popping the question, how did you do it?

[Lagz0r]

So, I've just been wondering if anyone has any stories on how they asked their swmbo to marry them, or visa versa. I'm contemplating asking soon myself (fairly certain of it actually) and just wanted to see how it happened for you guys.

Lagz0r

 

[Airborneguy]

I just want to make clear that mine does not fit the acronym at all...

That said, I told her that since we hadn't been away for awhile we should go up to my cousin's Adirondack mountain cabin. I knew it would be beautiful with all of the snow and that no one would be around. On the second day, I told her I knew of a cool spot where we could do a little shooting and just hang out before heading into town for lunch. We trudged about 1/4 mile through the snow to the spot and did a little shooting with my handgun. My dog was scared **** and ran to my side, so I kneeled down to calm him. When I started asking whether he thought she was the one, she got a weird look on her face and looked down at me. The rest is history. Whenever we talk about it she says she still can't believe I tricked her into actually liking MY idea of the perfect proposal. Afterwards, we enjoyed an awesome dinner at the Great Adirondack Steakhouse and Brewery in Lake Placid. I think I did well .

 

[Zuljin]

I came home from work. She was on the sofa and said, "You need to take time off in September. We're getting married. Here's the rings we're getting."

We started planning the wedding, decided to heck with all this and ran off to Arkansas. A week later, we came back married.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

We were looking at rings for a couple of months on and off (more on in her words). We had one that she liked for her, sans the stone (she wanted a bigger one, of course). I had that ring (sans the center stone) and I asked her when we were in her parents living room. She knew it was coming sometime soon, just didn't expect it that night. In about 2 days, we went to pick up the center stone. Now, after almost 17 years of marriage, she wants a bigger stone. But, she barely wears her wedding ring!

 

[btgold29]

I took my wife and a Nut Shell Pram (small wooden row boat) up north where it wasn't 110 degrees. We spent the weekend in a log cabin. The second day there I took her in the row boat out into the middle of the lake. After about 10 minutes I noticed the back of the boat started taking on a little water. At first I thought it was just a little from our shoes or what not from when we got in it, but then my feet started getting wet. I was thinking to my self " I better Sh!t or get off the pot!" cause this things going down!.. I popped the question and started rowing back. At this point her butt was getting wet because she was sitting on the floor. When we got back to the shore there was a solid 6" of water in the boat and i had all i could do to pull it out of the water. We laughed, and spent the afternoon fishing! She caught all the fish, all of em! It was a happy day.

Good luck to you sir, If you choose this method, use a known leak free boat.

We have been happily married two years

 

[SharonaZamboni]

Me: All messed up on Percocet after the torturous birth of our first child.
Mr.: "Let's get married. We can live in my parents' basement."
Me: "OK."

I don't suggest this method.
Here's a pic that my son took. It wasn't how he proposed, but I think it would have been a nice way to do it.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

I checked the hydrometer for three days...

Actually, it was on a cliff near Carlsbad California. Many years later, the late great Junior Seau drove his car off the same spot. Between the two of us, perhaps his was the better plan. (okay, that's over the top, sorry 55).

 

[DuckiesRevenge]

Dark outside at 8 o'clock at night on the top of a frozen waterfall in -30 windchill. Full moon over head. I almost didn't get her out of the car to walk the .5 miles to the falls. In the end she said she was glad she did.

 

[Goofynewfie]

we were sitting down having a conversation and she decided that we wanted to get married. we met in april got married in december and that was 13 years ago. she was 19 and I was 21

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

We had talked about marriage long before it happened but we were going to wait until after I finished law school because planning a wedding is a lot of work (and while I'm in law school she is in an MBA program). In my first year of school I was going to school part time and working full time. I wanted to stop working and go to school full time but it didn't really make sense for me to pay for my own apartment when she owns a house. The problem is that her parents are very conservative and living together before marriage would be a huge problem. So while we were talking about it on the phone one night I came up with the idea to pitch moving in together as a short term solution before a much sooner marriage. She agreed. So that's the actual proposal. (It ended up working out. Her parents didn't like the idea but we told them I was sleeping in the guest bedroom until we got married. Eventually they got over it and we got married eight months after I moved in.)

The romantic version is a lot nicer. It was December and right after finals. I had obtained the ring about a week prior. While she was at work one day I scrambled around town to coordinate buying her Christmas gift and preparing to propose. I made dinner with one dish that was part of the first Valentine's Day meal I cooked for us and one dish that was new to us but we really wanted to try (it was beef wellington and lemon risotto, if you were wondering). I had flowers and lit candles all over the dining room table. I flipped off all the lights. She came in, saw the candles and started crying. I sat her down, got down on one knee, said some nice things and offered the ring. Yeah, it was traditional and cliche but it's a better story than the first one.

That was a year and a half ago.

 

[FastAndy]

We were on vacation seeing her family in New England. After 2 days of fighting off hurricane Irene in Boston we had perfect weather, sitting on a park bench at Boston Harbor, couldn't been better.

 

[gavball6]

On one knee on the beach of Montego Bay, Jamaica. Not crazy inventive, but effective. Going on 3 years and expecting our first this November!

 

[MaddBaggins]

I took her out to dinner for our 4 yr anniversary. Popped the question over champagne and desert. While this sounds very typical, it was not what she expected of me. She was sure I would ask her on some mountain top in the middle of a backpacking trip.
Thats why I did the fancy dinner, dressed up nice thing. She was shocked.

Good luck!

 

[stratslinger]

We had been talking about marriage for a while at the time - it was already pretty much decided on both our parts, but she wanted to be surprised. So, on Christmas eve, I suggested we grab lunch on the way up to see my family. And I suggested the same place we had our first date. How she didn't see this coming, I still don't know. Anyway, conversation got around to nerves, and she commented about how I never get nervous, and I told her sure I do. She asked when, and I said right now, then took a knee and popped the question right there.

 

[lex990]

I just got in about 6am from a wild ass night with my buddies gravel roadin, She told me to call when I got in, swmbo went to visit parents so i had a pass with the boys. I didn't call because the sun was coming up when I was walking in. she popped in about 745 with a demonic look on her face. she proceeded to chew my ass for another 30 min about how i didn't care about her, and didn't respect her because i didn't call. (this was really the first fight or argument we had for the year we were together). I was hurtin and just wanted to sleep, so i pretty much said, yeah, well you are clueless because i do care about you because I was gonna ask you to marry me. moods changed, she gave me a big hug, i passed back out. it was ironic cause I had an appointment with the jeweler the next week. She didn't get to pick out the ring, but i had all her friends giving me hints, and I got her the perfect one. This august is our 10 year. Since my first proposal sucked balls, I am going to surprise her with a surprise vow renewal ceremony. I'll drop down to the lifetime channel male for this once because she is an awesome woman and a great mother.

 

[Psychodrea]

We were on vacation in Chicago, our last night there. It was close to midnight, drinking wine and watching videos. He and I always do this little game with food such as jelly beans or flavored center chocolates where one person closes their eyes, and the other tells them what color and you have to guess what flavor it was. So he was getting up all evening and having me guess these Godiva chocolate flavors. On the third one, he said white and... there was no chocolate behind it! I opened my eyes to see him down on one knee.

 

[autobaun70]

We went out on the boat on lake Jocassee, which has a ton of waterfalls. We messed around most of the day, then beached the boat and hiked up one of the more accessible falls (she has a thing for waterfalls) and I popped the question very close to the top. We spent the night in Clemson (where we met in school).

I was able to maintain a bit of a surprise factor because we were in town for her to take a test for her speech certification, so she thought I was taking the boat just for the hell of it and didn't know that we had hotel reservations in town.

 

[CoalCracker]

She was sick with a cold and I had some things I had to do after work. So on the way home I picked up some Chinese. I had previously purchased a giant fortune cookie dipped in dark chocolate and heart sprinkles. I tied the ring to the package. After we were done dinner I presented the cookie. She didn't even see the ring until she looked at the cookie again. Then she opened the cookie and there was a fortune in there that said "I am so fortunate to have you in my life, will you marry me?" We will be getting married this May!

 

[lschiavo]

I took her to a beach at the end of the world...it's not far from here; less than a hundred miles away on Lake Superior.

I proposed, she accepted, we cried, we drank an old (lousy) bottle of champagne and then a massive thunderstorm rolled in... Still one of my best days ever.

 

[jarrodaden]

I had a buddy who made fireworks as a hobby. He helped me make a "marry me" sign out of fireworks. She wasn't at all prepared for the sudden pop and flash of light. It scared her at first.

I have since divorced. For that I just let a lawyer tell her.

 

[sonex]

with a shot gun held at my back.

 

[CidCitrus]

Just popped it last night. I decided to go cliche, mostly because that would surprise her the most. We got a night off from our son so I took her out to the restaurant where we had our first date. I "accidently" went the wrong way home, stopped at a park and asked while watching the sunset.

 

[Darwin18]

Got down on one knee, vomited in my mouth, looked her in the eye and said "This is as good as you'll get".

I did the whole proposal on a quiet beach during sunset routine. Worked very well!

 

[medusa1066]

Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware. We were camping for her birthday. Had a beautiful morning on the beach and I wanted to pop the question there. I had the opportunity but there was too many people around. The Park is a decommissioned military post from WWII so there are these massive concrete lookout towers. We climbed to the top overlooking the dunes and the Cape. I got down on one knee and asked on her birthday. She kinda knew it was coming, just not where. I did pick out the ring myself. Kinda cool that we can always go back to that exact spot.

 

[Lagz0r]

So, I bought the ring the other day, pretty nervous at the prospect right now, haha.

 

[glenn514]

Christmas Eve 1968...opening gifts with my Mom, brother and sister-in-law and their two daughters. The three adults knew what was coming...in fact, the diamond in the ring was my Mom's! I had gotten a shoe box full of rocks from the garden, put the ring in the box and wrapped it up real pretty and Christmas-y. When she opened the box, she had to dig around to find the ring...and then she started crying. We were married in August 1969...almost forty-three years ago.

glenn514

 

[lschiavo]

So, I bought the ring the other day, pretty nervous at the prospect right now, haha.

Good luck. I was nervous too. I don't think you can mess up a proposal...especially when you both want it. The hard part is not screwing things up for the whole rest of your lives; Good luck and congratulations!

 

[verbhertz]

On a trip to Duluth, I drove to Enger Tower instead of my friends place. She was really anxious suddenly and didn't want to leave the car. It was late fall and pretty cold. As we approached the tower we could hear teenagers swearing and being jackasses. Then I got nervous! They left as we ascended the staircase and at the top, with a great view over Duluth and Lake Superior, I got down on one knee and popped the question. 1 year anniversary in 3 weeks.

 

[cyclogenesis]

climbed to the top of the highest peak in Australia and told her there was no one else higher than her... (yes did the whole down on the knee thing)
I was such a romantic... Be 9 years in January...

 

[TzeentchPlayer]

Just do it when it feels right. I had a plan laid out and everything, then one night we were watching fireworks (with a full moon brightening up the sky) from the roof of our townhome on the fourth of July drinking beer. I went down to refresh our beer and the thought hit me to propose right there, instead of how I had planned it. So I did, and of course she said yes.

The funny thing is is the way I was planning it would have been less special in her eyes. So in the end, go with your gut! :fro:

Not to mention having the ring was like sitting on a hot coal. It took a lot of control for me to not just give it to her.