I think it’s fun to hear stories about how people got engaged.
Some people will get engaged today over romantic Valentine’s Day dinners, and I know a couple in Conway who are celebrating their 52nd wedding anniversary today. Woo-hoo — congrats to the Larsons!
Food is often involved in proposals.
When he proposed, my husband made all my favorite food at the time (pork chops, etc., etc.) He liked to cook, but I knew when he met me at the door in a suit jacket that this was it — despite the fact that it was April Fool’s Day and he liked to pull pranks. He did fool me, because I thought he was going to propose the day before, on his birthday.
Up until the second I said yes, I wasn’t sure if I would.
We’re still going strong 28 years later, and I don’t regret my answer for a second.
My son proposed to my daughter-in-law by making cupcakes and writing “Will You Marry Me?” on top of them. He practically had to force her to look at them; she kept ignoring his urging to have one.
Food doesn’t have to be involved. I interviewed a man who went to great lengths to secure a beautiful setting with dozens of rose bushes, which that very day were pruned within an inch of their lives, blooms gone. She didn’t notice.
I love the story of my brother’s proposal, too. He asked his now-wife to go get them some dinner, and he hurriedly went outside and ripped the Christmas lights off the shrubs and spelled out “Will You Marry Me?” in lights on the lawn. He lugged a concrete Razorback over to the spot and put the ring in its hoof.
When she got back, he was huffing and puffing and sweaty. He suggested they look at the lights, and she wasn’t sure at first what the message said, but then she got it — and said yes, obviously. Everyone in both families was thinking, “IT’S ABOUT TIME.”
I saved an email from a wonderful woman I know who told the story of her son’s proposal. He invited his girlfriend to accompany him to take photos of the sunrise over the river and then take a hike. Once they got everything set up and waited for dawn to emerge, she mentioned it might be fun to have a big breakfast when they finished the hike. He dug around in his bag and handed her a beat-up, old granola bar. Then she mentioned the bugs were vicious, so he dug around in that bag for some bug spray, but what he really handed her was some stationery he had printed with her, hopefully, soon-to-be married name on it; then he dropped to one knee and presented her with a little ring box.
“She said it was the most perfect bug spray she had ever seen!” the happy mother of the groom wrote.
I wrote a feature a few years ago about a couple who got married underwater on April 1, 1988, after a seven-year courtship. His proposal was almost as unique as the wedding. The guy, a romantic at heart, sent the woman roses every day with a word or two written on each card. Monday: “Would you” Tuesday: “like to” Wednesday: “get” Thursday: “hitched?” She disappeared Friday to spend the weekend thinking about it, and he said he was a nervous wreck.
I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day, but before you propose, my advice is to make sure you don’t have spinach in your teeth — and that you’re pretty sure of the answer before you ask.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.