Being a singer/songwriter, I decided that I wanted to write a song for my bride-to-be Vicky and propose to her in public. Her favorite restaurant has a stage where bands play every weekend, so I contacted a couple of bands to see if they would let me propose via song on-stage during one of their breaks. The band and the restaurant both agreed, so a few weeks before the date I told my fiancée that my office was having a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant. She was very excited, but of course I downplayed it saying, “Oh, you know there’s no way I’ll win though.” The proposal was scheduled to be on a Friday, so on that Monday I reminded her about the drawing, and then Tuesday told her, “You’re not going to believe this, but I won! Do you want to go this Friday?” She didn’t suspect a thing.

We arrived at the restaurant and were seated directly in front of the stage which turned out to be very loud. She was quite upset that “this is the only place they can find to seat us” because the loud music was giving her a headache, but I convinced her to stay for just a few more minutes, and then at the last song before the band took their break excused myself to the restroom. A waiter from the restaurant grabbed my previously-stashed guitar from the office, and I nervously tuned my instrument in the men’s room while waiting for the break. As soon as I began walking towards the stage my fiancée spotted me and her jaw dropped and she began desperately holding back tears as I played the song I wrote just for her in front of a packed house. As my song ended with “will you marry me”, I climbed from the stage and dropped to one knee and handed her the ring. The audience burst into applause and one guy in the back yelled, “What’d she say?” to which I held up her newly-ringed finger.

- Chris B., Richmond, Virginia

I had been planning on proposing for quite a while. I never really had any good ideas. As I was leaving her house one night, I thought it might be a good idea to leave a note on her windshield so when she went to work the next morning she’d get it, and hopefully help her have a great day. Then got an idea - it was close to Christmas, the perfect time to start the 12 days of Christmas. I texted everyone in my phone, asking for ideas of different things I could do for each day. I didn’t really get any good ideas that “fit” her. So I thought about what kind of gifts would “match” her. So after a few days of thinking of ideas, and planning it out, I called her Mom to get a copy of her car key, so that I could leave a gift on her front seat, so that every morning when she went to work, there was something waiting for her. I met with her mom before I went to work one morning to get the key. I made up a paper with a saying on it that went along with the corresponding day. And at the bottom, I put a line from “our song” which would progress as each day came so that by the time the 12 days finished, the whole song was written out. So each day I gave her a gift with that paper and the progressing song, and a white rose. Then on Christmas morning I went over to her house, and asked her to go for a drive with me. We went up a canyon that we usually like to take rides up. At the top, the road leads on top of the mountain and you can see out forever. We got up there, and we got out and went for a little walk to look out over the valley. We just talked, I tried to pretend I wasn’t up to anything. We went back to the truck, and I opened the back (she said I was talking to myself on the way back, but I don’t think I was). We got to the truck, I opened the back window and pulled out a blanket (so I wouldn’t have to kneel in the snow). I said “I’ve got a rose for you”. But I guess it must have been frozen cause when I pulled it out to give to her, the head snapped off! So I was standing in front of her with nothing but a stem. She laughed at me as I stared at the stem. So I reached in and grabbed the head of the rose and gave it to her. I bought a black bag that had the word “coal” written on it in white letters. Inside was the ring box. I gave her a hug and said “you’ve been a naughty girl this year, I’m surprised you didn’t get coal for Christmas”. She looked at me with a smirk and said “I’m surprised YOU didn’t get coal for Christmas!” I said, “Well, I’ve got some coal for you”. I reached in and grabbed the bag and gave it to her, and asked her to open it. She reached in and grabbed the ring box. I took it from her at that point, knelt down on one knee, opened the ring box and asked her to marry me. She bent down and gave me a hug, kissed me and said yes. I stood up, and put the ring on her finger. We hugged, and she kissed me again and said yes. I hugged her, and spun her around a few times. As we stood there hugging, I stepped back, and said “wait, did you say yes?” She laugh ed said “YES!” Ya, my mind was just a blur so I didn’t know for sure. I knew she didn’t say no, but I didn’t remember a “yes”. I reached back into the back of the truck, and pulled out a bottle of Sparkling Cider. But in the rush of the moment, in my preparations, I forgot to bring cups! So we opened the bottle, and stood there drinking right out of the bottle. By that time a few people had also driven up, and there we are drinking out of this huge bottle. I bet we looked like a couple boozers. We walked back over to the overlook and took pictures. We were there for a few minutes before we decided to go back home. I goofed up quite a bit, but in telling her mom, she said “Ya but Alisa wouldn’t have it any other way”.

- Kelly D., Salt Lake City, Utah

It was her 26th Birthday Party at Pillazzo Di Bocce. Everyone in My Family was in attendance aside from my grandmother Gammie and my brother, who is currently residing in China. Her family as well as many of our friends was also present.
Around 10:15pm, I summoned everyone to gather around the cake table. I led everyone in singing happy birthday to her, and after they finished the song I told everyone that she had to open a huge box on the table. The gift, I continued, was a present from our daughter Nya and I. She proceeded to open the rather large huge box, only to find a smaller box inside. After she opened the smaller box, there was yet another box inside this one. This time however, after opening this box, she pulled out a velvet jewelry box. When she opened the jewelry box there was an empty space where the ring would have been placed. I looked at our daughter and asked: “Where is mommies gift?” Our daughter replied: “I don’t know daddy.” I pulled the ring out of our daughter’s pocket and approached her. At this point she was thrown back in shock, and in tears. I lowered to a knee, placed the ring on her finger, and asked for her hand in marriage. The crowd was in an uproar as Courtney told me “YES!”

- Paris H., Pontiac, Michigan

It was my 30th Birthday and my fiancée was throwing me a spectacular party. She rented a restaurant and booked a band and invited the whole town. Little did she know that I was planning a proposal party at the same time. The night began with lots of great friends and fellowship. Everyone was having a wonderful time. After the second song, I asked the band for a moment (they were in on the secret) and began thanking everyone for coming out and celebrating this special day with us. I redirected all of my thanks to Jessica, of course explaining to her how special she is to me (she would not stop blowing this little whistle the whole time until I asked her to come up to the stage). She walked up and of course I took a knee. Being that only her parents and my parents with maybe only a few more exceptions did not know about it, the whole room was shocked and crying (including Jessica) Of course when she got it together she said “yes” loud enough for everyone to hear her. Well, that my story!

- Chris S., Batesville, Mississippi

My now fiancée’s favorite baseball team is the St. Louis Cardinals so decided to propose to her on home plate at Busch Stadium. I arranged a private tour of Busch Stadium for us and when we walked to home plate I had the tour guide throw her a baseball, that I had given him, that said “Will you marry me?” and I got down on my knee and asked her. There was like 6 inches of snow on the field but the proposal turned out perfect!

- Brady F., Fort Myers, Florida

I’m not saying that I know any more about love and marriage than anyone else. However, when someone asks me what my greatest idea was, only one comes to mind – my family.

It all started when I was trying to get votes. Not for myself, but for Atlanta mayoral candidate Maynard Jackson. My firm had been hired to help him win the election.

Maynard Jackson’s campaign for mayor of Atlanta was a victory, too. The new mayor was incredibly gracious and thankful. He said to me, “Should I ever be able to help you, just let me know.”

Now it was time to propose, so I called him. And I also called the Japanese firm that owned Atlanta’s tallest building, the IBM tower. And I called CBS, and I called the caterers, and I called in three producers from my agency.

Just before the six o’clock news, Cynthia received a message from her news director that a white-collar drug bust was about to go down in the penthouse of the IBM tower in midtown Atlanta. The police chief had been told to give Cynthia Good the exclusive story. The news director told her it would be the lead story, live, and that she should hightail it down to the tower to get the story.

Leading two camera trucks, Cynthia Good raced to the intersection of Peachtree and 14th Street where she witnessed some twenty police cars surrounding the building, a SWAT team and a fire truck (I couldn’t swing the chopper).

Cynthia demanded to be let into the building. She was told, “Sorry, ma’am, no one goes in. This is a very dangerous situation.” But Cynthia persevered and finally prevailed. Except for one last catch: a Red Dog SWAT team would have to escort her to the fiftieth floor, which it did. Once there, they broke down the door.

Behind it, she found not a Columbian drug cartel, but a knight of sorts – me – and dinner, champagne and musicians playing as the sun sank behind the picture windows, and I sank to my knees. She sank, too. And we’ve been afloat for 17 beautiful years!

- Joey R., Atlanta, Georgia

On Friday afternoon, Derek asked Rachel to borrow her apartment key because he needed to get his bass guitar to go and practice with the worship team for church on Sunday. When Rachel came home from work that night, she saw what looked to be the lights on in her apartment stairwell. When she opened the door she realized that it wasn’t her apartment lights on after all, but the stairs were covered with hundreds of candles and fresh, red rose petals on a white aisle runner! When Derek was finally ready to let her in the apartment, Rachel opened the door to find him standing there in a suit and tie. The table was set beautifully for dinner and there were candles and roses decorated all around the room. Rachel asked, “What’s all this for?!”, to which Derek replied, “It’s just because I love you hunny…. and…”. That’s when he proposed. So, of course, Rachel immediately called her girlfriends, inviting them over to tell them the good news and show what an awesome job Derek did–all with Derek’s full approval. When Rachel’s friends came over, learned of the engagement, and saw how Derek had decorated the place, they were screaming like a bunch of girls at a Backstreet Boys concert; they were very impressed and excited!

- Derek S., Hilton, New York

My fiance’s name is Shayla. i took her down to Louisville, KY and asked her best friend and her husband to join. I told Shayla that it was a romantic get-a-way for V-day weekend 08. I booked a room at the historic Seelbach Hilton for the weekend. While out to dinner that night she said she needed batteries for her camera, which was great it gave me the perfect opportunity to set up the room. Me and the best friends husband marched up to the room and started to place 400 roses petals all over the room with a walkway of candles. After getting the batteries from the room. We went for a stroll downtown. On the way back to the hotel I slid the hotel key to the couple who knew the entire time. I gave her a poem for two weeks straight before hand. On that night I wrote her the last one and framed it. I had asked the front desk to hold it for me earlier. After the friends left I took her in a hallway and read her the poem. I told her that I have something to show her and proceeded to the room. When the room door opened she saw her friends standing there waiting for her. I walked her to the center of the room and told her to open up the armoire to see the ring around more candles. I dropped to one knee and asked her to be my wife. I have pics of the entire set up hotel and all. Its’ so wonderful. I even got the hotel to upgrade us to a suite the next day to make it more great. We are getting married on 11-08-08.

- A.M., Nashville, Tennessee

Early in our relationship, JR took me to the opening night of a romantic Tuscan restaurant downtown. Since, he told me he occasionally got e-mails and calls from the manager about specials.
One night many months later he told me they were having a “Customer Appreciation” night with free wine and appetizers and asked if I’d like to go with him and my best friend. I agreed and when we got there, the staff seated us and thanked us for being “Valued Customers.”
There was a disposable camera and fancy letter on our table on the restaurant’s stationary and I hoped it was from JR! To my dismay, it was from the Manager thanking all the guests for coming and encouraging everyone to take pictures for the website throughout the evening. I noticed all the tables had them, not just ours.
As we enjoyed drinks and food, JR got up for the restroom. When he came back he told me he ran into someone he knew and he’d like me to meet. He led me downstairs to another part of the restaurant but stopped in the middle of the floor. He whispered, “this is all facade, it’s all for you” before he got down on his knee and popped the question. Everyone around clapped and took pictures. “What good timing that everyone had cameras!” I thought.
As JR stood, he turned me around for an even bigger surprise and I saw that many of the flashes were coming from one big group of cameras behind us - our families and friends who had been hiding and witnessed the whole event.
As it turns out, all those letters on the tables were instructions for the customers to wait for the moment to take our pictures and commemorate the proposal! We have hundreds of pictures of every second and every angle of the proposal. We enjoyed the rest of the night celebrating in a private room with everyone.
I still can’t believe that JR got an ENTIRE restaurant staff AND patrons to play along with this “customer appreciation night” just for me.

- J.R., Fort Worth, Texas

I was a sever at Chili’s in Naples, Florida at the time, waiting to go to tech school for the Air Force and driving a 1988 convertible Ford mustang that was always giving me trouble, mechanically.
On Christmas Eve Anni, my girlfriend and student at the time, came out from Ft Lauderdale, FL to spend Christmas with me since we couldn’t afford to fly home to Montana.
Unfortunately I had to work that evening, so my roommate and good friend, Mike, brought her out for dinner so that she could see me.
After a little while she got a phone call, so I used the opportunity to show Mike the ring and told him I’d be giving him a call later on that night.
It worked out perfectly because I got off work sometime around Eleven PM and because we’ve had so many memories there, I drove down to the beach, which, lucky for me, wasn’t very far from Chili’s.
I then called Mike and told him that I was pretending that my car had broken down again, and could he bring his tool set and my girlfriend.
After convincing her to come with, which was hard because it was cold out and late, he chatted with her and kept her distracted all the way to the beach. She didn’t even realize where she was until they got out.
I had the hood propped up and as they drove up I threw my shoe at the car in a fit of rage.
Anni got out and asked me why I was there and what was wrong with the car. Since she could clearly see that I was upset I told her that I don’t want to talk about it and that I need to go for a walk to let some steam out.
As I was saying this, Mike was getting his toolkit out of his car to “fix” on my car.
So, we walked out onto the beach and it being dark (midnight) you couldn’t really see what was in the sand. So I asked what it was and Anni bent down and touched what she realized to be a rose. She then started walking down reading WILL YOU MARRY ME, spelled out in roses on the sand.
When she turned around with tears in her eyes, I was on my knee….
She said “yes”

- Phil S., Tampa, Florida