just looked at each other knowingly and laughed while we waited for them to calm down and get the mood right.

With all this planning, you’d think there would be no surprises. But he really knocked my socks off. For my anniversary present he presented me with two binders about 3’’ thick full of the e-mails we had sent to one another, spanning from the first time we met, to our lukewarm friendship, to our very close friendship, and finally to the point that we feel in love. We literally have a compendium of the history of our relationship, two binders full of love letters. He had printed lots of photographs of us all over the front of the binder, too.

The second surprise was the engagement ring. Thank the gods, but he sought the advice of our very good friend (later our Best Man) when looking for engagement rings. It was the most beautiful, perfect ring ever, far exceeding my expectations. Our Best Man had also fashioned the most exsquisite bow ever out of a garbage bag – he is the Martha Stewart of men I guess – so it’s funny but part of what made that moment so special was feeling like our very good friend was sharing in the moment with us.

So that was it, we were engaged. We’d wanted the wedding for June 1 2006, but it didn’t fall on a weekend so we moved it to June 11, 10 days after our four year anniversary. We spent the rest of the afternoon calling friends and family and sharing the details.

It was no surprise, but we’d been talking about it so much, it was a long time coming and everyone, especially the two of us, were so happy. So the feeling of finally being engaged, at last, was deeply satisfying.

25

:eek:

I hadn’t even thought of that! Wraine, if you are reading this thread, this IS NOT, I repeat, IS NOT my way of hinting that I’d like to be engaged. We have not known one another long enough for that. I AM NOT hinting about for anything! I just like mushy love stories, that is all! I swear! Now I feel bad for potentially freaking out my boyfriend.:frowning:

Anyway, back to the mushy stories!

26

We were sitting up late talking one Friday night and he said, “Remember that marriage thing we talked about?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Set it up.”

I know. It’s kinda anti-climactic, ain’t it? :wink:

27

My Darling Marcie had picked out the ring and I had paid for it. I thought that sort of sealed the deal but she wanted a formal proposal. So we went to a Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and I was at a total loss as to how to proceed. I finally used an approximation of Rhett Butler’s burlesque proposal to Scarlett O’Hara. She accepted and I’ll be damned if she didn’t remember every word. It must have been at least five or six years later when we were sort of forced into watching a video of Gone With The Wind. I knew I was a dead man the instant the movie started. She took it pretty well, but I had to genuinely explain that even though the words weren’t mine, the sentiment was real. I know I’ll never live that one down as she periodically throws it in my face.

28

My wife and I are high school sweethearts, and had been together a little over nine years before our engagement.

She had always said how romantic Christmas was, so I decided to ask as a present. I wanted to really surprise her, so I left a repceit for a digital camera where she could easily find it. On Christmas Eve (when we always exchange gifts) I let her open the camera set and then get disappointed over the fact that was all she was getting. She started playing with the camera and I told her that I had already taken a bunch of pictures. As she was going through the 20 or so I had taken she came upon I picture of a sign that said, “Will you Merry me?”.
She was in tears in half a second . :slight_smile:

29

Let’s see… my SO and I were having a bit of a serious discussion while sitting on the bed. Without going into detail, I will just say that it was a discussion that I was not ready for at that particular time.
After all was said & done, (and if i remember correctly), the SO says something to the tune of “just one more thing”…
and he asks “will you marry me?”

I wasnt sure if I heard him correctly, and it was sooooo unexpected that I couldnt breathe for a few. Actually, i think he might’ve thought I was going to pass out or throw up or something. I did manage to get a yes out =)

The most romantic thing he as ever said to me was when we were talking about eachother’s first thoughts of one another when we first met at the bookstore. He told me that he knew he was going to marry me. =)

30

My husband and I met on a blind date set up by his secretary (she went to my church), and within two weeks of meeting were talking about spending the rest of our lives together. We often went on picnics, and on one of them he pulled out a ring and gave it to me with the all-important question. Worked well - we just celebrated 20 years.

31

Oh, what the heck, I’ve posted this before, but what’s one more time…

February, 2004. My then-girlfriend, T, and I have been dating for almost four years, and we’re starting to tease each other about marriage. “I haven’t asked you yet / well, I might not say yes,” that sort of thing. We went shopping for rings, and she found the perfect set. At the time, I was unemployed, so I had no money to buy 'em. Still, the time was feeling right, so I borrowed the money from my parents and picked 'em up, without her knowledge.

Then, I form a plan. My plan requires accomplices: our two friends, Clint and Anthony. I call them up and tell them the plan. On Tuesday, we all went out to dinner, during which I secretly slipped a key to my apartment to Anthony.

That Friday, T and I were going to a play (we usually get season tickets to the university theater). I suggested we dress up a bit for fun, so we did. We met up at my apartment, then went out for dinner, then it’s off to the theater. I already have the ring in my pocket.

Meanwhile, Clint and Anthony, using the key I’d provided, entered my apartment. In my bedroom, which T did not see, I’d left a big box containing supplies: music, about 100 white candles of various sizes, and boxes of rose petals. They arranged the candles and petals around the apartment and settled in for a bit.

The play was okay, but not great. Unfortunately for my purposes, it was also quite short; it ended about an hour earlier than I’d expected. As we walked up the aisle to the exit, I subtly pulled out my cell phone and called Anthony, letting it ring twice; that’s the signal to light the candles, start the music, and clear out. If something had gone wrong and we needed to abort, I would have called Clint’s cell phone instead. T didn’t see me make the call.

I drove back to my apartment slowly, taking my time, giving the guys time to get things done and get hidden. She told me later that she thought it was weird that I was driving so slow, but she didn’t suspect that The Game was Afoot.

So, back at my place. I unlock the door and let her inside. We’ve been away for maybe 3 hours, but the place is totally transformed. The first thing she sees is a path, lined with candles, strewn with rose petals, leading into my living room. There, candles fill just about every surface, and rose petals are everywhere. On my coffee table, candles form the outline of a heart, filled with rose petals. The song that happens to be playing is “Tupelo Honey” by Van Morrison. As is tradition, I go down on one knee, pull out the ring, and ask her to marry me.

She’s a little too busy crying and hugging me to answer for a while, but finally she said, “Of course I will.” We called the guys, who were hiding around the corner in their car, and had a candle-blowing-out party. Then, wine.

I got her pretty good; she never expected that I’d have a ring purchased, because she knew I was penniless. Overall, a proposal well done, methinks.