I proposed to my wife at the beach where we shared our first kiss together. The spot is truly one of kind on the Northern Coast of California. I took her wine tasting and then I rented a house for the weekend. She had no idea that I was going to propose. I had made all the arrangements by contacting her boss ahead of time and making all the arrangements. It was a truly memorable weekend.

- Derek, Roseville, California

While working in Japan for three months I wrote a song of faith and hope. Some time after I had returned home I asked my girlfriend, Jonie, if she would be willing to learn and sing the song with me in front of our church. We sang a duet as I played the guitar and after finishing she thought we were done and started to leave the stage, but I started talking to the congregation saying, “You have all been such an amazing and important part of our lives and I just wanted to share this moment with you.” Jonie thought I was talking about the song, but then I turned to her, got down on my knee, and pulled out a ring saying, “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you and who I am when I’m with you. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” The congregation gasped then fell silent. Jonie stood there in disbelief as tears started to roll down her cheeks. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the pastor yelled out, “Say yes!” which, as she snapped back to reality, she did, hugging and kissing me.

- Billy A., Twain Harte, California

Five months after moving from Panama City, FL to Cincinnati, OH for a job, the first weekend in February 2006 had finally come. Little did Stephanie, my courtship of 5 years & future wife to be, know I was on my way down to Panama City to propose to her that weekend. I had been planning the surprise proposal for months and had just about everyone close to us as well as our home church in on the surprise.

It was Sunday the 5th, and immediately following the church service I had our youth pastor announce a “MEETING” to discus a new “Christian film that was coming out.”

Several weeks prior I had produced a “movie” trailer called the Engagement which I had shown during the “MEETING” before I came out from behind the stage, surprised, and then proposed to the beautiful woman who married me!

- Ryan, Altamonte Springs, Florida

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 proposed at our favorite Ice Cream Shoppe. The story actually made regional news headlines appearing in the local paper as well as the State Newspaper. I received a personal letter of congratulations from the Governor of SC, Mark Sanford. He spoke of how he actually proposed to his wife and said my idea was so much more creative than him. Please click on the link to read the entire story.

 
Chris, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Well, we had lived together for about 13 years and one day our 8 year old asked me “Why don’t you marry Daddy?” So I did and we all went on a honeymoon to pre-Katrina New Orleans.

- Kim F., Maysville, Oklahoma

Andy told me to keep Easter weekend free as he was planning “something.” The weekend began when he picked me up from work and drove to the airport. I had no idea where we were going but knew it would be for four days. We got as far as the airline counter and he turned and said we are going to Hawaii! I couldn’t believe it. He had packed my bag with all the right items, planned three nights at the Hilton in an oceanfront room, booked a snorkeling trip and knowing I am a bit of foodie had made reservations at three of Honolulu’s best restaurants. On the last day, he rented a car to drive us around Oahu. He had booked our last night at a beach bungalow on the North shore. With a glass of good wine in hand and on a secluded beach at sunset, he asked me to marry him. He had carried the ring around the whole trip waiting for the perfect moment and this scene was Hollywood worthy. As the planner in our family, I still can’t believe what an amazing job he did to surprise me and it bring tears to my eyes to think how lucky I am to marry someone who is so generous, loving and kind. I wish every girl gets to experience what I did just once in their life. I am lucky to know I will have it for the rest of mine.

- Amber R., Vancouver, British Columbia

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

Me and my now fiancée had been going out for just over 2 years when I proposed to her. We went out to the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest Nature Trail. This is a place where we often took our dog for a walk and was a nice place to relax where it was just me and her. Well I had planned on proposing on a hilltop overlooking a creek bottom, where the dogwoods were blooming with their showy white flowers all through the woods. However, as we were walking we had to cut the walk short because our dog started limping. I had no idea of what I was going to do, my plan was ruined. I had rose petals and the ring in my coat pocket and was trying to figure out how I was going to get them out without her seeing me. Luckily, she loaded the dog into the truck. As she was doing that I walked over to a fountain that had a bird blind next to it near the parking area but semi-secluded by trees and shrubs. I laid out a trail of rose petals down the trail to the fountain and left a small pool of petals by the fountain. I walked back up and sat on the bench by the bird blind. As she walked up she looked at me and was like what happened here, in reference to the flowers, and I said “I don’t know lets go check it out”. Kelsey never associates me with anything romantic so she had no clue of what I was about to do. So we walked up to the fountain and when we got to the pool of flowers I said “this must be where it happened” and Kelsey said “where what happened”, I said “this happened” got down on one knee in the pool of rose petals and pulled out the ring box. Kelsey immediately burst into tears and said yes.

- Timothy S., Nacogdoches, Texas

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