He set up eight romantic dates over the course of those twelve hours, and tweeted to his followers on #MikeProposes about the significance of the locations and activities chosen. Apparently there was no fear that J would figure out what was going on simply because she doesn’t have a Twitter account.

Well okay, then.

J did however notice that Mike was busy with his phone an awful lot. One Tweet read:

1st challenge: J. wants me to get off my phone and focus on our time together.

Can’t imagine why.

Duerkson informed his followers that his lady had no desire for a fancy ring. She would rather the money be spent to do some good in the world. Mike gave her a card with a picture and description of the little girl in Paraguay they are now sponsoring. I liked that a lot… but then he got her the diamond ring, too.

Anyway, after twelve hours of very short dates in different places, Mike finally did propose to J and shared the happy news with all his followers that she said yes.

While I’m happy that it worked out for Mike and J, I do have to say I HATE this idea.

I’m not a big fan of the endless blowout proposal in the first place, but the endless blowout proposal that’s shared with hundreds of strangers while it’s happening… yeah, that frankly creeps me out.

I’m with J. Whether the proposal is a marathon of activities or a simple brief question, the person asking should be concentrating on the person being asked, not a Twitter feed.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Meet Gregory Todd and the engagement ring he hopes to give his new fiancee… in somewhere from one to three and a half years.

Why so long? Because he proposed to her in Hull Crown Court during his plea with the judge for leniency in Tiffany Baillie’s sentencing after she was convicted of GBH with intent for stabbing Todd as he slept last december.

Baillie was depressed at the time because she had suffered a miscarriage. She also, apparently, had had quite a bit to drink that night. For my money, this might contribute to an explanation, but hardly excuses her actions… particularly since her actions lead to Mr. Todd spending three months in the hospital recovering from damage done to his pancreas and spleen.

Todd, however, has forgiven all. Outside the court he said:

“I hoped to give her the ring today, if she had got a suspended sentence. I asked the judge if I could give it to her in court, but he said no. The barrister took the ring to the cells and she tried it on. It fits. Now I have got the ring back but no Tiffany.”

The judge weighed the facts, Baillie’s guilty plea, and Mr. Todd’s amazingly forgiving nature against the seriousness of the crime. Out of a potential twelve years, Baillie has been sentenced to four with credit for time served. With good behavior, it’s quite possible she’ll be back with Todd and with her twelve-year-old son in a year.

Mr. Todd, I wish you the very best of British luck.

According to R.J. Licata, the dangers include:

- Marrying the wrong girl
- Waiting too long/Proposing too soon
- Buying the wrong ring
- Overspending on the ring
- Being uninformed
- Overlooking an important detail
- Ruining the surprise
- Destroying your nerves
- Letting her down

I think about the only thing he left out was the heartbreak of psoriasis.

Oh, wait! That was a dandruff shampoo commercial in the seventies. My bad.

But Licata has the answer! He has written the book he wishes had existed before he proposed marriage. You know, the one that would have stopped him marrying the wrong girl. Or maybe it was that he was uninformed… or maybe he let her down. It’s hard to tell.

Anyway, whatever the heartbreak involved, Licata turned it into a media empire with The Ultimate Marriage Proposal Guide!

With it, a man can be prepared, informed, and recognize his own girlfriend in a crowd. Er… maybe that wasn’t quite what he meant with the crack about marrying the wrong girl, but my brain does work in mysterious ways its wonders to perform.

Licata will explain why it’s necessary to ask a father’s permission before asking the lady’s… which frankly would have bewildered my father and made me turn down the proposal, because not everyone thinks that way anymore and it’s more important to know what your lady thinks than the opinion of the author of a book designed mostly to disengage you from the contents of your wallet. He’s got the tools to keep you from blabbing the secret to the world before you ask your girl. Seems to me most of us understand the key to keeping a secret is not to tell it to people. Oh, and not to buy a great big book that will give the secret away by the very title of it.

Of course he has testimonials from a whole two guys (Jason in Indianapolis and Jamie in Syracuse) saying why they love this product. In the deathless words of Jamie in Syracuse:

Call me what you will, but I thought my girlfriend deserved a bit more than a piece of jewelry and a commitment.

Look, I have nothing against elaborate proposals when they fit the personalities of both parties involved. I think it’s great that there are guys out there who think the object of their affections deserves something unique. I even thought it was kind of cute when Jamie mentioned doing a scavenger hunt proposal… until I found out the instructions for a scavenger hunt proposal were part of Licato’s full package of goodies, along with the book, a set of checklists, and full access to his wedding proposal forum (a $300 value!).

All this could be yours for just $17. No, really. It’s worth over three hundred, but he’ll sell it to you for less than the price of dinner and a movie with your sweetheart for a limited time… most likely limited to as long as it takes him to unload all the copies of this stuff. After all, there’s that miracle wrinkle cream that’s been claiming to be looking for just one hundred first time users to accept a free jar in my area for the past two years. They keep telling me that’s a limited time offer, too.

This thing just strikes me as more wedding related stuff nobody actually needs.

A nice proposal is a lovely thing. I’m all for hearts, flowers, romantic music, and I’ve got no problem with a guy who goes down on one knee or arranges something he feels sure will make the moment magical for the very specific person he wants to marry.

But in the end, the most important thing a guy needs to know about the person he wants to marry is what actually matters to her. It doesn’t matter whether that’s a huge diamond and champagne or the simple assurance that the question is sincere. You’re proposing to a person, not a lab specimen. There is no one formula that will result in the reaction you want.

Make it about the two of you.

And you can have that advice for free.

For instance, that photo at the top of this entry? That’s Len Kendall. When he decided to pop the big question, he went to Buzzfeed and posted this meme of himself asking Katie the Big Question… and invited his friends to create images in a similar vein to support him. The images include everything from Tim Tebow to Angelina Jolie’s right leg to… stuff I don’t recognize, but still find amusing. About the only one I didn’t see was Princess Beatrice’s hat from last spring’s royal wedding. Then again, I’m guessing the images at Huff Po don’t include every single effort.

BTW, the lady said yes.

Ira Weissman has an article to help you navigate the potential minefield of buying your engagement diamond online. It’s a simple guide to avoiding one or two popular scams. Could be helpful if there’s a diamond in your future.

Confused about tipping wedding vendors and their staff? Danielle Elder has shared her personal list of whom to tip and by how much. I would say it’s a good place to start, but recommend consulting with a good etiquette guide and/or savvy folks in your area before simply taking it at face value.

Then there’s an article from Stephanie Hallet on the history of Leap Day proposals. Yeah, turns out virtually every legend about how it got started has no verifiable basis in historical records, but that’s no surprise. My advice? If you’re the one who wants to propose, do it on your schedule. Oh, and best of all possible luck to you!

The latest player in that game is Pizza Hut. I’m betting it’s too late to play now, what with the big day being tomorrow and what with PH having limited the deal to just ten pizza loving couples, but for $10,010.00 they will give the following:

Limo service
a ruby engagement ring
a bouquet of flowers
a personal fireworks display
a professional photographer
a professional videographer
and
a Pizza Hut $10.00 Dinner Box, containing: a medium, one topping rectangular pan pizza, five breadsticks with marinara sauce, and ten cinnamon sticks with a sweet icing cup in one box.

I have to say, the thing that probably intrigues me the most about the entire deal is the fact that the engagement ring included is a ruby flanked by diamonds, and not all diamonds. Funnily enough, I do think it adds to the appeal of the deal for me… though any man who thought what I wanted most in a proposal was chain pizza and breadsticks would probably get a very sad video in return for his ten grand investment.

Then again, I’m betting there are at least ten women in America who would consider this the absolute perfect proposal. I hope their loves found this offer.

Well, it seems we are not alone. Proposal planner Michele Willamson has written an article for Huffpo defending her profession. It seems to Wiliamson that we just don’t understand her calling. If only we understood, we would change our minds and appreciate her services, even if we didn’t use them ourselves.

She answers some questions about her job… but frankly I find that her answers don’t actually make me think her business any more useful than I found it before. After all, she says she plans intimate, personal proposals as well as huge, flashy ones. But if it’s intimate and personal, why does the gentleman (and she does divide the world into ‘men’ and ‘females’ which is a nasty habit more and more people seem to be falling into) require someone to tell him what would be intimate and personal for him and his lady? Or gentleman? And the fact that Williamson says she is present for most of these proposals frankly kind of skeeves me out.

She says that she does a lot of research by talking to the man about his relationship with his female… oops, I mean his significant other. She prompts him to remember things and consider questions that may not have occurred to him. But has this gentleman no friends? No family members he might consult? Has he no skills to discover for himself what his love finds romantic? Is it never possible for a woman to propose???

After all, the best way to make the proposal romantic is to consider carefully the tastes and personality of the person being proposed to, as well as the history and structure of the overall relationship. If, for instance, a man knows that his lady always sighs happily at movies when an engagement ring is discovered in a glass of champagne, he knows she’ll find that romantic. If she laughs her head off and talks about wasting a perfectly good glass of champagne, chances are that’s not the way to propose. If the moment just seems right while lying in bed on a lazy sunday morning… then why not take the chance? Only if you know she wants the down on one knee approach and for you to ask her parents for permission to marry her.

There is no such thing as a universally romantic proposal. And unless you’re trying to arrange the practicalities of a Jumbotron, a marching band, and a host of celebrities showing up to urge your beloved to say yes… chances are you can work it out on your own. And even then? Yeah, guys have been working out the Jumbotron thing at sporting events for decades all by themselves.

Sorry, Michele, but I still don’t see a need for your service. And while I will refrain from personal abuse, I laugh soundly at what you’ve chosen to do with your life and the people who think they need it.

we’re the go-to source for men who want to create the perfect proposal. Not only do we know what girls want in their proposal, we know exactly what will knock their stilettos off.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would have wanted Mr. Twistie to go to a pro to figure out how to create some spectacular EVENT of a proposal. I like the fact that he chose the time and place on his own and said his own words.

There are a lot of people who wouldn’t have found Mr. Twistie’s proposal all that romantic. The setting wasn’t spectacular. In fact it was a family-style restaurant that still happened to be open when we got out of the theater ravenously hungry. The words weren’t poetic. In fact, it took me a while to get him to say enough words to figure out what he was trying to say.

But it was him and it him telling me in his own way that he’d thought hard about pleasing me.

To me, that was perfect. I didn’t need bells and whistles and hot air balloons. All I needed was for him to let me know that I come first with him.

And that doesn’t cost money.

Especially fun, I think, because Caitlin answered Jeff’s graffiti marriage proposal in the affirmative. Always nice to have a happy ending! Now, who hasn’t chimed in before and wants to share their proposal stories?

The bride-elect was offered a 100% discount on the deal, but of course there’s some fine print:

Nontransferable. Groupon entitled to no less than 15% of your marital bliss. Either party may develop a snoring problem. One or both participants will not always look like a 20-year-old. Good luck, you kids.

The lady said yes. I wish them both all happiness.

On the less successful end of the imaginative proposal scale, we find Anna Perez of Chicago who chose the truly unique tack of calling 911 as her boyfriend was trying to break up with her in hopes that the police would convince him to marry her instead.

The gentleman was not amused. Neither were the police. Perez remains single.

If you’re familiar with Munchkin, this is one way to use the ‘Make your own card’ card that comes with the game. I’d put this right up there with other nerdy proposals we’ve featured here at Manolo for the Brides, like the Chrono Trigger hack and the Twitter proposal. The nerdy proposal may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if it works for you, then it works for you!

Was your proposal a nerdy one?