Real Marriage Proposal Story - Caught By Surprise!

A good marriage proposal story can be better than the most romantic movie or the most love-filled novel. Knowing that it's real - that it's actually about two people madly in love - somehow makes me tear up and feel a swell inside. They can help you to imagine the day you’ll get engaged, or to remember the romance of the day your sweetheart popped the question. After all, there are few phrases in the English language that are more sweated over or rehearsed than "Will you marry me?"

If you're about to be engaged, try reading these stories to help you calm the nerves and feel prepared. Or, if you're a romantic like I am, read them just because sometimes it's great to be a teary-eyed sap inspired by strangers.

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By Jennifer Meulendyks

Proposal Date: September 1st, 2009

Since my first summer with Derek in 2007, we've taken an annual sailing trip with his family to Ontario's Georgian Bay, for sunsets, beautiful beaches, old lighthouses, and most of all snorkeling on old shipwrecks. That first year, while snorkeling on the Thomas Cranage, an old steamer that ran aground in September 1911, Derek recovered an old rusty valve ring. I joked with him then that “it wasn’t quite the kind of ring I was hoping for!"

The next year, I thought that perhaps Derek had remembered our last adventure with that valve ring, and that this year I would get a real ring. So I packed accordingly, and wore my pretty sundresses and skirts the entire trip – waiting for that picture perfect moment when he would get down on one knee and ask me to be his wife. I was sure to look beautiful the entire trip, dressed to the nines, makeup on and hair done every day. Not exactly the most practical of things to be doing on a boat in the middle of nowhere! But on the last day when we set sail for home, there was still no ring on my finger. I was so devastated, and remember crying below deck with Derek’s mom, Sandra, thinking he was never going to propose and that I was sure he didn’t want to marry me.

Another year went by, and when we left for our 2009 adventure in Georgian Bay, I had already prepared myself for no proposal. Surely this was just not the right place for him, or maybe he was just uncomfortable asking in front of his entire family. On the third day of our trip we anchored in our favorite bay just off of Beckwith Island, where the horizon goes on forever, and you can see the most beautiful sunsets you could ever possibly imagine. The sand is soft and squishes between your toes, and there are two beautiful bays optimal for anchoring the boat in a sheltered place. Late that evening after dinner, a couple arrived in a small dingy dragging something very heavy on the bottom of the bay. The entire family became very curious as to what it was that they were towing, as they would not pull it up on shore. Derek’s dad, John, and I peered through the binoculars hoping for a glance at their coveted treasure, but the couple had carefully placed their boat between us and whatever it was that was in the water. Our imaginations were running wild -- all we could dream was that they had taken something off of a nearby shipwreck, and were taking proper precautions to not be caught in this very illegal act. Or maybe it wasn’t treasure at all, maybe it was drugs that were dropped, or who knows what!

The next morning, I was surprised that Derek was ready and eager to snorkel right away, and John too was suited up in his scuba gear getting ready to jump in early around 9:30am. I however, was not so eager to enter the freezing cold water so early in the morning and so I doddled about the boat very slowly still in my pajamas. The water was only 65 degrees, and sometimes a wet suit just isn’t going to cut it. But then Derek’s sister, Teresa, announced she was going in the water too. At that point, there was no getting out of it – if Teresa was going in, so was I.

I finally got into the freezing water, and Derek swam over asking if I’d like to go take a look at the ship’s boilers with him. So we went to explore the wreck some more, when all of a sudden I spotted something unusual. There, sitting on top of the Thomas Cranage decking, was an old box tied with some rope! I popped my head out of the water with excitement announcing to everyone to hurry over, I had found a real treasure! I sent Derek down to retrieve it, and together we pulled the rope with the heavy box back to the boat. I couldn’t wait to get it open. All I could imagine was the secretive couple from the previous night, and that perhaps they had dropped something along their way... Continued on the next page Read the exciting conclusion of this real marriage proposal story!