Marriage Proposal: Where & How?

[oceanpacific]

Re: Marriage Proposal: Where & How?

[B]I will bare my soul to the ohana.

FIRST MARRIAGE: Very traditional. We had a Saturday evening dinner at THE SUMMIT, atop the Ala Moana Hotel. It's now called AARON'S. I presented her with a 1.11 carat diamond engagement ring. But, it was not a "surprise" or anything like that. I let her select the loose stone a month earlier and being the kind of practical woman she is, she did not pick the most expensive of the four selections.

The proposal itself was not anything dramatic. It was kind of offhanded: "What do you think about getting married sometime?" "Okay." The next thing I knew, the hotel catering department, photographer, florist, etc. were all being contacted. Size of reception: 400 guests.

SECOND MARRIAGE: Very simple. Weekday civil ceremony at the courthouse with two witnesses (my classmates), followed by lunch at Andrew's Restaurant (Ward Center) for the four of us (my friends took the rest of the day off). She has a wedding ring consisting of a 0.70 center stone surrounded by a number of smaller side stones. I plan to replace it with a 1.25 carat + solitaire at the end of this year.

The actual proposal was also kind of offhanded. I let her know early on that my intentions were of the most serious nature. It was the second time around for both of us and we each brought a young daughter into the marriage.[ The marriage has lasted twenty years, longer than either of our first nuptials. We have two additional children. The older ones are now "fully employed taxpayers." The younger ones remain "dependents."/B]

[almond mocha]

Re: Marriage Proposal: Where & How?

There was no real proposal in our case. We kind of just agreed to get married. We met and dated through high school and college, and had been together for about 8 years, so it seemed the natural progression in our relationship. Not very romantic, but we were each other's one and only. Next year we hit our 3oth wedding anniversary.

[surlygirly]

Re: Marriage Proposal: Where & How?

My first husband asked me to marry him at a Waffle House. I guess I should have known then the marriage was doomed, but I was 18 and not smart enough to run.

My forever husband picked a fight with me so he could go "run errands" without me wanting to go with him. When he got back home, he said, "Do you know how hard it is to be mean to you on purpose?" I turned around and said, "What?" I saw he had roses. I thought it was because we had a stupid fight, so I said, "Oh, you didn't have to do that." Then I saw he had put the ring in one of the rose buds. He'd also brought champagne and chocolate covered strawberries, so we had a nice little celebration.

[leashlaws]

Re: Marriage Proposal: Where & How?

I had no interest in getting married and thought it wouldn't happen especially so "early". I always wanted to just live with somebody incase things didn't work out. My parents had a really strange and stressful marriage and my dad lived off and on with other women and dated other women and blah blah blah which made for a weird childhood.

We met at Northwestern in Evanston in the same dorm, 1/2 the floor men the other side women. I had been there one year as a transfer student and was graduating in 1979. My second year there I saw this kid in the cafeteria who struck me as interesting. As things went on and more details happened than need be recorded here we got together and this person was only a freshman!
Needless to say I stayed in Evanston after graduation and got an apartment and slowly all possessions came to my place and there it was a live-in situation. My parents found out and were cool about it they kind of knew but really found out one weekend when they came up and we'd left out toiletries that were a good giveaway. So we went on like this for 3 years. Why? Well we knew we'd get married because by then I was of the opinion that I'd never live with anyone unless marriage was the end result (never say never). So because of finances (social security payments were an issue, marriage would have stopped them) we continued on through undergraduate and then graduate school having moved once to a large apartment closer to campus. We got married 2 weeks after graduation it was a big eventful summer! We got married in the Skokie Hilton had about 90 guests or maybe less. An uncle married us making it very special and our friends drank the hotel out of booze. My dad rented a floor for indulging guests and the party went on all night. The next morning he left an open ticket for anyone wanting to have the hotel brunch which was a huge amount of food and complimentary champagne. It was quite a nice time! This was 26 years ago.