APRIL 4, 2011: Thank you to everyone who participated in our Best & Worst Marriage Proposal Contest. We were overwhlemed with the responses. In fact, we had so many great stories we decided to award honorable mentions for each category. So instead of two winners, there are four. And here they are (along with their four stories) . . .
GRAND PRIZE WINNERS – $250 Lingerie Shopping Spree
Best Marriage Proposal: Gail & Craig SanPietro Worst Marriage Proposal: Brandy Leigh Nelson
HONORABLE MENTION – $100 Lingerie Shopping Spree
Best Marriage Proposal: Aimee Hughes Worst Marriage Proposal: Camille Michel
All winners are being contacted by email to claim their shopping spree voucher. The four winning stories are published below and on our Facebook page. Congratulations to these four winners and thank you again to everyone who participated in our contest!
GRAND PRIZE WINNER – Best Marriage Proposal: Gail & Craig SanPietro
The second time I saw my wife-to-be in a Harvard computer lab, I impetuously proposed: “How would you like to get married by moonlight in Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of South America)?”
We began dating about 6 months later and were living together soon thereafter. Two years later we went to dinner at Las Trece Monedas, Peru’s best restaurant in an 18th century colonial mansion. After dining we wandered through the mansion and met the owner/chef who invited us to sit with him. Two hours and several drinks later, one of us (my wife and I still can’t agree on who) asked him: “What does it take for Americans to get married in Peru?
He replied: “There’s a two week waiting period for foreigners and lots of red tape but I run the best restaurant in Peru and many politicians eat here. The day after tomorrow is my 22nd wedding anniversary and, if you wish, you can get married in the courtyard before we open for the afternoon. Then you can lunch with me and my wife and it will cost you nothing”
We both thought for a moment but this was just too good an offer to refuse. The next day we bought wedding rings of Peruvian gold. Not having a wedding dress, my wife decided to wear a white nightgown. An NBC documentary producer and his wife with whom we had shared a taxi from the airport to our hotel agreed to be our wedding photographers.
We were married in the courtyard the next day by the Chief of Civil Registry of San Juan de Lurgancho, had an excellent lunch, and then spent parts of our unexpected honeymoon at Machu Pichu high in the Andes and in Guatemala on the way back to the US. We later traveled through Kenya with the NBC producer and his wife and visited the restaurant owners in Italy where they returned to live after retiring from the restaurant. We still exchange cards with them on our mutual anniversary and occasionally see the producer.
We didn’t quite make it to Tierra del Fuego but Peru was more than half way and we’re still happily married 38 years later. The white nightgown finally wore out but we’ve found attractive replacements at the sexylingerieshop.com
GRAND PRIZE WINNER – Worst Marriage Proposal: Brandy Leigh Nelson
My husband has never had a way with words. He is not eloquent or romantic, and he isn’t one to readily hand out compliments. Not because he’s a jerk, but because he turns into a bumbling idiot who never knows the right thing to say. Let’s just say he is far more physical than verbal when expressing his feelings. He’s an amazing, kind, caring man with a great big case of foot-in-mouth-itis!
The way he proposed to me almost 6 years ago was monumentally disastrous. I lived an hour and a half away at the time, so the only chance we got to see each other was on the weekend. I would usually head up to his place after I got off work on Friday, and I would stay until Sunday. One weekend, I went to his place as usual, and he was acting very odd. He was quieter than usual, and awfully fidgety! I didn’t know what was wrong, and he insisted that everything was alright. We ended up having a few drinks. Well, I did, anyway….He had several drinks, which again, was odd. But I didn’t question it. I figured that maybe he had a rough day at work and needed to unwind. Things ended up moving to the bedroom. We were both intoxicated and in the mood, so we ended up in bed pretty quickly. I was on top of him, doing what adults do, and he just blurted out, “I was thinking about that piece of paper….Whaddaya think, huh?” (Piece of paper meaning marriage certificate.) I was SHOCKED. But I pretended to play stupid until he asked me properly, as that was the absolute worst proposal ever!
Needless to say, even though he’s a jackass, he must have done something right. Our 3rd wedding anniversary is coming up in April, and we have 2 babies now. One is 14 months old and the other is a newborn. He has also brought home flowers 5 times in the past 2 weeks. He may not be the most romantic while saying how he feels and may sound like an idiot, but he’s MY idiot, and I think I’ll keep him! Thanks for the chance! After back-to-back pregnancies, I could really use some sexy lingerie to make me feel like a sexy woman again rather than just a baby factory!
HONORABLE MENTION – Best Marriage Proposal: Aimee Hughes
It was May 1st, right before finals and I had a TON of work to do including handing in my thesis proposal. However, I really needed to unwind and do something fun so Matt decided to rent a boat (thought you needed a license…apparently not in the North Country hahaha) and go fishing on Lake Champlain. Of course I brought all my articles to read since I was so overwhelmed with getting it done, but obviously that didn’t happen. Anyways, after about 15 minutes and next to Valcour Island, he asked me if I wanted to start fishing and I did, so I asked him to bait my hook. I HATE touching worms!! 5 seconds later he turned around and was just staring at me with a weird face. I really had no idea what was going on. I didn’t get it for a good 10 seconds, but the ring was on the hook swinging in front of my face!! Good thing he planned this out and fixed the hook so the ring wouldn’t fall off into the water lol. And on one knee he said, “I’ve got the best catch, will you marry me?”
I knew the proposal was coming… taking my dad out for lunch??? COME ON NOW, but he definitely shocked me with when and how it happened.
Matt is such a romantic person, he always puts so much thought into everything he does for me….even his cards are lengthy and beautiful lol. I can’t even express how grateful I am, especially having a significant other who drove up to Plattsburgh almost every weekend to see me (sometimes arriving on a Saturday night, only to leave Sunday morning..crazy right????). He made the 6 hour drive in snow, rain, hail, you name it. Both of us said we would never be in a long distance relationship, but not even 2 months before I left to start my masters program, we decided to give it a try. Well, we made it through the 2 years I was upstate and I can honestly say that’s the reason we’re so close. Our Skpye dates, talking on the phone from the time we woke up, throughout the day, and then until one of us fell asleep on the phone at night was how we had to get to know one another. I’m very happy I came back home for my internship though and Matt is too (for driving reasons of course haha). It was tough at times having a significant other so far away, but the saying “what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger” is definitely true for us
I never knew a love like this could exist. The list of qualities that I HAD to have in someone seemed downright ridiculous and never going to happen. I was actually OK with the fact that I would probably be the crazy cat lady. I can’t believe that Matt is everything I’ve dreamed about having in a person. Not only is he the most handsome man I’ve ever met, he’s sweet,loving, and kind to everyone around him. He works hard to be successful and always strives for more. Matt motivates me and supports everything I do, always cheering me on to the fullest. He’s my best friend in the whole world and I really can’t remember what life was like before I met him.
HONORABLE MENTION – Worst Marriage Proposal: Camille Michel
I dated this guy for two months at the age of fourteen, he was seventeen and he lived three hours away, we met at a mall and it was a instant attraction. He was hot, but it wasn’t worth it…he was insane. the first day of my freshman year…he didnt know i was at school, he called me 178 times that day, texted all my friends and it really creeped me out. So that night, I broke up with him because i was young and i knew there were plenty of other fish in the sea…more sane fish in the sea. He declared that he was “in love” with me, but i knew that he didn’t mean it because the word love means hardly anything anymore. early morning the next day at about 2:00 am I wake up to my mother frantically saying that someone tried to break in to the house using my basement sliding door. (we had a silent house alarm) So i’m freaked out, my family is all awake, the officer comes up to us and says that the man claims to be my boyfriend. Everyone looks at me…and i get all embarrassed and ticked off. I instantly know who it is. Ask the officer if i can have a few words with him and of course i can, I go outside and he see’s me and starts telling me how goregeous i am and brought me a gift and all that other drunk talk, I just want to slap him, and he says “I came here to ask you to marry me pretty lady” than pukes and starts crying because im yelling at him. Eventually I went back inside and he went in for a being drunk underage and I later find out that he stole the ring from his mother. Gotta love insane teenage boys. By the way…I told him no. I have been proposed to quite a few times. all ending very badly…but this…just put the icing on the fricken cake. Now that it’s been four years…I just shake my head and ask why.
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