My boyfriend, Steven, told me he was going to take me on a hot air balloon ride for my 22nd birthday. It's something we had talked about for a long time.
On the day of the ride, he didn't have time after work to pick me up so we had planned to meet there. As I pulled up into the parking lot, I was so excited and the manager of the balloon was standing there waiting for me.
Then, when I started to walk to meet him my cell phone rang. Steven said he wasn't going to make it because he had to work late.
The guy then walked up to me and asked if my boyfriend was on his way and I looked at him with tears and said he couldn't make it. I felt like my heart was broken.
The guy then asked if I wanted to take a look at the balloon seeing how I was there. I said sure. As I walked toward the basket of the balloon, I saw Steven on one knee. He said that he was in love with me and couldn't imagine his life with out me in it. Then asked me to marry him and, of course I said yes.
Then we got to go on our hot air balloon ride!
J. B., Seattle, Washington
I knew I was gonna marry my husband, Tommy, shortly after we started dating. We talked about it a lot but he always said he wanted to wait a little longer. We live in California but both are from Minnesota so, in late May, we took a trip home to visit our friends and families.
We were at my dad's house on Saturday night and Tommy said we should go out on the lake and watch the sunset. This was something we often did so I didn't think too much of it.
We took the paddle boat out and paddled to the middle of the lake where there is a large, stable floating raft. The sun was already starting to set as we got to the raft so he got off the boat, tied it up and then he helped me onto the raft.
He was shaking as he reached in his pocket, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
He said, "it's you, it's always been you, it always will be you. I need you as mine forever. will you marry me?"
We were both tearing up at this point and I was now shaking, too. Finally I was able to say yes and we hugged and kissed and cuddled on the lake underneath the stars.
B. A., Glendora, California
In 2004 my honey and I had decided to get married on leap year, which was in 2008. Well on New Year's of 2008 I had kissed him at midnight and told him if we could wait until 2012 but I was just saying that because February is a month away and there was no way of planning a wedding in a month.
So about two weeks ago, my dearest friend of 15 years called me and told me that she is planning to get married. She wanted me to go with her to try on dresses and that I would have to try them on with her, because she was nervous and didn't know if she wanted a big wedding or elope.
On Saturday February 16th I woke up and got ready. My fiancé went to my dad's and, my sister wasn't doing anything that day, so she was going to tag along.
Before my honey left the house he told me to take pictures of me trying on dresses so he can see if he wants to marry me or not. So my friend, my sister and I go to the bridal store at the mall. We were there for about ten minutes when the sales lady asked what size I am and she gave me a dress my friend picked out for herself.
When she finally gets me in the dress I thought, "Oh, I'm not taking this dress off, I'm going to make him come and buy me this." I got out of the dressing room and they put me on a step in front of the mirror. The sales lady put a tiara and veil on my head and I felt like telling her to leave me alone, that I'm not even the one getting married.
My sister got out her camera and started taking pictures. She told me to turn around so she can see the back of the dress. I turned around so she can see it and when I turned back around to face her I saw my honey on one knee and he asked, "Melissa Ann Garcia, will you marry me?"
I couldn't even answer him; I started crying. His aunt, mom and cousin came out from behind the racks. So everybody was in on it—the sales lady, my friend, my sister everybody knew but me. I turned to my friend and asked her if she was getting married and she said no that this was all for me.
My honey had called her and asked her to help him do this it was all his idea. We will be getting married by the court on the 29th of February and sometime this year we're having a big wedding.
M. A. G., Houston, Texas
A week before Easter my boyfriend's dad and I where talking and he told me, "No matter what you will always be a part of my family." I took it as if Chris was going to break up with me I was very sad but decided to enjoy what ever time I had left with him.
Easter Sunday I was getting baptized and after the pastor handed out plaques to everyone who did. I was the last one to get mine and as he handed me mine Chris walked up to me got down on one knee and said, "Jamie, I love you." That is all I heard before I started to cry.
"Will you marry me?" I just hugged him and said yes.
Our entire families were there and it was just perfect. Chris didn't breakup with me after all and on 10/18/08 we will be married for five wonderful years.
J. V. A., Kansas City, Kansas
The weekend before Valentine's Day, Levon called my parents to get their blessing. When he first called, my dad was already at work. He spoke to my mom, who cannot keep a secret. As soon as she talked to him, she called me and told me! I was super upset with her.
The next day, he called again and spoke to both of my parents and got their blessing. He knew how much I wanted his proposal to be a surprise, and we both talked about waiting until it could be a surprise. He said that he was not planning on proposing to me in the next couple of weeks anyways. I thought that he might propose on my birthday (which is going to be at the same place where we had our 1st anniversary dinner).
So, on Valentine's Day, we had dinner reservations at 8:45pm but nothing planned before that. Levon called me at 4:30 asking me if we could meet up with his godmother before dinner. I have never met her before and she was in the city for a short amount of time. I agreed to meet them at Manhattan side of the Staten Island Ferry.
I had to quickly get dressed and I was a little stressed about making our dinner reservation on time. I left my apartment at 5pm and tried calling Levon to see if he wanted me to meet them somewhere else as it was going to take me an hour to get to the ferry. He did not answer so I got on the train.
When I got off the train, I saw him standing at the top of the escalator. I also saw his cousin, but I did not see anyone that could be his godmother. I was thinking that she was either running late, or that we would have to meet her in Staten Island. When I got up the escalator, Levon said that his godmother was not coming. At this time, I noticed that his cousin was holding a phone that was identical to Levon's (I just thought that she had the same phone) and was holding a bouquet of flowers.
Levon started to say that the ferry was what brought us together (he is from Staten Island and I was a Manhattan girl). Then he pulled out his iPod (which was connected to speakers) and handed them to his cousin. The song playing was "Anyone Else But You" from the Juno soundtrack. He got down on his knee with a ring in his hand and asked me to make him the happiest man by marrying him.
I said yes and he put the ring on my finger. People started clapping and coming up and saying congratulations.
He had one more surprise before dinner. We went up to Union Square and starting walking east on 14th St. In the middle of the block, he told me to make left and go down some stairs. I did not see a sign or anything. The doors opened and it was a crowded bar. I was very confused (why would he take me to a bar?). He led me to the back and there was Skeeball!
It really topped off the night. Not only do I love Skeeball, but it was also played a part in the very beginning of our relationship. We played several games and took pictures in the photo booth before heading to Park Avenue Winter for a lovely meal. It was the perfect night!
L. F., Staten Island, New York
After starting our relationship with a blind date, we spent every free minute together. It was about one week later and I knew something was fishy when he called me at home at around 10pm.
My mom pipes up and said, "You could save us a lot of phone bills if you two would just get married."
He overheard and said would you like Vegas or Reno. I sat there stunned, he had already asked my dad for my hand in marriage the day before and no one had said a word to me about it.
Our arents were well acquainted but we didn't know each other at all. I wanted so badly to say come pick me up, but I said yes I will marry you, and I love you, but if we elope my sister-in-law will hunt us down. We went the next day to pick out rings at the jewelers.
One week later we got married at a little church in the country and spent our honeymoon in McCall. We have been married for over 10 years and still very much in love.
C. P., Melba, Idaho
I bought my fiancé an "experience ticket" to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge for Christmas 2006. In May 2007, the favor was exchanged for my birthday so that we can do the climb together.
During that time we had already spoken about the possibility of marriage. During that time, it had been drilled into my mind that we were probably better off holding back on marriage for a little while, as there were lots of changes happening in both our lives—we had to move to a different state and we started looking at buying our first house together. With that, we had to use up the Sydney Harbor Bridge climb experience before the move.
We booked ourselves a night out in Sydney to celebrate my birthday and also do the climb. During the sunset climb we were just chatting and walking along enjoying the sunset when the climb instructor told me to walk ahead to the center of the bridge when she tried to fix my fiancé's headset.
After she adjusted his headset, I saw my fiancé coming towards me and went down on his knees right on top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge beneath the bridge's blinking light. He expressed his feelings to me and told me he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. He asked me to be his wife with the sun setting in the background. I said YES! And happy tears started rolling down my cheeks while the rest of the climb participants cheered and congratulated us.
As we descended our climbs, it suddenly dawned me why he failed the metal detector as we walked towards our climb! After the climb, we went back to the hotel and he had another surprise for me. We had our engagement dinner on the rotating restaurant in Sydney's Centrepoint Tower. It was truly a night in the skies amongst the stars!
We just got married in Australia on March 20, 2008 and are looking forward to two more weddings in West Virginia, USA (where my husband's family is from) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (where my family is from).
D. L., Queensland, Australia
A day I thought was going to be a stuffy work party day turned out to be the most unforgettable day of my life.
It started with my boyfriend, Subash, going to my house without my knowledge and asking for my hand in marriage to my parents. My mother and boyfriend at the time also got a hold of one of my rings from my bedroom so it could get sized.
Subash came to pick me up and we went to the Baleen Miami, which was a gorgeous place on Coconut Grove Island. The valet directed to the area outside where I thought then was the party. When we walked outside it was just one table on the rocks (Dining on the Rocks) a beautiful walkway, the beach, and just us.
He went down on one knee with a gorgeous diamond ring and said that he wanted to spend the rest of his life loving and caring for me as my husband then asked me, "Pooja will you marry me?"
I was stunned, but said yes quickly, it was a dream, and there was a hostess with a camera, which my husband had planned, after that they popped the champagne, brought out delectable array of lobsters, crab legs, and shrimp along with a congratulatory scrumptious Warm Chocolate Molten Lava Cake and we stared into the ocean, the moon, and each other.
P. R., Chicago, Illinois
