One happy New Year’s Eve, I bought a package at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland, CA. The package included dinner, dancing to live big band music, a one night stay in the nicest room in the hotel, and a bloody mary rexeption the next morning. My girlfriend and I ate, drank and danced. At midnight, I knelt, produced a diamond ring from the jacket of my tuxedo, and proposed. She accepted, and we’ve now been married 13+ years.
A number of winters back (Jan 2001) I was totally in love with this girl. I was in school here in VT, and she was in school down in Boston, but we’d done summer theatre together for a few years, and had become close friends the previous summer, and I’d gone down to visit her in Boston twice during the fall.
Aaaanyway, I had written this song for her, see? And I dropped her a note, telling her this friend of mine was thinking of moving to Boston and had never been, and was going to be visiting family there on a specific weekend, and wanted someone to maybe show him around a little bit. She volunteered, and on the appointed day and time she came to the Park St (I think… that’s the one on the corner of the Commons, yes? Right across from Emerson College?) T stop to meet my friend, only to find me and my guitar. So I sang her this song there on the street, after which we went to lunch where she told me, “thanks, but no thanks.” sigh
On Valentine’s last year, my husband brought a dozen roses to my job and the card read “There’s a big surprise for you at home”
When I got home that night, he had brought home brand new living room furniture and an area rug. He had all the old stuff carted off, arranged everything and even had everything plugged in.
That was GREAT.
Most romantic day of my life:
First day of Spring. Took my girlfriend to Yosemite to go x-country skiing. Fabulous day on the trails. Sunset dinner at the Awahnee, she had the best seat in the house, facing Yosemite Falls. After dinner, we took a stroll in the (full) moonlite to the base of the falls, and made out for awhile. Then, it was back to our cabin for dessert, snifters of Grand Marnier, and… 
For my wife’s 45th birthday, I bought her a diamond tennis bracelet. I also gathered 44 other items, put each inside a balloon and blew them all up. The morning of her birthday she got up to a living room floor covered with balloons and a needle taped to her birthday card. She found the bracelet in the 5th balloon she popped but I made her pop them all suggesting there might be more. She still talks about that day.
I’ve cheated and reposted what I shared in a thread from 2002 found here:
Straightdope - What’s a really romantic thing to do?
Allow me to share what MY hunk o hunk of burning love did for me 2 weeks ago (we’ve been married 15+ years btw):
He made a date with me a week in advance, giving no clues to what we’d do, and arranged for child care for AdoptaKids. Evening of date I’m advised to dress dressy but on the casual side.
Into the car we go … nice long country drive to a beautiful neighboring town and pulled into
www.hemingbough.com . The grounds are deserted EXCEPT for the amphitheater which has been reserved just for us! A single table set center, looking over the the water, a bit before dusk. Candles, Vivaldi softly in the background, wildlife all around (complete with peacocks) our personal chef appears to introduce himself and deliver a very nice Merlot. Steaks with portabello mushroom sauce, stuffed potatoes and corn roasted in the shuck. Desert brings strawberries with a scrumptious chocolate fondue and a very dry champagne. Excellent company, atmosphere, food and wine combined to make this one of the most romantic, memorable nights of my life - and he didn’t break the bank to accomplish it
UPDATE 2006: He (carpenter) often writes me love notes on scraps of wood (he calls it really thick paper <g>). Also, during flower blooming months, he picks roses from our yard and leaves them for me in my car to find when I leave for work - as a result I’ve been late to work more than once in order to properly thank him 
Next month will be 20 years since we’ve met and we’re more in love than ever.
Hmmm.
I sent a love note on the back page of the Village Voice, where the Personals are. That went over well !
I hitchhiked 65 miles each way to see a giflfriend, at end of high school. Surprised her completely, she’d no clue I was going to get there.
Same g.f. In 1980, there was a freak blizzard the first night of Passover in Philadelphia. I was about 8 miles away, with family for the Seder. I walked out, got to a road and started walking… because I’d told her I was going to visit her and her family that evening as well. I got there hours later, but she and her parents were always late-night folks.
She’d gone to bed, they were still up. ( and liked me a ton. ) I went up, knelt down next to her and kissed her cheek as she slept. She woke up to me. Didn’t marry that girl, but seeing her wake up and gaze up at me with sleep and love in her eyes, I might well have. 
Cartooniverse
It was Easter, not Valentine’s Day, but Mr. Rilch says this is the most heartwarming thing I ever did for him.
He was working on one of the Children of the Corn sequels. Long hours, but that’s nothing unusual. Not great pay, but I think he wasn’t in the union yet. But what made it hell for him was the constant berating from either the gaffer or the key grip, I forget. Anyway, I was working too, but he had to stick with the project; he’s never quit any movie job.
So the day before Easter, I took my very meager cash (almost all our money was going to bills) and bought a basket, some plastic grass, assorted individual candies, like a Cadbury egg and a tiny chocolate bunny (I couldn’t even afford whole bags of anything), and set it out on the table before I went to bed. (He was working nights.) I happened to wake up when he came home, and went downstairs to find him sitting at the table looking at the basket, with one tear running down his cheek.
The Easter bunny has not skipped our house since.
I think this thread is better-suited for IMHO. I’ll move it there for ya’.
Romantically Yours,
Skippy
My girlfriend and I have been dating for a bit over two years now, but since May (graduation, natch) we’ve been a few hours apart. I live in Nashville, she in Knoxville. I spent a good deal of time last month in Orlando getting some software training I could never get in college. On the way back up I-75, I came to a split that goes north to K-town and northwest to Chattanooga/Nashville. I decided at the last minute to drive a couple of hours out of my way and surprise her at work.
I stopped at my favorite florist (Crouch’s on Kingston Pike, if you’re interested…very nice flowers for not-too-much cash) and picked up daisies, her favorite. I found my way to her office at the Baptist Hospital and surprised her there. The look on her face was absolutely priceless. It probably took five or six seconds to register in her mind that I was standing in her doorway. So, I got a tour of the office and met some nice ladies from the floor below with whom she occasionally eats lunch. Then we did it on her desk.
I know it made my week.
Back when I was first dating Pepper Mill, I knew she liked The Phantom of the Opera. Learning that Music of the Night was her favorite song, I spent two months practicing itm, over and over. On the night I was to meet her (and she was in a building with a balcony), I phoned ahead and asked her to be out on the balcony. I drove my car to the base of it, opened all the windows and the moonroof, cranked the streo up for for background music, and serenaded her with Music of the Night.
I was dressed in full Phanto regalia, mask, suit, cape, and hat, right down to Phantom makeup under the mask.
Thank God it was deserted there at that time of the year (this was down the Jersey shore in the Fall). Although Pepper told me later on that a woman was out walking her dog down the street. But she motioned her not to acknowledge her, and skittered away pretty quickly. Good thing I didn’t know about it – I’d have been mortified.
I proposed to gooftroopag in Disney World, Orlando – on the second floor of the Japanese Restaurant on the lake’s edge at Epcot. There was a laser-light show w/ lots of fireworks. It was a pretty good show, but when it was over, I said that it needed more lasers, so I pulled out a pen-laser from one pocket, and a box in the other. I opened the box and pointed the laser at the large diamond on the ring and the red dots went all over the box, my face and her face … and I asked her to marry me.
She said YES, of course.
I am much poorer now than I was then, but if I can ever catch a break, I have some more ideas.
Back when I was married, I told my wife not to make any plans for a certain weekend. I wouldn’t tell her what I had in mind, but that we should set the time aside for just us. Once that weekend came, she got home from work and I told her to pack a weekend bag. Then we got in the car and started driving. Being a poor navigator, I had the directions to the place all written out, which I gave to her so she could navigate. The directions didn’t have a single clue about what sort of place we were actually going to, though. The drive took about an hour and a half, and with each passing mile several weeks of pent-up curiosity became more intense. When we finally arrived at the bed & breakfast I had reserved for us, she was thrilled.
If you want to be really romantic, cut off one of your fingers and send it to her.
Yes, as a matter of fact I am single, how did you know?
We went through a rough time where my wife felt unappreciated. Myself, I was tired of being asked for Coach purses and diamonds. Sure, those are nice gifts, but I didn’t feel that they said much about her, or about me for that matter. I felt like giving them would be a small step above giving cash in both her eyes and mine.
She had said several times that she wanted to paint but she never got around to doing it, so for her birthday I went to an art supply and bought her a full selection of oils, brushes, canvas and cleaners, then went home and built a cedar case that would carry them and could be used as an easel when painting outdoors. She cried when she unwrapped it.
I’ve done other things for her that were more romantic, but most are too personal to mention here.
Hard to pick which was the most romantic, but two come to mind.
The night before Valentine’s day, after we had gone to bed, my husband snuck out of the house with my daughter. He took white paint and several pieces of cardboard with different size hearts cut out of them. Knowing the route I drove to work, they painted different patterns of hearts on the road, spaced about 300 yards apart. There was a note in the car for me to read that read, “Keep an eye out for signs of love as you travel down the road of life.” (They actualy got caught by the police as they were painting the last group of hearts. The police asked them not to paint anymore hearts and sent them home.) The traffic helicopter noticed the hearts from the air and mentioned them in the morning broadcast. I especially liked seeing the hearts every day for the next several months until the paint wore off.
Another year, hubby again got up after I fell asleep and went to the Community College where I was a student. He put a large banner across the doorway to the music school that read, " Happy Valentine’s Day, Precious!!" When I got to school, their was a small group of people standing outside looking at the banner, including the dean of the music school. He said it was very interesting that there was no name on the banner, so any girl could say it was for her. I told him it was for me (precious being my nickname from way back) and he said, “See, that’s what I mean.” I told him, No, really, it’s for me. Along with the banner, hubby had purchased a box of about 50 of the silly little valentines that kids exchange at school, wrote in each one, “If you find this, please take it to Marilyn in the music building.” and put the envelopes all over campus. All day long (and even a couple of days later) people kept bringing me valentines. After a while, every time someone walked in the door with a puzzled look on their face, everyone would just point down the hall and say, “She’s in that room over there.”
My boyfriend does a ton of romantic stuff for me. I had a night class last summer that got out at about 10:00 or so. As I was walking towards my car, I was calling him because I didn’t think I was going to see him that night (we live about 30 miles apart). I noticed a car parked beside mine that looked a lot like his. Actually, it was his car. I opened his door and he was sitting there with his guitar and he sang me a song.
He has suprised me with dinner quite a few times. I will come over to his house and he will have candles lit and a nice dinner made, complete with my favorite songs playing on the stereo (even though they aren’t ones that he particularly likes).
Once, he was waiting for me when I got out of one of my afternoon classes. He had a single red rose that he gave to me, and then said he wanted to take me somewhere nice for dinner. On the way to Ottowa (a larger town with better restaurants about 45 minutes away) he stopped at some store to “get something for his cousin’s wedding”. I’m pretty gullible so I didn’t really think much of it. When we got to the restaurant I asked him why he had brought that package for his cousin’s wedding in with him and he said it was cake samples and he didn’t want the icing to melt in the hot car. Again, I’m retarted and was just like, “eh, good idea”. So I forgot about the “cake” and we had a really nice dinner. Before we paid, he said to me, “I have to tell you something. I lied to you”. I just kind of stared at him until he said, “there really isn’t cake in that bag” and he pulled out the bag and inside was a small jewelry box. I opened it up and there was a very pretty little promise ring inside. Of course, I cried. That deceptive bastard! Telling me it was cake samples. I still laugh when I think of how gullible I was that day.
And then there was the time he brought a dozen roses to me at work. Knowing full well that I couldn’t accept them until I was off the clock (some work policy about "not accepting gifts or tips) so he had to follow me around with them for 15 minutes until I clocked out.
And also one time the river flooded over the only road to his house to a depth of about three feet. So we drove over there to check it out and one of us, I still to this day can’t remember, suggested we go skinny dipping. It was such a devious plan, how could we not? I don’t remember if it was a full moon or not but it was awfully bright, and there were lightning bugs all around. That was also the first time we…um…you know what I’m getting at here. And it was freezing cold but it was fun and romantic nonetheless.
I try to do things for him, but I always have a hard time thinking of things to do. I have made him his favorite dinner a few times, and cleaned his house. One time before Christmas I attempted to decorate his house with lights but my staple gun ran out so that didn’t work so well. But he still appreciated the effort. I also make him collages on Photoshop and draw or color pictures for him sometimes.
There’s something bout Airports. My then girlfriend was working for slave labor wages at a defence contractor. They’d work her 60-75 hours a week, then, when they had to make a deadline, ship her out of town for four or five days.
Denver International Airport had been open for abour two weeks. I’d been working on having a stone from a previous engagement ring(*) re-set but had said it was a good 6 weeks out. The Jeweler had pulled a few strings and I got it in time for one of her rare flights home.
So I show up in a Tuxedo(*) and a sign that said “Her Full Name”.
I got plenty of people deplaining that said they’d be ‘Her Full Name’.
She’s about the last person to deplane, when she comes out, she’s startled at the tux, smiles widely, then I flip the sign over. It say “Will you marry me?”.
She didn’t even really look at the ring, I just got a
EEEEEEEEEEEEEYEYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS<sob>
By our counts, ours was probably the first engagement at DIA
- = the tux and ring were sweet revenge from a seriously failed previous engagement. I oughta open a thread about that.
My ex-wife had a thing for old Buster Keaton movies. I went and bought a box set.
I have a friend who manages a movie theater. I convinced him to let me barrow one of the theaters after closing. (midnight) I took my wife there on the premise that we we’re going to get a sneak peek at the movie “Titanic” which wasn’t unusual for us considering my manager friend invites us to these things all the time.
Anyway, as you may have guessed instead of whatching “Titanic” we whatched a butt load of old Buster Keaton movies.
The movie theater part was free but it cost me a small fortune having those vhs tapes converted to film projetor format. Jeez! (or whatever format it is they use these days)
I’d like to take a minute to say the most romantic thing I’ve ever done is allowed myself to take a chance…and found the love of my life.
We met online.
I’ve never known such an understanding, caring, tolerant, kind and passionate man.
He proposed to me at the Koi pond (Botanical Gardens) at the Huntington Library in California after a year of getting to know each other on many levels.
We had developed our relationship over instant message chatting, letter writing and meeting up with each other for mini weekend getaways all over the country.
We grew to realize we were a source of strenght and solace for each other.
Together we are so much more than we’ll ever be apart.
The strange thing is…we’re so damned independent and self-sufficient on our own.
Who knew it could work?
Thank you to the Powers That Be.
I’ve seen the love he has to share and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced.
Sorry for the sap but it’s true.
I love you silenus.