A Year of Family Weddings: How My Husband Proposed

He asked me a few days before Christmas on a horse-drawn carriage in a wintry wonderland in Southern California. I never saw it coming. It was perfect. So how did it all happen?

Marriage proposals are a big deal, honestly, they are. Think about it. It's a day you'll look back on for years to come. Numerous people will ask to hear your story. If you have kids, they'll want to know too. So it really should be special, something memorable. That doesn't mean you have to spend a ton of money on some adventure, that's not at all. In fact, you really don't have to spend a dime, it just depends upon what you do. My husband set-up a perfect plan and everything fell right into place.

We had been together for a couple years and talked about the future and marriage all the time. We knew we would end up together, it was just a question of when. We were both living with our parents at the time, I was still in college and we planned on doing the Christmas shuffle together, going from one family get together to another. Thus, we weren't going to have any real quality time together. So, he called me one afternoon a few days before Christmas and suggested we go out for our own little Christmas dinner. Sounded great to me so of course I said yes. He picked me up that night and took me to downtown Riverside.

We somehow managed to miss the rush hour traffic and got there really early so we walked around. Now downtown Riverside during Christmas time is absolutely gorgeous. The old buildings are covered with twinkle lights and garland. Big red bows adorn the light poles. Christmas carols ring from every office building and storefront. It is quite a spectacle to behold. He had made reservations at this wonderful Mexican restaurant at the Mission Inn. The Mission Inn is a landmark in Southern California. It's an old mission-style church and hotel that is now a museum to the city even though it is still a fully functional hotel and church. As our reservation time grew near we wandered back to the Mission Inn. We saw a few people riding around the city blocks in horse-drawn carriages. He made a comment that we should take a ride after dinner. I said that sounded like a lot of fun. And then we had dinner at the little restaurant. We sat outside by a lovely fire and enjoyed the winter atmosphere. I still had absolutely no idea what to expect.

We went and got on our little horse-drawn carriage. We were snuggled under a blanket looking at the lights on the buildings. I was saying something about the lights on a particular building when he pulled a box out from under the blanket. I looked him in the eyes for a moment, then he opened the box and asked. I was speechless. I just started crying. I was perfect. He put the ring on my finger. It was on the wrong hand. We realized that several minutes later and laughed about it. Afterward we went to our parents' homes, showed off the ring and shared the excitement. I couldn't imagine a better proposal. It was perfect, for us.

He told me later that we had just come up with that plan on the fly that same morning. The reason? He had found the ring the previous night and was planning on asking me Christmas Eve around all my family but couldn't wait until then. It was so sweet.

However, that wasn't the only proposal in the family. My older brother and older sister followed suit the next two months. In January my brother asked his wife by slipping a ring into a well during a game of Mancala. Again, very much them. It's such a great story. It was the first game they had played together so he decided to make it even more memorable. Then in February my sister was asked on a helicopter ride over New York the day after Valentine's day. And just this month my sister-in-law was proposed to under a waterfall in Yosemite. Her fiance commented on how the backpack he was carrying was so heavy it felt like there was a rock in it. She replied my saying she was glad she wasn't carrying it then because she had to take a crap. Then he asked her. Hysterical. It will most certainly be a day they will always remember.

There are a million ways to ask someone to marry you. But what it comes down to is the emotion behind the question. Make it something that is "you guys." Don't step out of character, just be yourself.