My H and I had been dating for just over a year when we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday and my registration for my senior year of college. He ordered my favorite bottle of champagne to “toast (my) impending graduation.” When it arrived – in glasses with fresh strawberries (yum) – he asked me to marry him. I’d come from out of town to go to school, so I suspect he was afraid that once I’d graduated I’d leave again. We went shopping for my ring together. He’d been looking, but I prefer gemstones to diamonds so he wasn’t really sure what to get. I chose a small, low set gemstone with several small diamonds on each side. H had my wedding ring (a gold band with small channel-set diamonds) specially made with stones from his great grandmother’s ring, so it looks like I have a matched set. Neither ring was expensive, but that never mattered to me. I like that some of the stones came from family. The others represent the month my husband was born and the month we got married. The money we saved by not spending 2 months salary on rings went toward the purchase of our house.
DH was in dental school and I was in grad school, in different cities, when we got engaged over the phone. I had decided to leave grad school after getting my MS, he was going to be getting his degree in a year, so, by mutual decision, we decided to get married after he graduated. It was rather anti-climatic and definitely not romantic or creative. I think he suggested we get married and I said “sure”.
There was no engagement ring (he had more debts than cash); we bought simple white gold wedding bands (I think his cost $75 and mine $45) that we paid for over time. On our 10th anniversary, he bought me a diamond anniversary band. That’s what I’ve worn ever since.
This isn’t my story but when we went to Mackinaw island a few years ago my son who was about 10 at the time was sitting on a bench waiting for me. He saw a young couple walking and then the guy stopped got down on one knee with a ring and proposed to the girl right in front of him. I don’t know who was more surprised the girl or my son. :x
We went on a hike while visiting his parents in Arizona last month. It was supposed to be a moderate hike with a great view at the end, and it turned out to be a tough, rocky, steep, and exhausting hike with a million-dollar view at the end. So I was panting at the end of this 2.5-hour climb and admiring the 1200-foot spire that abruptly came into view:
And he said, “Was the climb worth it? Will you remember that view for the rest of your life?” I said, “Yes, for sure,” and that’s when he got on one knee and asked me to marry him. (No ring; he knew he needed my opinion before buying!)
I saw a darling engagement on the Zephyr train a few years ago. It was Christmas Day, and my parents and I were taking the train from Chicago to San Francisco. I was enjoying the dusk desert view somewhere in Utah from the Sightseer Lounge car. A lesbian couple on a sofa near me exchanged Christmas gifts, and the last gift was a lengthy routine where you unwrap a box and it holds a smaller wrapped box, then another…until the tiniest one had a ring inside. The recipient burst into tears, they kissed, the whole nine yards. It was adorable.
Nice view from behind. Of the scenery I mean 
My husband and I were destitute graduate students when we decided to get married. No engagement ring. Just plain gold bands for both of us. Thirty years later, he got down on one (now arthritic) knee, asked me to marry him all over again, and gave me a beautiful diamond flanked by two sapphires representing our two children. It means even more to me after our son died last year because it reminds me not only of our love for each other but of our family as it was at our happiest.
Elliemom, I’m so sorry to hear of your loss.
@Elliemom, that is such a sweet story. I, too, am so sorry for your loss. I admire the courage of your family to keep on going and not give up on happiness.
My H and I met on eharmony (second marriage for both of us). Last year, our third anniversary rolled around and we had been talking “around” marriage. He is much more formal and traditional than I am and wanted to do it properly. So before our anniversary dinner he tells me to wear a dress and flats. That had me stumped.
I hate surprises but I kinda knew that the proposal was happening but not why the dress and flats. Anyway I tried on lots of combos of dresses and flats and was sort of running late getting to his house and he raced around like crazy and grabbed a blazer. I was all “why are you taking a blazer, should I have brought a sweater” and he sort of stumbled around, holding the blazer away from me and said we had to go. We got caught in traffic and finally made it to the edge of town. We were obviously late for something when we drove into a mall. To a starbucks.
And met a guy who loaded us in his vehicle that said something about balloon rides. We finally found a good spot and they helped me into the hot air balloon and we sailed away. And I totally got lost in the view. Eventually I turned around and my H was on his knees. I thought it was because his head was hot from the burner. Then I saw the ring. Which he had hidden in his blazer. We’ve been married under a month.
H and I got engaged / married when we were still “starving college students” in the mid '80’s. H was a non-traditional student, having served 4 years in the service before going to college on the GI bill. He was also a “car guy” and somehow managed to buy a really nice 1969 Plymouth Road Runner while he was in school. I’m now wearing that '69 Road Runner on my finger.
We had dated for >4 years and had made the obligatory stops at the “mall jewelers”…but he decided to go with the well-known, reputable jeweler in downtown Hartford, that had been in business for over 50 years. (P.O.M.G., anyone??) Funny, they went out of business a year later.
We drove to his parents beach house (they had just bought it as a rental property and retired there years later) and he stashed the ring in a shoe in his duffel bag for the 17 hour drive. The first morning we were there, we went for an early walk on the beach to see the sun rise. Not wanting to miss the sunrise (and not knowing exactly what time it would rise) we started walking EARLY. We walked and walked and walked and walked, before the sun came up and he asked if I would marry him. Since we had already discussed it, and I didn’t know that this was THE proposal…my response? “Of course I will, silly!”
We met as sophomores in college and now we are getting ready to graduate. He says come to NYC. I say I have better prospects in DC and I can’t tie my life to a boyfriend. He says hmmm. Comes back from spring break and I meet him at the Pentagon bus stops where he hands me a box and says let’s get married. I make him do it for real when we get to his apartment. The ring was a small solitaire, but it was our commitment that mattered. We were going to work for 2 years and then go to graduate school. Graduate school didn’t happen, so we got married instead and planned everything in less than 4 months! It will be 32 years in June and we did get a bigger ring at 25 years. My finger joints have swollen and we couldn’t stretch the original band any further and we could afford it now, so why not? I am not big into jewelry or clothes or stuff, so my one extravagance. I do hope I will have a granddaughter to give it to, someday.
Our real story is that 6 weeks after we started going out I told a girlfriend that he was going to ask me to marry him someday. She said ’ and what will you say?’. I said that ’ I will probably say yes.’. And I did and here we are, 35 years later. Can’t imagine one of my kids getting married at 23, but it all worked out for us.
We knew each other as friends of friends who ended up hanging out for 2 days together & both knew this was it. About 6 weeks later, my apartment was condemned and we decided to move in together. To make it more palatable to parents, we talked about getting engaged. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner one night, and the waiter came over at the appropriate time with two fortune cookies. My date pointed to one and said, “This one’s yours.” I opened it up and it said, “Will you marry me?” He had gone earlier that day and stuffed two fortune cookies! He already knew better than to buy me a ring sight unseen - if it’s something I’m going to wear every day, I darned well better like it! (I’ve often wondered what happens if the woman says yes, but hates the ring?)
I always loved marquis cut diamonds, but because we couldn’t get one big enough, our jeweler (a friend of the family) told us it would be too shallow. So I got a solitaire. For our 30th anniversary, he got me a beautiful marquis cut solitaire necklace. I now also have complementary earrings and cocktail ring. But I still wear the same engagement ring and wedding band that we bought more than 33 years ago. And I still go home with the same fella.