Botched Marriage Proposal

[TripletDaddy]

This is a funny story with a happy ending.

http://www.counton2.com/cbd/news/nat..._bridge/23048/

Did anyone here have a semi-botched proposal? Where and how did you propose to your spouse? Or how did your spouse propose to you? Or if you are single, how do you envision proposing to your future sig-other? Also, did you get on one knee? Did you ask permission from the FIL?

My story is pretty vanilla. My wife and I had already discussed getting married, so it was not a surprise. We were up in the mountains at a spot where we went on one of our first dates. I did get on one knee.

I also asked the FIL beforehand. That one was a real classy move on my part. She and I were down in Vegas with her entire family, helping her grandparents move from Alpine to Henderson. I was in a huge U-Haul moving van with her dad. The A/C was broken, so we were all sweaty and gross. And we were driving around looking for a place to buy hamburgers or fast food. I don't know why, but I figured, "ok, now is as good a time as any to ask him." In a U-Haul. The only thing I was missing was a monocle, spats, and a top hat, because I'm classy like that.

One sentimental thing I did do....on the night we got engaged, I wore a blue shirt that she had bought for me as a gift. It is a plain blue button down oxford shirt from Old Navy. I have saved that shirt to this day. I keep thinking about busting it out on one of our anniversaries just to see if she notices. Now that we have passed the 10 year mark, the next big milestone is the 25 year mark. She has no idea that I still have it, so hopefully she thinks it is a nice surprise.

I have 3 saved shirts in my possession. One is my engagement shirt. One is a shirt from my mission, signed by missionaries in a few zones and given to me at the airport on my way home. The third is a random shirt that I wear every time I get a new driver's license photo. I have worn it in 3 different DL pics and every time the DMV worker does a double take. My goal is to wear it in every DL pic for my entire life, and pass it down to my son so he can do the same.

[FN Phat]

My engagement story is rather par for the course. I asked my FIL for his permission right after church basketball (Not much class there either, DDD). That way if he didn't agree, he wouldn't beat on me all day in the post. He made me promise him two things: That I would stay active in the church (which I can understand was a BIG worry for him), and keep his daughter active in the church.

I proposed a beautiful late August evening, while one a walk with our dog. I did get on one knee. Nothing extravagant by any means. We had dated for almost 4 years by then, so I figured that an engagement would buy me at least another year. We were married 5 1/2 weeks later.

[Babs]

I have 3 saved shirts in my possession. One is my engagement shirt. One is a shirt from my mission, signed by missionaries in a few zones and given to me at the airport on my way home. The third is a random shirt that I wear every time I get a new driver's license photo. I have worn it in 3 different DL pics and every time the DMV worker does a double take. My goal is to wear it in every DL pic for my entire life, and pass it down to my son so he can do the same.

Flash has kept a couple of shirts. One was the one he wore on our first date. The other was the one he was wearing when our older son was born. On a whim he had asked the nurse to stamp the baby's feet onto his shirt (after the nurse had stamped the birth certificate). It was only later that we noticed that he was wearing his shirt from a scholarship program called "tomorrow's leaders." So he's got this shirt that says Tomorrow's Leaders with baby Jeff's feet underneath. Obviously Flash doesn't wear it, but it's in our baby keepsake box.

-

As far as proposals go, Flash engineered and executed the Greatest Proposal of All Time. Words can't do it justice.

[kccougar]

My intention was to give her a fortune cookie with my proposal written in as the fortune. I went and bought a handful of cookies from a local chinese restaurant, then started the difficult task of extracting the paper without breaking the cookie. When I finally managed to get the little slip of paper out of the first cookie, I found that the message read, "You will be happy in marriage".

I very carefully reinserted the paper back into the cookie.

[landpoke]

So I had what I thought was the perfect engagement setting: We'd hike to the top of Med. Bow Peak outside of Laramie and I'd propose at the summit. Awesome right? Beautiful sweeping views, mountaintop etc etc. We know we're getting hitched and I've got the rings (another story for another time) when my bride to be lets me know that I best not be thinking about dragging her up that damn godforsaken mountain again to propose. Apparently the short hike to the summit wasn't the same font of warm fuzzy memories for her as it was for me. Effin hell.

So I ended up popping the question after a drunken Christmas party as we slow danced in our living room to Willie Nelson's version of "Georgia on my Mind."

[Pheidippides]

Mine was pretty textbook. Like DDD, one knee, not much of a surprise 'cuz we'd talked about it etc. Asked her dad after the fact, so it was too late for him to do a damn thing. One thing, though - she was a stickler about picking out her own ring, so I gave her a Ring Pop instead. Yeah, I'm smooth like that.

But nothing is as smooth as the time I gave her an awesome shiner the day before the actual nuptials. On accident, mind you.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Mine was pretty textbook. Like DDD, one knee, not much of a surprise 'cuz we'd talked about it etc. Asked her dad after the fact, so it was too late for him to do a damn thing. One thing, though - she was a stickler about picking out her own ring, so I gave her a Ring Pop instead. Yeah, I'm smooth like that.

But nothing is as smooth as the time I gave her an awesome shiner the day before the actual nuptials. On accident, mind you.

I'm a real cheap bastard. Not only did I get my engagement ring at Costco, I had my sister buy the engagement ring in Oregon so I could save around 300-400 bucks in sales taxes.

The thing is, both my wife and I had gone out looking for rings and the quality, size and setting you could get at Costco as opposed to something at some other jeweler for the same price didn't even compare. My wife fully endorsed the Costco purchase beforehand and I also got one that they didn't sell at the Costcos in the area.

[Babs]

Mine was pretty textbook. Like DDD, one knee, not much of a surprise 'cuz we'd talked about it etc. Asked her dad after the fact, so it was too late for him to do a damn thing. One thing, though - she was a stickler about picking out her own ring, so I gave her a Ring Pop instead. Yeah, I'm smooth like that.

Must be a homeschool thing. Flash had a ring box with a cherry Lifesaver inside.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I was completely unimaginative. I was visitng her for Memorial Day, and while we were sitting on the grass at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura, the thought came to me that I should ask her to marry me, pretty much without premeditation, deliberation or marriage aforethought. Fortunately, she responded yes, almost matter-of-factly, and things moved on from there.

I was much smarter 25 years later. On that anniversary of our engagement (yes, I remembered the date), after our morning jog we were in our backyard, still sweaty as we surveyed what we were going to do to the yard for our daughter's upcoming wedding reception. I asked Mrs. PAC if she recalled what day it was and, after a moment or two, she remembered. I then asked her, quite seriously, "Looking back, knowing what you know now, if you could do it over again, would you say yes?" Fortunately, she gave an enthusiastic "absolutely." I then produced a new engagement ring with a rock larger than the modest offering a quarter century earlier. That was a nice day.

[Mr Incredible]

I was completely unimaginative. I was visitng her for Memorial Day, and while we were sitting on the grass at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura, the thought came to me that I should ask her to marry me, pretty much without premeditation, deliberation or marriage aforethought. Fortunately, she responded yes, almost matter-of-factly, and things moved on from there.

I was much smarter 25 years later. On that anniversary of our engagement (yes, I remembered the date), after our morning jog we were in our backyard, still sweaty as we surveyed what we were going to do to the yard for our daughter's upcoming wedding reception. I asked Mrs. PAC if she recalled what day it was and, after a moment or two, she remembered. I then asked her, quite seriously, "Looking back, knowing what you know now, if you could do it over again, would you say yes?" Fortunately, she gave an enthusiastic "absolutely." I then produced a new engagement ring with a rock larger than the modest offering a quarter century earlier. That was a nice day.

Well done. I did something similar at 10 years (minus the daughter getting married part), but I didn't ask if she would do it again as I was pretty sure she would have said no.

[Levin]

To ask my FIL for his daughter's hand, I asked the family if I could plan family night. Mind you my wife was in Cedar City attending SUU so she wasn't there. For family night, we watched Johnny Lingo. After the film ended, I whipped out a rug and unfurled it on the ground. I asked my FIL to sit on one side, while I sat on the other. Then I broke out a bag of plastic cows, pigs, and chickens and I started the bargaining at 8 cows, three pigs, and two chickens. We haggled back and forth, and came to agreement at a large number of livestock. After that, his daughter was mine.

For the proposal, I traveled down to Cedar City. My sister helped me make a Nerd cake (her favorite candy), took some Los Hermanos salsa (she loves it), got Cafe Rio, bought flowers, set up shop in her apartment, and then had her roommates bring her blindfolded to the stage outside the Globe theater on SUU's campus. We played around there a lot on my visits, if you know what I mean. Her roommates deposited her on the stage, I came up, took off the blindfold and asked her.

She didn't say "yes."

But we still got married.

[Tim]

Los Hermanos salsa

Los Hermanos doesn't serve salsa with their chips, they serve pizza sauce.

[Soccermom]

Aristides isn't good at surprises, so he proposed to me kind of spontaneously one evening while doing homework at his condo. He was planning on waiting and doing something special, but earlier that afternoon, he picked up the ring and he just got so excited that he couldn't wait. He isn't great with surprises, even to this day. But he did get down on one knee, in his kitchen, wearing BYU sweats. I said yes and went back to studying the civil procedure footnotes I had been reading.

[Levin]

Los Hermanos doesn't serve salsa with their chips, they serve pizza sauce.

lol! true, true, but dang if I don't still enjoy it.

[TripletDaddy]

Aristides isn't good at surprises, so he proposed to me kind of spontaneously one evening while doing homework at his condo. He was planning on waiting and doing something special, but earlier that afternoon, he picked up the ring and he just got so excited that he couldn't wait. He isn't great with surprises, even to this day. But he did get down on one knee, in his kitchen, wearing BYU sweats. I said yes and went back to studying the civil procedure footnotes I had been reading.

why study the footnotes? You only need to know the black letter law for the final.