What to Say During a Marriage Proposal

The stage was set.   It wasn’t the way I had planned it, but I can roll with the changes!  It was 3:00 AM in our hotel room.  Marcie had just walked out of the bathroom and I had the ring box sitting behind me on the bed so she couldn’t see it.  I’m not for sure, but I think she knew that something was up.  She must have noticed me acting suspiciously weird.  That said, she didn’t let on that she knew anything was up.

I asked her to come over and sit down on the bed across from me.  As she walked over, I put one hand behind me and to the ring box out of its outer box.   I took her hands and began to talk to her.  I don’t remember my exact words, but I remember telling her that I loved her, and I had enjoyed getting to know her better.  I brought up several things that we had done together over the past few months.  It only took a few minutes.  I reached behind me, picked up the ring box, got down on my knee, opened the box, and asked her to marry me.

She had small tears in her eyes.  She looked at the ring, and looked at me.  She smiled as if she could not speak.  The silence was deafening!  I’m sure it was only a few seconds, but the time it took her to answer me seemed like it was an hour!  I was back in that place where I could hear the thump-thump of my own heart and could feel my chest pounding.  I was thinking, “It is a simple yes or no question . . . Why doesn’t she answer?  Something!  ANYTHING!”  I felt like the squirrel in the cartoon, “Over The Hedge” after he drank the caffeinated beverage!  The world seemed to move in slow motion!  It seemed as though I could have ran out, gotten a pizza, brought it back to the hotel, and eaten the entire thing before she answered.

Finally I heard her take a breath to say the words I wanted to here.  Her mouth opened, she inhaled, and said, “How much did you spend?”

WHAT?!?!?!  Are you seriously kidding me here??  What kind of an answer is that?  Was the ring too small?  Too big?  Why does it matter how much I spent?  Then I remembered . . . My love is cheap  FRUGAL . . . I meant, she is frugal!  She wants to be sure that I got a good deal on the things that I purchase . . . I smiled back and said, “I got a 30% discount, now can you answer my question?”  The anticipation was killing me!

She looked at me like I was being silly, and said, “Of course, Yes!”  My heart fluttered.  The weight and burden of this moment was gone.  We hugged and kissed.  She then said, “I need to call my mom!”  I laughed and reminded her that it was now 3:30 in the morning, and that she really should wait until the morning to call.  I then shared with her that they were already aware this would be happening.  She was a little confused as to how this could be until I explained the previous few days, and how I had already talked to them.

The next morning, she called her mom and dad as we were finishing our drive to our Tennessee destination.  We never made it to the mountain that I had planned on taking her up.  In a little less than a month, we will have been married 11 years . . . We have still never gone to the mountain!

So how did you propose to your wife? We love to hear proposal stories from our fans. If you have not proposed yet, we wanted to help you out by giving you suggested websites that offer tips of how to say the words during the romantic moment. Do not do what I did. Try to plan things out. Be aware though, that no matter how much you prepare, sometimes life happens. That is what happened to us unfortunately. Life, is really about making lemonade out of those lemons though. One thing is for sure, it was a milestone moment I will never forget.

The Knot website helps guide you through questions to think about, to help you put together your perfect proposal. Check out their great article at http://wedding.theknot.com/getting-engaged/marriage-proposals/articles/wedding-proposals-what-to-say-and-how-to-say-it.aspx. Also check out 33 Marriage proposals that she cannot say no to at http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/awesome-marriage-proposals-you-couldnt-say-no-to.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

–  Mark