Engagement Ideas - Inspiration for future grooms and brides to be too!

I spent many hours thinking of ways to propose to my wife–I wanted to be sure it was different. Here are a few of my ideas that didn’t make the cut, but maybe they’ll work for someone else…

Record yourself saying “Hey honey, I left a surprise in your trunk” and burn it to a CD. Put the CD in her car’s player while she’s at work/mall etc so that as soon as she starts the car, it will begin to play. Stage some friends with a camcorder in the area, hidden from view… the surprise in the trunk is you, ready to go in a nice suit or tux, ring ready to go.  
Another idea I had was also car related…I planned to take my girlfriend out to dinner, and arrange for several of our friends to be at a freeway exit on the way to our dinner location. I’d signal one of them with a hidden cell phone call as we drive past…I’d drive a bit slower than normal, and they would all come after us, in several cars, each with a separate word of the proposal on the backs of their vehicles.  They maintain the correct order and pass us, and turn into the lane in front of us.  So car 1 has a sign saying “Michelle” car 2 says “will” etc…The last car has someone in the backseat with a camcorder and then we all go out to eat and celebrate. 

This is my story of how I proposed to my girlfriend. It was August 11th 2006 in Rhyl, Wales and I didn’t have a lot of money to do anything extravagant…I was so very nervous and originally I had a date planned for the proposal but for some reason I did not stick with it & just woke up that morning & said “Today is the day”.

I quickly saw Els, my girlfriend, off to work that morning. I sat there in the flat with my pen & paper, jotting down ideas of how to make the day special & romantic in every way that I possibly could…so with my ideas written down, I got dressed & headed into town to have a look at the shops. I picked up candles, packets of red balloons, rainbow poster board, and tape, then went to the grocery store & picked up a few items for the special dinner that I was planning.

I hurried back home with all of my items in hand, sat them on the bed & took a deep breath…I blew up the balloons, using some to make a big heart upon the wall & then the rest I put upon the post of our bed. I colored red hearts on paper, cutting out several sizes & putting them on the wall as well, I sat out the heart candles in various places then I sat down with the poster board & wrote/drew a few messages & pictures upon it & posted it up.  Finally I lit a few incense to get the room smelling good.

With the decorations all set it was now time for the dinner I was fixing—we were going to have sweet & sour chicken with noodles, chocolate cake with strawberry delight & vanilla ice cream for the desert.  After I got all of this fixed, I cut my cake out & iced it, then took some of the strawberry delight & made a heart upon the slice of cake and stored the engagement ring in the fridge.

Els comes home from work, tired & sees the decorations but doesn’t think anything…she thinks I am just being sweet, so I don’t let on that anything is up. We ate dinner as we watched a film, and then as it was time for desert, I placed the engagement ring in the middle of the heart on the slice of cake…I came from behind her with the plate & asked her if she would marry me. There was lots of hugging & crying–it was such a huge step in my life & a very happy moment for us.

I met my wife Annie in 1998 for the first time in Bhopal…she came to visit her brother who was my room mate at that time. She attended the church service along with us and there during the service offered a solo song which attracted the crowd…no doubt the singer touched my heart more than the song.

Later I had the opportunity to spend more personal time with Annie and this slowly but steadily grew in to a strong friendship. In 2001 when the friendship grew to a strong intimacy I decided to go ahead with the engagement proposal. I began to ask her ideas, plans, desires when it comes to a marital life, asked her about the ideal dream husband she was cherishing in her dreams…asked her likings, disliking and deeper things about her marriage and family life she was planning or dreaming.

In our conversation she asked similar questions to me also…she kept on asking me to give her idea the type of personality I was looking for as a life partner. Step by step both of us realized that we were narrating the person in our hearts very much similar to ourselves–I was narrating a dream girl which she felt is very similar to her own nature and I felt the same when she was talking about her dream hubby.

I took the initiative to tell are we not narrating about each other in our dream partners? She said “yes”. I told her this is enough now we can seriously think about making each other life partners…I noticed her warm and charm emotional expressions which gave a clean and clear indication that she accepted my proposal.

The relationship grew and we got engaged and finally married in November 2001. We are leading a wonderful family life. We have a three year old son and the next one is on the way.