I've been proposed to twice and both were public. This is funny because I'm not a person who enjoys the spotlight.
My H took me to the beach at sunset and proposed in front of hundreds of people. He had no idea there was a festival going on. Afterwards we walked over to one of the oceanfront restaurants where our friends had gathered to celebrate with us. It was all a surprise for me (though we had discussed getting engaged and shopped for rings so he knew I would say yes lol).
Totally private. We were visiting the city where we both went to college and had dinner at our favorite restaurant there. It was cold (February) and he insisted on walking through campus after dinner, even though I had zero desire to be outside in the cold. I suspected something was up due to this insistence and due to the fact that he dragged out our meal and seemed a little jumpy during it. As we walked, he stopped in front of the building where we first met and proposed to me there. Not a soul was around.
We were living in CT at the time and we went hiking after work to a tower that overlooked the valley where we lived and he proposed at the top. It was perfect, but I totally knew what was up!
He proposed to me under the Christmas tree-it was the last gift I opened up. We were in our home by ourselves and it was great.
He went on to explain how he was supposed to propose to me. His jeweler said not to do it on Christmas and told him a restaurant and had Light on the Lake tickets.
We went out to dinner up at this restaurant on top of the mountain nearby. Afterwards we came out & there was a huge lit up pine tree outside. No one was around. He said "Let's sit here (on the bench under it) for a little bit" and I thought nothing of it. He got down on 1 knee and proposed. I was actually very surprised. It was private (no spectators) and romantic. It was April & apparently he had gotten the ring in Dec when he went home for Christmas. We had been talking about going to the Grand Canyon for months & he wanted to do it there but couldn't wait any longer. We had been dating about 20mo total by then.
It was in a random field of bluebonnets that we stopped in to take pictures (we asked the owners for permission). I was taking pictures of the dog, and turned around, and he was on one knee, holding this willow tree sculpture with the ring lodged in it. I took the sculpture, and then he signed, "will you marry me?" It was very sweet.
We were sitting in the park beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I thought he was getting up onto his knees to scratch his butt or something.
But no, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring.
It was perfect.
The tree we were sitting next to had a loop in the trunk, with a hole all the way through it. Every time we've been back to Paris, since, we've located the tree!
In a restaurant with about 6 of our friends. It was lovely.
Except that I burst into tears, forgot to say yes, and he looked around at everybody and said, "If any of you thought this was a bad idea, you should have said something!"
The first time, I had just returned home from a business trip around happy hour time. My exFI and I went out to the bar with some of my work colleagues and then stopped at home before heading out to meet some friends. He proposed in our family room, I said yes and then we each ran in opposite directions to call family and friends. We had discussed buying a house and we had just had an anniversary so it wasn't out of the blue. Obviously wasn't quite right for many reasons since we never made it down the aisle
DH is insane and bought a ring and proposed after we had been dating just over two months and lived 1200 miles apart. I had flown into town for thanksgiving weekend and had an interview for an internal transfer the following Monday. (That I showed up for sporting my new sparkly ring before I knew better.. Good thing I still got the transfer lol). That Friday, we met my dad for lunch so I could introduce them. It was all a charade since he had had my sister introduce them the previous week so he could ask for his blessing. So yeah, the first time he met my dad was to ask him if he could marry me lol.
Anyway, after that, we went downtown to go ice skating. Our city has an outdoor rink set up right in the city center during the holidays and it opens thanksgiving weekend. He had planned to drop to one knee when I fell, but I didn't fall, I had a death grip on his arm. He eventually started skating backwards and dropped to his knees to propose. He had my family there and they saw it all. Very public and a total surprise. I said yes and then some football team lost their game which meant DH's team was going to a BCS bowl game, before we got off the ice. He likes to say it was the best moment of his life lol.
We went for a walk in the dark in January on the National Mall, so deserted and freezing, and we went to the edge of an isolated lake (pond? it's no longer there) and he asked me. I said yes (well, sure, because I'm romantic like that) and we high tailed it out of there because it was so cold.
Post by rugbywife on Sept 27, 2015 11:50:16 GMT -5
He wanted to go for a hike. I felt horrible (I can't remember why, but I was being bit of a baby)...we took a nap instead, we were in bed, he asked. I already had a ring (my mother's engagement ring) and he knew about it so there was no ring used when he asked me (he knew where it was kept and would have brought it on the hike. It wasn't what he had planned but was perfect for us.
I got home early to wrap presents for our anniversary dinner date. I was going to put the ring on the cat's collar. Then she got home to do the same thing. So we just did gifts before dinner lol.
Post by cricketwife on Sept 27, 2015 11:59:51 GMT -5
holly116, the first time DH spoke to my father was to ask his blessing. First time they met was at the rehearsal dinner!
another whirlwind here. I was in England for only 4 days and we has been long distance dating for 2 months. He was sick (he had this terrible, funky, eye infection going on and looked awful) but was determined to propose anyway. He took me to this amazing Georgian hotel (restaurant) where we had our first date. He asked me in the garden. He had picked out a card that was steeped in meaning, the venue was steeped in meaning... BUt HE DIDNT ASK ME! The card says "will you marry me?" But i was waiting for him to actually say the words and he was waiting for me to answer, lol. I really do wish he had actually asked me. Oh well, it all worked out well in the end!
holly116, the first time DH spoke to my father was to ask his blessing. First time they met was at the rehearsal dinner!
another whirlwind here. I was in England for only 4 days and we has been long distance dating for 2 months. He was sick (he had this terrible, funky, eye infection going on and looked awful) but was determined to propose anyway. He took me to this amazing Georgian hotel (restaurant) where we had our first date. He asked me in the garden. He had picked out a card that was steeped in meaning, the venue was steeped in meaning... BUt HE DIDNT ASK ME! The card says "will you marry me?" But i was waiting for him to actually say the words and he was waiting for me to answer, lol. I really do wish he had actually asked me. Oh well, it all worked out well in the end!
Lol this reminds me a tad if the first time DH expressed the fact that he loved me. I say expressed because he didn't say it, he TEXTED it to me in German, which I don't speak. I was at some work function and it was before phones were awesome so I had to wait till I was back in my hotel room to fire up my laptop and check what exactly ich liebe dich meant.
He attached the ring to our (tabletop) Christmas tree, and proposed Christmas Eve alone in our living room. I liked the private aspect of it.
I wish he had picked a different day. He had originally promised he would propose before my birthday (in October!!)but the ring wasn't finished yet. Apparently the ring was finished by the end of October, but by me saying I wanted a birthday proposal, he thought he had to wait for another major holiday.
I obviously said yes anyways, but I was pissed we couldn't go out for celebratory drinks with our friends, and really upset I had to wait a week to show my family.
H proposed in a public park but it was December and there weren't many people there. There was a specific spot he wanted to be at but there was a couple there taking engagement photos so we walked to another location. My trip to Antarctica had been cancelled and H said he needed to do something to cheer me up. Afterwards we went out on a pub crawl with friends.
H proposed at night on the obv deck of the Empire State Building. It wasn't that crowded so it didn't feel too public but people were concerned that I was crying, then they congratulated us! I was impressed he really thought it out, we were visiting friends in NY for the first time and he was carrying the ring when we traveled. I was only sad that he was flying off to Spain the next day or two so I didn't have a lot of time with him after.
First you have to know that his entire kitchen at this point in his life typically contained orange juice and nothing else. He lived on Chipotle and that is about it.
He invited me over on a random Tuesday night for dinner. I walked in and he had a dozen roses and the table had a pink plastic tablecloth. A fire was playing on his computer monitor. LOL.
He had made Stouffer's lasagna and bagged salad and frozen garlic bread, which was a seriously gourmet dinner to him at the time.
We ate, we played my parents' 25th anniversary photo montage I had just had made and picked up that night, and then he got down on one knee and said he wanted our next 25 years and many more to be as happy and full of love as theirs were, and asked me to marry him. He teared up, I sobbed and said yes. He had my friend coming over to take pictures of the proposal, but she was late--and I was glad because I loved it being just the two of us. She took a picture of us a half hour after it happened.
Then we quickly stopped at my mom's work to tell her and then I had to leave because I had responded yes to a MLM party that night. I was 22 at the time and he was 24. We had tried on rings on vacation a week earlier "just for fun" and talked about getting engaged in a year. Little did I know, the night we got home, he went to the jewelry store and bought one of the rings I'd liked.
We were walking along the Charles River chatting about a friend's engagement when all of a sudden he wasn't beside me anymore. I'm a fast walker so when I turned around he was at least twenty yards behind me on one knee, oops. He was laughing because he figured I was going to keep talking and walking for like ten minutes before I noticed that he wasn't with me. Typical me. A few strangers were around and congratulated us, which was cool.
Post by rootbeerfloat on Sept 27, 2015 12:51:28 GMT -5
He proposed in our apartment the day before we planned to go on a mini-trip for Thanksgiving. He came home early to surprise me, set up candles and flowers, etc. And he'd told our families ahead of time, so everyone knew except me. He said he'd considered something more public, but knew I wouldn't be comfortable with that.
He thought he'd been clever by taking a ring out of my jewelry box to get the right size. But he took a thumb ring (remember those lol), so it was huge. I nearly lost it playing an arcade game the next day. Oops.
Post by moopoint17 on Sept 27, 2015 12:53:24 GMT -5
Totally private. We had spent the day hiking and he thought about proposing then but decided I wouldn't like being asked with other people around. So he asked when we got to our hotel room right before going out to dinner.
Post by carolinagirl831 on Sept 27, 2015 13:03:55 GMT -5
DH was visiting from being on a 6 month training for work in Detroit. I was living in St. Louis. We planned to get dressed up and go to dinner to make it a special weekend . He proposed while we were walking along the riverfront under the arch. There were a lot of people around and I was pretty surprised. I loved it. Afterwards we took a carriage ride and went to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the city. He had my favorite flowers waiting at the table
We were in vacation in Las Vegas. It was our first night and we were up in our room at getting changed for dinner. He very nonchalantly asked me, "So, will you marry me?" I thought he was just screwing around and didn't see that his hand was behind his back. I'm pretty sure I told him to shut up. Then he pulled the ring box out and said, "No, really."
The next day we were renting a motorcycle and driving to Red Rock Canyon and he had planned to do it there. But he was so nervous that the ring would fall out of his pocket that he just went for it in the hotel room.
Post by oceanstbride on Sept 27, 2015 13:30:06 GMT -5
I love reading these!
H proposed at our house in bed and it was really perfect. I also had warned him that I didn't want anyone else around. The morning he proposed, we were leaving for vacation. He woke up before me (which he never does), snuck out of our house to get into our neighbor's house where the ring had been hiding, made pancakes, and brought me breakfast in bed on a tray with a little bud vase of flowers and the ring box open. All at 5:30am!! It was really special. We had a layover in my hometown, so were already planning on meeting my parents for breakfast at the airport hotel. So I was excited to be able to see them and celebrate (and show them the ring!). But then we get there and my best college girlfriend is at the bar and my BFF and her H were on their way. We got to celebrate later on with some other friends on vacation.
Post by redheadbaker on Sept 27, 2015 13:34:33 GMT -5
I love my proposal. I wouldn't change a thing about it.
We had talked about getting married, but he made it sound like it would be a while before he could buy a ring.
Christmas morning, we were opening gifts. He surprised me with a Kindle Fire. Then he said, "Don't forget about your stocking." So, I started opening the gifts in my stocking -- new body lotion, nice chocolates, a gift card to Sephora, and at the bottom was another box that looked like it would contain a gift card, which I figured was for Amazon, to get some ebooks for my new Kindle.
I opened it up, and inside there was a little sheer bag. I opened that up, and inside was my ring. I just stared at him. He took my hand and asked me to marry him.
Post by patbutcher on Sept 27, 2015 13:41:17 GMT -5
H took me for dinner and made a really big deal out of how it was "fine dining" and I needed to dress up. So I did and he wore a suit. We get to the restaurant and everyone is in jeans etc. lol
He was so weird and nervous the whole dinner. Afterwards we went for a drink then a walk by the lake and after like 1 hour, he found a place to sit that was really quiet and started his proposal talk. Everytime someone walked by he got all anxious and started again, it was pretty funny.
It was also so dark that I couldn't see what the ring looked like until we got in the car.