Manolo for the Brides

Most people who are proposed to have the ring (maybe also the box it came in) and they have their memories of those few special seconds it took to say “Will you marry me?”, but there’s not a lot else to memorialize the moment. There are, after all, no traditional proposal keepsakes… er, other than this…. the same way there are keepsakes for weddings and anniversaries and such. A certain Caroline Summers, however, will be reminded of the day Alex Jennings proposed for the rest of their lives together, every time he sheds his shirt.

Apparently he had the tattoo done the morning he proposed, and the folks at the tattoo tried their best to talk him out of it, but his mind was made up. But he was sure that she’d say yes, which of course she did since the news made the rounds. (Though imagine how humiliating it would have been if she’d said no and the news had *still* made the rounds!) I can’t decide whether this is tres sweet or tres tacky — on one hand, his tattoo will be a constant reminder of the day he proposed, yet on the other hand, that tattoo is someday going to be all faded and weird looking. What do you think?

Derick Childress knew he wanted to do something better than ordinary when he proposed to Emily Kern, and I think he got it right. Eight hundred unique ten-second exposures later, he had his proposal.

The video illustrates how Childress used light writing to create his proposal, and a slightly more detailed breakdown of the project can be found on his and his fiancee’s web site. Talk about putting some effort into your proposal! I’d say it’s on par with the Muir Owl proposal, enlisting the help of Neil Gaiman, and hacking a video game to pop the question.

There are as many ways to propose and get married as there are people doing the proposing and people saying their “I dos”. Here are two, with the proposal coming first. A uniformed policeman proposed to his girlfriend at the headquarters of the Police Tactical Unit (Hong Kong’s emergency police squad) while flanked by colleagues cheering “Marry him, marry him!”.

With all those men with guns, how could you say no? I kid, I kid. How wonderful to say “Yes, I will!” in front of such an ebullient and happy crowd!

The second, the wedding, comes from Brittany. Some weeks ago, Lorien Gabel (the CEO of pingg) and his fiancee Jessica Lichtenstein made their wedding a private-public affair. First, the pair hopped a plane to Vegas and were secretly married in the dessert while also filming a movie featuring their alter egos. The movie concluded with the surprise ending, Lorien and Jessica exchanging vows.

Three weeks later, 200 of the couples’ closest friends and family traveled to NYC to celebrate Jess and Lorien’s combined 30th and 40th birthdays… after responding to an invitation that advertised that they each had other SOs when they first kissed, uh. Guests were shown their matrimonial movie and were reportedly shocked and awed that they were witnessing the couple’s actual wedding vows.

You can see stills from the movie and the filming process here. I can’t say I was enthralled by the film itself, as it’s a little “here’s us in a car, here’s a manga figurine, here’s us dancing, here’s some crotch grabbing, we’re so edgy sexy, now we’re married surprise!” for my tastes, but I do suppose I’d be a lot more interested if the couple in question was made up of people I actually know. Still, it’s an interesting idea. Flashy, too, and I love flashy.

NSFW, that is, if a dude lip synching in his underpants is the kind of thing you really ought not be viewing at your place of employment. You see, a certain Pete Simson proposed to his girlfriend, Hannah McDonagh, by not only making the following video, but also hiring out a movie theatre, convincing said girlfriend that they’d be watching some serious French cinema, and making sure that the other theatre patrons were in on it before playing his proposal on the big screen.

At the end of the video, he got down on one knee and popped the question. I give him an ‘A’ for effort and another ‘A’ for having the cajones to prance around in his Y-fronts in front of West Country landmarks while mouthing the words to the ballad If You’re Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield. McDonagh said yes, which doesn’t surprise me at all because I think that any man who opts for a public underpants proposal probably has a pretty good idea his lady will answer in the affirmative.

I have to confess that I don’t really get the big, production number proposal. It’s not that I have anything at all against it if it floats your boat. It’s more a case that it not only doesn’t float my boat, it befuddles my poor little dingy.

And while making a bigger deal out of it certainly wouldn’t have made me say no to Mr. Twistie, the fact is that I’m glad he went for the incredibly low-key approach. Here’s how the conversation went in November of 1991:

Mr. Twistie: June thirteenth is a sunday in 1993.

(very long pause)

Me: Ah. (slightly shorter pause) And…?

Mr. Twistie: I know you like thirteen.

(another very long pause)

Me: Yes, I do. And…?

Mr. Twistie: Oh, well, I thought maybe we could get married that day.

Yeah, yeah, I know, many a lady would have beaned Mr. Twistie with a brick at that point, but my heart fluttered and I knew this was right. Why? Because as odd and seemingly unromantic as it sounds, he’d taken so much about who I am into consideration. He’d thought about how long I would need to get ready (and he knew I was going to make my own lace, so that needed some considering!), a meaningful date (thirteen is my lucky number), and my desire to be married out of doors.

In short, while I can certainly see why it isn’t for everyone, it was the perfect proposal for me, and I wouldn’t change it with one where I was whisked off to Paris or suddenly saw my name and the Big Question on the Jumbotron or where he went down on bended knee at some Important Family Event.

But while there’s no way in heaven, hell or anywhere in between that I would want to change what I got, I still get wibbly when I hear a good story where somebody went the extra mile to make that proposal just right for the person being asked.

And that’s why I got a bit misty-eyed at an entry at CakeSpy a couple days ago. In addition to her blog discussing various and sundry delicious sweet treats, Jessie the head spy is a professional illustrator. Her speciality is watercolors of anthropomorphized cupcakes in various whimsical situations.

Not long ago, she got a commission to do a series of four pictures. The fellow commissioning them was about to propose to a fan of Jessie’s work…and he wanted pictures of their romantic trip to San Francisco and his proposal to give the lady.

The Big Proposal as a concept may continue to befuddle me, but damn! there’s a guy who definitely got it right. I hope you’ll all join me in wishing the happy couple all joy and a marriage just as sweet as the illustrations of the proposal.

Movies make it seem so romantic… the engagement ring sitting at the bottom of a sparkling flute of champagne. The engagement ring suspended in a dish of mousse. The engagement ring tucked into a crisp green salad. So what’s the problem? Unless you or your intended have fingers the size of tuba valves, most of the nibbles we take are larger than an engagement ring, making them difficult to locate in many dishes and, as Gourmet reminds us, a choking hazard.

When Carlos Lopes, former managing director at the Hotel Bel-Air, in Los Angeles, set out to propose to his first wife, he planned the evening to perfection. He selected a fine restaurant. He hatched an elaborate plan. He schemed with the maître d’. And, at the desired moment, the waiter brought Lopes’s girlfriend a crème brûlée into which the pastry chef had discreetly tucked Lopes’s life savings, in the form of a diamond ring. “Only I was so naïve,” he remembers today, “that I didn’t realize you ate crème brûlée with a large spoon and not a small one.”

Smash went the crust. In went the spoon. And before Lopes could say, “Um, I have something to ask you,” his brilliant-cut one-carat surprise went sliding down his intended’s throat.

Oopsie! I’ve always wondered who first came up with the idea of putting an engagement ring into food. If you adhere to the two months salary rule, that could very well be one expensive piece of bling, and the last thing most brides-to-be want to do is have to thoroughly clean their new jewelry before putting it on. Heck, my rings (engagement and otherwise) get dirty enough from sporadic everyday wear. I can’t imagine having to use an old toothbrush to scrub crème brûlée of all things out of the tines of a six-prong setting.

Or is that just me? What do you think — are engagement rings hidden in food the height of romance or the height of fail?

The story was broken yesterday at Manolo for the Big Girl, but a regular Manolosphere commenter, Andrea S, had a Very Special Experience at the Renaissance Faire. Follow the link, and wish her joy!

Interestingly enough, the Renaissance Faire was where Mr. Twistie and I met. I didn’t pay too much attention that first day to the somewhat less than sober guy holding up a pole at the Pistolbows (hand-held crossbows for the kiddies to shoot) booth, so I had no idea what a momentous occasion it was. Just shy of thirteen years later, we pledged ourselves to one another before a crowd of friends and family.

Yeah, sometimes we’re slow. Still, we get there eventually.

Oddly enough, my brother the alpaca rancher also met his love at the Faire. In fact, they met when she (a member of the Irish camp) proposed to him, because he looked a prosperous English fellow. It took them something in the range of about two years to tie the knot, but they fell hard pretty much immediately, and are still besotted with one another more than twenty years later.

Now I’m curious. When and where did you meet your intended/spouse? Did you know right away, or did it take a while? What’s your love story?

We’ve spent a good amount of time exploring the virtues of various marriage proposals…public versus private, nerdy versus romantic, and adventurous versus traditional, but we’ve usually agreed that a proposal works when it works for the couple. Here’s one that definitely worked for the couple.

A certain man who goes by the moniker TheRealPfhreak successfully proposed to his girlfriend by hacking Chrono Trigger. He originally wanted to surprise her with a trip to Mount Barker, the site of their first date, but that just didn’t work out. So instead of bringing his now fiancée to the mountain, he brought the mountain to her by creating a secret Chrono Trigger level complete with stargazing, dancing, her favorite song lyrics, and even her cat.

Overall, it was a resounding success. She had no idea that this wasn’t part of the original. She asked, “Hey, are those the Princess Bride lyrics? Do the Japanese really love that movie?” to which I responded, “Yeah! That’s probably it! Either that or a bored translator slipping in an easter egg.”

When her name appeared on screen (blurred in this video), she glanced over to me (on one knee, with the ring out), wondering, “How did they get my name in this game?” When she saw the ring, she reread the proposal, nodded yes, and said, “You are such a huge nerd! I love this!”

Note that the good stuff starts at about one minute into the video.

Congratulations to TheRealPfhreak and his lady!