We were on a hiking trip in Swaziland with a party of 10 friends. Up in the mountains on the morning of our second day we drifted away from the group to sit on a lovely rock with a river flowing below us to watch the sunrise and to pray.
After praying he told me how blessed he was to have me in his life and went on to describe in great detail why I was the only one for him. Then he asked me whether I would like to have witnesses when he pledges his life to me or if I would like it to be him, God and me. I went for the latter.
He said I should close my eyes and read my heart and make sure I meant this because I would never get a chance to change it. I closed my eyes and told him that I want it to be him, God and me.
He led me to a flatter part of the rock with my eyes still closed and then put his hand into his jacket pocket, which I was wearing because it was cold and he had given it to me after praying.
When he said I could open my eyes, I was dumb struck. He was on one knee asking me to marry him. It was such a surprise, I had no clue whatsoever he that was up to this.
I said yes and we clung onto each other for what seemed like eternity.
Like me, our friends were so surprised.
A. P., Pretoria, South Africa
Robert and I had been dating a year and half when he proposed. We already knew that we were going to get married, and I knew he'd been planning a little. What I did not know was how wonderful and creative he is. I had always told Robert that I was more excited by the proposal than the ring or the money - I wanted to have a great story. And, wow, did he ever beat my wildest dreams.
Our proposal began Friday October 5, 2007, at 5 a.m. when Robert tried to wake me to go on a crazy surprise road trip with him; I told him to go away. I am not a morning person. Eventually, he got me to unhappily agree and we set off in the car.
After five hours, we arrived at a boat dock in Thousand Islands, N.Y. We took a ferry across the St. Lawrence River to Boldt Castle on Heart Island. This was not unusual for us, since we have quite frequently road tripped to random places, and had visited castles before since I love castles. That previous year, for Valentine's Day, Robert had taken me to the Biltmore Estate, which is quite close to a castle. So at this point I had no idea the proposal was coming; I just assumed we were on a very cool date.
Well, there we took tons of pictures and I thought that was it and we were going home, but we were not rushing to go home. Instead, there was a surprise stop number two. We go back to the boat dock and Robert ran to the car to get some pre-packed duffel bags. I kept asking him questions about why we have bags and where we were going. A man then came up and said hello to Robert by name - I found them very odd. He led us to a private yacht that we boarded. I was getting nervous now because I had no idea where we going yet again. After almost an hour, we began approaching Singer Castle on Dark Island. As we got closer though, I saw a sign on the side of the entrance that read "closed for today." It was then I started putting pieces together and realized we had brought bags because we were staying there. Robert had rented the entire castle and its island for the night for us.
We were then taken to the Royal Suite. We had a few minutes to get relaxed and get ready for a tour and dinner. Since the castle was literally ours for the day, we had a three hour tour in places guests can never usually dream of going. We got to sit in chairs hundreds of years old and go in secret passage ways. We were treated like a king and queen for the day. It was beyond amazing.
Then we went upstairs to wait for dinner. Robert and I got dressed up slightly, however, we looked horrible since Robert forgot, in his hurry and nervousness, to pack some of my clothes and his shoes! But we made due and ate a fancy dinner in the one of the grand dining rooms. Then we were supposed to take pictures in the various rooms of the castle and do our own touring, but when I went upstairs to change my shoes, I noticed that there the extra door in our suite, which I had previously thought was a closet, was slightly open. Robert was trying to get me to take a picture with him in front of the door and nonchalantly turned on the video recording.
However, I ran over to see what was in it before he had a chance to set it up and found that it was another bedroom. The room was covered with flowers, a thousand yellow and pink daisies. This had special meaning to me because in my favorite episode of "Gilmore Girls," Max proposed to Lorelai with a thousand yellow daisies. At this point I knew, and Robert got down on one knee and told me how much he loved me and asked me to marry him.
I accepted and then we proceeded to call everyone. We were so busy calling people we never took pictures till the next day. In the morning we took tons of pictures to remember our castle experience, ate breakfast in the dining hall and went home where my family had a surprise engagement party waiting for us. It was the perfect proposal.
On our anniversary we decided to stay in and watch her favorite movie, "Love Actually."
What she didn't know was that I had edited the movie and re-burned it to a DVD. This is what she saw an hour and 37 minutes into the movie:
N. W., Atlanta, Georgia
James, my fiance, is a chef. A few months ago, exactly three years after we began dating, he took me to the restaraunt he was working at. He told me he wanted to take me out and do something special for our anniversary, but everywhere was booked. I told him I didn't mind, although I was a little surprised, seeing as though last time everywhere was booked out, we went for a picnic.
After a delicious dinner, James persuaded me to have dessert. When it came out, it was a slice of chocolate cake on a big plate, with 'MARRY ME SARAH' written around the plate in chocolate topping.
After I had gotten over my surprise, I looked up. James was on his knees with a ring box in his hand. it was the most romantic thing, and the whole restaraunt was watching and applauded loudly when I said yes.
James had been planning this for weeks and, to top it off, all his workmates came out to watch and took photos of the whole thing so I can remember it for the rest of my life!
I fell in love with my wife the second I laid eyes on her. After we had dated for six months, I felt the time was right to propose to her.
I had actually purchased the ring less than a week after our first date. Every minute I spent with her confirmed that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
I knew that her parents' blessing meant a lot. I asked them the day before I was going to pop the question. The next day was her birthday and I surprised her by going to her parents shore house and spending the day with her and her parents. For dinner, I surprised her with a birthday picnic on the beach. The sun was beginning to set and I commented how the ocean sparkles when the sun hits it. Then I told her she should have some sparkle on her finger.
She began crying and I began my speech.
"These past six months have been heaven on earth for me. I want the rest of my life to be like that I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"
She nodded, said yes, and fell into my arms.
The next day her family, my family and I surprised her with a "congratulations" brunch.
It was the best choice I have made in my entire life.
M. C., Malvern, Pennsylvania
He bought the ring and kept it in his dresser for six months before asking me! He tricked me into going into the woods with him to look at the deerstand he'd been building for hunting season. He told me climb up into the stand and check it out. So as I got up the ladder, I saw a vase of a dozen red roses and a bottle of champagne. I realized what was happening, so I looked down at him and he was pulling the ring box out of his flannel shirt pocket. He asked me to marry him and I said yes, hugging him and crying at the same time.
He had reserved a very nice suite for that evening with a Jacuzzi in it, so we spent the night there and set our date.
He completely convinced me that it would be another evening in... I drove up to his apartment, planning to eat dinner together, and then I would do homework while he did whatever. He had a beautiful dinner made (steaks, etc.) and candles lit - but, he's a big romantic, so he does this often. He also knew that if he took me out for a big dinner I would be suspicious, because he is paying off student loans and doesn't have a lot of extra cash right now. So, he knew I would not suspect anything at all.
After dinner, he made coffee... as he brought out the mugs and coffee, milk and sugar, he said "I forget how you take your coffee..." (and I thought 'are you nuts? we're both java fiends - how could you forget?') But he continued "... cream... sugar... diamond engagement ring?" And he placed the ring, in it's blue velvet box, down in front of me. I was in complete shock, and all I could do was stare at this beautiful ring. He got down on one knee, and asked me if I would be his wife... and, of course I said yes (in the midst of being totally hysterical, laughing and crying and kissing him all at the same time!)
K. P., Toronto, Canada
He is in the Navy Reserve and asked me to come to the reserve center to help out with a "change of command" rehearsal in the morning. I went and it seemed like I really served no purpose!
After it was over, his chief came over to me and asked if I new a certain young man by the name of Jerry. I said of course. He said, "Well he is kind of a chicken and needs our help."
Then he called him over. Jerry got down on his knee and pulled out a little black box from his uniform pocket. Then the entire unit said out loud, "Will you marry him?!"
It was so cute! Oh, and I said yes of course!! They got it all on video, too.
