How did you propose/get proposed to?

Married/engaged WF'ers: How did you propose to your SO, or how were you proposed to?

Me? Well, I woke up Friday morning with no plans to propose, and went to bed Friday night engaged. I was already having a ring made, and was planning on popping the question over the 4th of July, when we head up north for a few days. But the ring was ready on Friday, two weeks ahead of schedule, and Friday just happened to be our two year anniversary. We already had dinner reservations, so the timing was perfect. I called ahead to the restuarant and told them what I was planning to do, then after a fabu meal of beef tartar, seafood and steak frites, took out the box, opened it, and while she was distracted by the big shiny diamond, got down on one knee.

The whole place applauded, champagne was brought out and there was much celebration.

We were walking her dog around her apartment complex. I said that I needed to sit down for a minute so we sat on a bench. I said I needed to ask her something, got the ring out of my pocket, got on one knee and proposed.

So... when are you taking the ring back?

Similar here, actormike. We had already met each other's parents and I was old-fashioned enough to talk to her father first. We went to dinner at a nice place and she should've known something was up when I insisted she dress up.

It was so romantic. I was apparently taking too long to get around to it, so one evening Mary said, and I quote, "Are we going to get married or are we just going to keep going on like this?"

Lying together in my dorm room bed (cohabitation, illegal stuff in the AF) but we were not doing anything just talking. I asked her is she would consider marrying me after building up the nerve and at that exact instant some fucking moron upstairs start playing a saxophone and horribly bad and she started laughing and my heart was broken.

We were at the jeweler's and had picked out the diamond and setting and had an hour or so to kill while it was put together. So we went to a nearby chinese restaurant (George HW Bush's favorite one!) and had some lunch, during which I asked "D" to marry me. Y'know, since we'd just picked out the ring and all, it seemed the thing to do.

Wasn't terribly romantic, really. I mean, it wasn't like it was a surprise or anything.

Tho I'm sure the jeweler got a warm and fuzzy when I wrote the check.

Oh we talked it over and were going to tell every one we were engaged to be married at a certain time. We went into AAFES, a military general store and looked at rings and we bought a nice 1/3 Karat ring( I know but it was all I had). Then when we got out to the car she took it from me and never gave it back, wore it back to the dorm and her room mate goes "Mother Fucker! Where did you get that God Damned Rock!" and the cat was out of the bag. Next day at work my boss asked me if I had something to tell everyone. news traveled real fast in a small squardon on an Airforce base in England.

"I'll bet you're too big to get completely in this duffle bag."

Every once in a while Mary's father tells me, "Ya know, I had to ask her mother's father's permission to propose..." and looks dejected.

www.nomarriage.com

I was the happiest I'd ever been and me and sunshine had been talking over moving and starting a family, so one evening I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.

I didn't have a ring as I'd only decided that day, so I cut a foam nerf ring (one of the projectiles that you shoot out of them gun thingies) to size (it was actually more like an octogon shape with a hole in the middle ) and gave that to her in lieu of a ring which I got the next day.

Eight months (I think) engagement and then we married in a gorgeous palace (literally) surrounded by the people we care about most (with one or two exceptions due to other issues).

She lived in Montreal and I lived in New Jersey, so we didn't do the normal dating thing. Our first date (and only the 3rd time I saw her) was a four-day weekend in Quebec City.

We also didn't wait years like some of you did. We reserved the church and reception hall only 4 months later. But we still weren't formally engaged. That was 2 months after that. I gave her a custom-made ring in the restaurant where we went the first time we met. Given that everything had been arranged for 2 months, it was not a surprise.

I didn't have to ask her parents' permission. In fact, her mother told her, "Marry him - Who else is going to marry you!"

Then you woke up.

Nice. Congrats and good to see you posting again.

If they're like my in-laws, the longer you're married, the nicer a guy you must be. (if that makes sense.)

Then there's this story:

Well, originally I was going to do it in Paris, but that fell through after I caught some sort of think on our trip and got sick on the day I was going to do it, so I had to use a back up plan instead. I took her to a restaurant an exclusive hotel opposite Kensington Palace at Christmas. I didn't have a proper ring as I had made the decision to do it earlier tha same day as the time just felt right. I quickly shot over to the King's Road and got a silver ring as a temporary one as we have been planning to go to Dubai, and you can get the same kind of fancy rings there that you can get in the UK, but for less money, so we can get a better one when we go.

However, for reasons of not being pushed into things we did not tell our friends or family. Instead we waited until this past Monday, when we annouced in to her parents. I decided that it was worth another proposal since it was in front of everyone, which she wasn't expecting, so I went down on one knee and asked her to marry me. So now it's all out in the open and official. We'll most probably get married next summer.

I did it the day before Valentine’s Day. We had Chinese food the night before but never opened our fortune cookies. So I extracted the fortune from one and inserted a new one that read, “Will You Marry Me?”. Then I casually commented that we never opened our cookies so I tossed her one. When she read it a puzzled look was on her face. She turned to me and I was on one knee with the ring in my hand. Completely took her by surprise!

At our wedding, the party favor was a little Chinese takeout box full of fortune cookies that had little pithy sayings in them. Some we wrote others were chosen.

I had been struggling for a week on a good way to propose when the unopened fortune cookies caught my eye and the light bulb went off.

I'll be proposing this weekend.

Any opinions on the "asking Dad for permission" tradition? Too old fashioned?

My gf and her Dad aren't super-close, her parents divorced when she was 8 or so and mom got full custody. He lives across the country, but we do see him from time to time....

Robyn intends to walk down the aisle by herself (no Dad escort), so maybe that should be a hint that permission is not necessary?

In bed.

A couple of days later he met my family for the first time. I thought we were just going to tell dad we were engaged, but instead OH asked for my hand...
Dad loved it, and treated OH like his own son from then on.

This sounds familiar except it was about a six month engagement.

I didn't ask permission, as she specfically asked me not to. Her reasoning is that she doesn't need anyone's permission to get married.

I didn't ask permission. Her parents are divorced and she only speaks with her father a couple times a year. He also lives somewhere in the old Confederacy (we don't know exactly where). He's a hard guy to track down.

Another "no asking for permission" here. No need, really. Her parents aren't that much of traditionalists.

In not engaged but for my promise ring.

He told me I had bad breath and said do you want some gum. I felt bad about my breath and said yeah of course. He pulls out the ring and tells me he loves me. And then I say. "Oh it is so pretty. I love you. Does my breath really smell bad?" The end.

I suspect any woman I'd want to marry would find the idea of asking her father's permission -- especially before asking hers -- pretty objectionable.

Oh that sounds absolutely wonderful congratulations!!

Well I was 9 months pregnant. He bought me a blizzard and got down on one knee and said so you want to get married it would have been nice if he had asked my Dad first..but the answer would have been no

I will give you some marriage advice though.

We eloped instead of having the big wedding because he had had one before and his family had turned it into a big gong show. Which really was cool and it was beautiful - actually highly recommend the resort wedding in the Dominican Republic (we had a small private legal ceremony and then renewed our vows there...$300 included everything - ceremony, flowers, JOP, supper and even a little band that followed me around). I just wish that it had gone differently, its not really the dream type of story you want to tell your children.

DON'T insist that you elope then 'forget' to tell your family, especially your 16 year old daughter, that you are getting married until the day before.

As much as I appreciated being called an aging, gold-digging whore and told that the inlaws will do whatever they can do to destroy our marriage on the day of my wedding - not every other woman will.

I love my husband to death - he is a wonderful man - just completely and utterly clueless.

My feeling is that she would think it unnecessary, but would likely not be offended by it. Her Dad is an old-fashioned guy (spent 20 yrs in the AF as a pilot), and I think he might appreciate it.