by Jillian Kramer, BRIDES
Photo: Courtesy of CNP Montrose
Many women wouldn't change a thing when it comes to the ways their partners popped the question. But these four women had a different view of how this important moment would go down than how it actually did. Here, they reveal what they'd change about their partners' proposals if they could.
"I wish he would have chosen a private location."
When Alicia's husband Jon popped the question, it was in front of the boarding school principal who employed him. The couple wanted to live together and had approached the principal for permission, but he replied he wouldn't keep on a housemaster who was living in sin and gave the couple 30 days to tie the knot. So Jon turned to Alicia and casually said, "why not?" Looking back on it now, Alicia says, "I would have preferred a more private setting and a more romantic pledge before he popped the question! I imagined him going down on bended knee in private place, a la a classic 1950's Hollywood movie."
"I wish he would have at least paid the bill."
Erin and her now-husband were in the habit of alternating who paid for their date nights out, even when they lived together. "We maintained separate finances," she explains. And on the night her husband popped the question, it was her turn to pay. "Right after I got my receipt back from our waitress, he looked into my eyes, took my hand, and proposed," she describes. It didn't bother Erin that her now-husband didn't have a ring. "The only thing I wish he had done differently was be spontaneous and pay the bill," she says. "It would have felt a little more romantic."
"I wish he would have been more formal."
Joan's boyfriend popped the question on an evening drive so casually, she says, she wasn't sure he actually meant it. "He interrupted a conversation to say, 'so when can we get married?'" she recalls now. "Nobody likes to be interrupted. And when I think back, it actually sounded like he didn't really mean it." While he didn't pull out a ring, that part didn't bother Joan. What still irks her today is the fact that, "we were in New York traffic, he wasn't looking me in the eye, and the question wasn't prefaced by anything -- no, 'I love you,' no, 'you mean so much to me' -- just 'when,' as if he'd already proposed and been accepted." Adding insult to injury, Joan's then-boyfriend didn't pull over when she accepted so that they could share in a smooch or otherwise celebrate. "It's not that I wanted the whole jumbo-tron deal," she explains, "but I wanted to feel a part of it by eye contact, hand-holding, and a kiss."
"I wish he would have come up with it on his own."
Katie is quite pleased with how her husband, Dave, proposed -- but that's because she came up with everything but the words he used to pop the question, she says. "My husband admitted he wanted to proposed, but had no clue how to make it special. He's not the most romantic guy," Katie explains. "So I told him I wanted my friends and family there to see it, and I gave him some suggestions on when he might do it." He popped the question during his birthday party, held at the couple's apartment with their friends and family present. "It was just what I wanted," Katie explains, "but that was it. He didn't do anything on his own. If I could change it, I'd want him to plan it himself -- or at least plan something himself -- so it felt more special."
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