How did YOU propose, or get proposed to?

[Snively Bandar]

I'm getting pretty close to proposing to my girfriend (hopefully later this summer), and have been racking my brain trying to come up with something that's really unique, clever, romantic, etc.  So for all you married folks out there, I was curious how the fellas proposed to their ladies, or how the ladies here were proposed to.

So if it ain't too private, please spill the beans on your (hopefully) romantic moment of engagement, and hopefully you can give me a good idea or two to work with.  Thanks!  

[JoshEEE]

I haven't proposed yet, but I have a great idea for you.


Take her on Jerry Springer.

 

[dustrho]

Boy, do I have a story to tell you.

I started dating my wife back in July 1998.  We dated for over two years, and I decided she was the one that I was going to marry.  I wanted to propose to her in front of all of my family, so I chose to do it on Christmas day.

On Christmas morning our family always plays a game called "White Elephant."  Basically everyone who participates has to bring a wrapped up gift.  We put those gifts into one pile, and then one person (who's the dealer) hands out poker cards to everyone.  The dealer will hand out one card at a time until all cards are dished out.  Most people will end up with 3 cards on the average.  Then the dealer will read one card at a time from a second deck of cards, and when your card is read you go up to the pile of gifts and pick one.  You don't open it yet though.  Once all the gifts are taken from the pile and all the cards are read, the presents are then opened up.  After all the presents are opened up then the process is repeated, but this time you "steal" gifts from other people.

Well, what I did was that I put the engagement ring into one of the gift boxes.  Everyone knew which box it was in and they all avoided it.  The first round of "White Elephant" was done.  My wife had the box with the ring.  When it was time to open up our gifts (to the proceed to round 2 of "White Elephant"), my mom had said something to have my wife open up her gift first.

So, there's my entire family watching her open the gift box with the ring.  Cameras were taking pictures, video cameras were video-taping, and everyone was dead silent waiting for her to open up the gift box.  She opens it, and immediately knew what was going on.  I then got down on one knee and proposed to her in front of everyone.  She was crying, and so was I.  It was one of the best moments in my entire life.

However YOU decide to propose, make sure you remember every second of it.  It's one of those moments you will never, ever forget.  If you need some suggestions let me know.  I had a bunch of other ideas before running with the one I just mentioned.

Good luck!

[chuckles]

I'll play along and share my story.

My wife, who lived in NY when I met her (I lived here in MN), and I decided that she was going to move here to live with me and start our lives together. We had talked about someday getting married but it was never "official" or anything like that. Well, moving time came, I flew out to NY to help her load up a moving truck and drive it back to MN. It took the better part of 2 days to drive here, and with help we had the truck unloaded by very late evening of the 2nd day. By this time my wife was tired and sore. I suggested she take a nice warm bath to unwind. To make things even better, I got out some candle for her so she could take her bath by candlelite (gotta set the mood you know  ). Once she was in there and relaxed some, I came in holding a single red rose for her. I knelt down besides the tub and as I handed it to her, I said a few things and then popped the question. As she took the rose, she looked down and noticed that sticking out from the center of the rose was the ring that I had got for her. She was pretty much blown away and as I had expected, said yes.  

[dustrho]

That's a great story Chuckles.  I can only imagine what happened after she said "yes."  

[Morgbug]

That's a great story Chuckles.  I can only imagine what happened after she said "yes."  

Shampoo and rinse?

[Ben]

Wow, great stories, dustrho and chuckles.  

[Mikey D]

I didn't waste any time, I bought the ring and proposed to her in the same day.  I couldn't wait.

It was during the middle of the work week, I was tired and didn't really want to go out.  She was the same way.  Anyway, I have the ring hidden in my night stand.  I asked her if she wanted pizza for dinner. She said yes.  I went to go get it, making sure I put the ring and box in my pocket before leaving.  After picking up the pizza, I put the ring in the center.  I bring it home, set the pizza down and wait for her to open the box.  She does and is a little confused.  I get down on my knee, pop the question and obviously she said yes.

A pretty unique way to do it, which is what I wanted to do.

We got married last October after dating for six years - while living with her for four - and being engaged for two.

[Karma]

Wow, great stories!!!

I'm afraid I don't have a good personal story, but when I was in high school, my boss was getting ready to propose to his woman and I helped him out with a good proposal idea.

He was taking her out to a nice dinner and then a Broadway play. On the way to the play,  he pretended to have car trouble, and pulled over to the side of the highway (this was on the BQE, for anyone who knows New York City) and "inspected" the car. He called for her to come help him out with somehting in the back of the car, gave her the keys and said to get the jack out of the trunk. She opened the trunk, and balloons flew out, except for one, which was tied to a small box containing her ring. He got down on his knee and did the whole proposal thing, while cars were beeping and honking as they went by.

My personal story is rather boring, we kinda just 'decided' to get married.  We aren't romantic by any means!

-Karma

[Angry Ewok]

...when my dad proposed to my mom, one of her happy-damned-go-lucky friends answered for her... So, mental note to self - do not allow my girl's friends to ruin the mood.  

[Reconsgt]

My wife was married once before so she wanted something a little differnt than a diamond. I have a bunch or emeralds I picked up when I was overseas. most of these are just rough and uncut but I did have a few looked at and had some stones done. She always knew I had these and thought they were unique given that I basically had these since they were just greenblack rocks. I had one of these put into a nice setting by a friend who works at a jewlers. We were dating for about 1 1/2 years and now basically living together. One night I made a nice dinner and had flowers on the table. We talked about basic stuff and I just asked her to marry me. Gave her the ring and she thought it was great that i put a personal touch into it.

 So she has an emerald wedding ring instead. I did by her a diamond ring as well for her birthday but she still wears the original one instead.

 anyone want a rough emerald pm me I will send a few out. Free. strange that a piece of gravel like stone can be so brilliant when cut and faceted.

[Darth Broem]

Well, it was December 8, 2002 when I proposed.  We had actually been waiting on her ring to arrive since we had special ordered it 6 weeks prior.  She wanted white gold instead of the gold they had at the store.  So, she never knew exactly when the ring would come in.  

The night before the store called me and said it was in.  So, I wanted to get it done.  Because when you are ready to propose you want to do it NOW!  Well it was Sunday the next day.  So, after church we would usually eat lunch at my parent's place in town.  This time I drove past their turnoff and she asked me "Are you going a different way?"  I said "Yes, we need to waste some time.  Mom said she needed some extra time for lunch today.  Let's just drive around."  My fiance was like "Ok."  

I drove to her favorite park in the area.  She looked at me funny because we were in a park in the wintertime.  I said let's get out and walk around.  She looked at me funny and smiled because she had an inkling what I was going to do.  

I took her over this bridge of water and we sat by a park bench.  It was a nice pretty setting.  I told her all sorts of nice things about her and proposed.  She said "Yes!" of course.  I had a dozen red roses for her that I hid in the trunk.  Then we went to this fancy, expensive restaurant to celebrate.  

So, I went the quiet personal route for the proposal.  It worked well for me

[Snively Bandar]

I'm getting pretty close to proposing to my girfriend (hopefully later this summer), and have been racking my brain trying to come up with something that's really unique, clever, romantic, etc.

Well, it took a little longer than I expected, due to some job and school scheduling issues between the both of us, but I finally did the deed about a month and a half ago!    (which is why I haven't been around in quite a while)  Very relieved to have it done with, but I guess now the "real fun" begins with all the wedding planning.

I racked my brain like crazy for well over a year on creative and romantic ideas for a proposal, and finally came up with a pretty clever one I think.  I go fishing every several months with my buddies, and Nicole (my fiancee) has always wanted to give it a try.  So I set up a weekday that we both took off, and took her out to one of the prettier lakes nearby to supposedly teach her how to fish.  Packed the cooler full of stuff, which she thought was just a casual lunch.

I found a nice secluded and private portion of the lake, and after teaching her some of the basics, like baiting and how to cast her line out, we started fishing.  I intentionally set my "bait" up with something that would never actually catch a fish, so after 15 minutes or so I said I was going to try some different bait.  So I brought my line back in, and told her to stay focused on hers while I re-baited mine.  Now to the fun part.

I pulled out the ring, and tied it to the end of my line as securely as humanly possible, using a special knot that my dad taught me.  Once I felt confident it wasn't going anywhere, I cast my line back out into the lake.  I gave it a couple minutes before exclaiming "I caught something!"  Nicole set her rod down and watched in excitement as I reeled in our first catch of the day.  I brought it right up next to the boat and finally gave it one last yank out of the water and right out in front of us.  Nicole didn't catch on for a few seconds, since she only immediately noticed that there wasn't a fish there after all.  But when I pulled it closer and said "What's this?", she finally realized just exactly what was on the end of my line.  I saw her eyes get all wide, and then start to tear up, at which point I pulled out a knife and cut the ring from the line, and got down on a knee in the boat, and said those magic words!  

Got the response I was looking for, and the rest is history.  After several minutes of hugging and her crying, I pulled out our lunch which included champagne and strawberries, along with a rose and some candles (fake kind, since a real flame wouldn't have stayed lit out there).  Had a nice rest of the day enjoying our new engaged status, and discussing some of our wedding ideas together.  Wonderful day, and I'm more than pleased with how the whole proposal turned out.  Pretty much perfect!  We want to enjoy a nice long engagement, with plenty of time to get the wedding planned out, so we're all set for about a year from now for the big day, which is a good thing since I'm still wiped out from the proposal planning!  

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to catching up on everything I've missed around the forums here!  

Grant

[Angry Ewok]

Very cool! Congrats!

[Mikey D]

Congrats Grant!  Betcha you were a little nervous reeling that line in hoping the ring was still attached.

My sister got engaged over the weekend.  He's a cop and they meet when he actually pulled her over for having an expired inspection sticker.  My family knows a few cops in the town, so she threw one's name out there and told him he'll vouch for her.  He did, my future brother in law told him my sister was cute, they started dating, yadda, yadda, yadda.

To propose, he had another cop pull her over (I think she stills has an expired inspection sticker  ) and tells her to step out of her car.  Her fiancee then comes up, kneels and proposes.  She accepts, cars start honking and she's happy.  After three previous ass hole boyfriends, it's about time she found someone that's perfect for her.  I like him and my mother and father do too, so all should be well.