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I thought I would start off the day with the story of how Mr. Hummingbird and I got engaged. I have to admit, it wasn’t completely a surprise. We’d been discussing it for a while until one Saturday morning when the discussion turned more serious.
It had been a busy week and was set to be a busy weekend when, for whatever reason, everyone we were supposed to meet up with cancelled on us. One after one, we got calls just bailing. This is not particularly uncommon for us since a lot of our friends work shift work and/or are kind of flaky when it comes to planning things (don’t get me wrong guys - I love you, but it’s called time management), but it kind of sucked since we were both looking forward to blowing off some steam and having fun.
So instead of going out and partying, I went off to have a bath and Mr. Hummingbird went back to his office nook/cave to work on some new project (he’s an art guy on a developing online video game and he always draws an online cartoon strip called Patrick Grey).
While I was in the bath with my bubbles, I just kept thinking about it and I thought to myself “Man, it’s a good thing I have Mr. Hummingbird. He’s the only reliable person in my life. He would never bail on me, he’s so great,” and when I got out of the bath, there he was standing in the hallway, apparently thinking the same thing. Before I knew it, he was hugging and kissing me and suggesting we go ring shopping. We settled on having an inexpensive ring made by a local jeweller and a couple of weeks later, when it was ready, he presented me with this:
(click to enlarge)
An official comic strip proposal! It was great. Not only did I get to enjoy being included in the decision but I also got a bit of a surprise.
Anyway, that was back in May and I couldn’t be happier. 
So what about the rest of you ladies? How did your engagements happen? Were you involved in the planning/picking of the ring etc. or was it a complete surprise? I’m a complete marshmallow so I’d love to hear your stories.
Were you really together for only a month when he proposed? Wow! That’s intense. Thanks for sharing your story.
Oh no, no, no. We’d been together for almost three years, living together for two when he proposed. 
That’s such a great story.
I recently got engaged to my boyfriend of 8 - that’s right - EIGHT years… (we’ve been together since I was 16 and he was 17). We just bought a house together in January. Here is how our engagement went down…
He called me at work to say he was going out to his parents house to pick up a steam cleaner because our new puppy had an accident in the house. I was getting off early and asked him to wait a few minutes and I would go with him. He said no, he didn’t feel like waiting… This of course annoyed me to no end, so I said FINE and hung up. About an hour or 2 later he came home and we were putzing around in the kitchen. After a few minutes I brought up the subject of marriage and started to bug him about getting engaged. He said “Five more years!” and left the room. (this is an ongoing joke with us - everytime I brought up getting engaged he would shout a random length of time that it would be until it happened - at this rate - I was supposed to be about 63 before we got engaged!)
So, laughing at our joke, I went into the living room to play with the dog. The next thing I knew, he was next to me on one knee, asking me to marry him! I don’t remember much of what was said, but I do remember saying “are you serious????” through my crazy tears.
It was perfect. It was July 20, 2007 - a completely random day, and a few weeks after my birthday, so I had NO idea it was coming. It was also really nice, because before he came home, he went to my parents to ask them for my hand and to show them the ring… he’s so great! ♥
Aww Miss Hummingbird I love your comic strip!!
My fiance proposed on the day of my college graduation during the banquet my parents threw for me. After dinner my dad made a short speech on my accomplishments and life changing experience I will be going through shortly (job, moving, etc) and asked if anyone else had some else to add. My fiance (in front of his and my entire family!) stood up, professed his loved (It was a quick 20 sentences or so crammed down into like 2 seconds he was so nervous!) asked me to marry him! We’re very close to our families, but it’s still a shocker everyone else was in on it without me knowing! I screamed Yes so loud everyone (through the heavy glass doors!) in the restaurant turned around to see what was happening! I totally was shocked-I figured *maybe* a few weeks later on our 4 year anniversay!
Very cute, I love the comic strip!
We’d been dating for 7 years (since we were 18), and always said we’d get married the summer after he got his PhD. And I’d told him I needed 18 months to plan a real wedding (I’m nitpicky), so it was kind of a given that he’d propose the winter of 2005. We actually made plans to fly across the country to visit our parents during the long weekend after our anniversary, pretty much knowing we’d be engaged by then and would want to announce it in person. So yeah, I knew it was coming, but figured he’d do it on our actual anniversary (Feb. 12).
But on Feb. 10 (Friday night), he called me up at work and suggested we go out to dinner. It was at a really fancy restaurant, and I started getting an inkling. But then after dinner we used our rental car to go pick up kitty litter, and I figured that nothing was less romantic than kitty litter, so clearly he wasn’t going to propose.
Then we got back to the apartment, and it was filled with flowers in vases, and he got down on his knee (I was still carrying the kitty litter!) and proposed. Very sweet.
The next morning our cat chewed on one of the lilies he’d brought (VERY POISONOUS!) and she spent the rest of the week in the hospital. Talk about a way to cap off our engagement!
She’s fine now, but we don’t bring flowers into the house anymore… 
My hubby to be asked me to marry him at a small, intimate restaurant in Santa Barbara (while on vacation). It was lovely.
But I have to say, I love how this guy proposed (call me artsy phartsy): http://ready2spark.blogspot.com/2007/09/engagement-as-art.html
I posted about this before, so sorry if it’s repetitious for some of you. But I just love the thought that went into this proposal!
I like your story!
My fiance proposed to me after taking me on a surprise trip to Hawaii as my graduation present (I got my MA). We were supposed to go to San Diego, but I found out at the airport that we were going to Kauai instead. On our fourth day there, we took an 8 mile hike to a waterfall, 2 miles inland from the Na Pali coast (a total of 4 miles to the waterfall, and another 4 out). It was a very tough hike and we didn’t have enough water, but we were so happy by the time we got to the waterfall. Then, while I was taking pictures, he had managed to pull the ring out and get down on one knee. There were no cheesy words, just the two of us and our big accomplishment of the hike. Plus the gorgeous backdrop of 150 foot waterfall. It really made hiking back out much easier!
What a sweet story!
My husband proposed to me after just 3 months - sometimes when you know, you know! We picked out the ring together - I really didn’t want to be a part of the process, but he insisted (he wanted to know I’d love the ring forever and really wanted to pick it out together). As it turned out, the one he bought was one he’d actually picked out at the jewlery store for me to try. So really, he did pick it!
He proposed at 8:30 in the morning on my birthday, May 11, 2006. I was kind of thinking he might propose that day, but not that early! He had arranged a beautiful breakfast to go and taken me up to our favorite spot - a wooded retreat center - overlooking the valley where I lived then. I thought it was just a birthday celebration, as he pulled out all my presents so I could open them. After I was done, he stuck his hand in his pocket and said, “Now for the grand finale.” Then he got down on one knee and proposed. It was a sweet surprise! We got married October 8, 2006 - about to celebrate one year now!
I love the comic strip — reminds me of an adorable cartoon (movie) on perfect proposal! I loved that show!
We were in Italy for my best friend’s wedding. We were staying there for a week. I had an inkling that this would be the trip as we were in the beautiful Amalfi Coast and it was also where I grew up! However — it didn’t happen. And he was grumpy and irritating the first couple of days - so I quickly forgot about any romantic overtures from him. After the wedding - we went up to Rome and toured all around. On our last day - we toured the Vatican and St. Peter’s and finally were pushed out because they were closing (7pm). He asked if I wanted to throw coins in the fountain and then find dinner. Of course! I’m all about wishes. I reached in to find coins — and found a ring instead! He was on one knee .. and I can’t remember a darn thing he said. Just that he asked me to say something - and all I blurted out was, “It doesn’t fit!” We laughed and had the best dinner the entire week in some little hole in the wall. I love Italy!
and creepy.
Ahahaaaaahaa. Love it, thats so cute, and something you cans ave forever!
here’s mine! we’ve been together almost 7 years now, but engaged for 2mo!
http://www.projectwedding.com/biography/list/lilchilipadi?biography_page_id=2387
That is such a great story— love the cartoon. You guys should definitely have that framed for your marital home
Your story is so fun!
Miss Hummingbird, I have to say I’m always drawn to your symbol (because of my engagement story) and always like reading your posts!
My story is that my fiance and I have been dating 2 years, which truth-be-told feels a bit like a drop in the bucket for me, because my last relationship was 5 years.
Nevertheless, he is the one for me, and we first started talking about what kind of honeymoon we’d have, of all things to discuss when you really extend the scope of your relationship. We decided on the place, and worked out the length of it, etc. Just kind of fun stuff. We both believed we’d end up married, but weren’t rushing anything. Then one day last February, he mentions to me that if we want to do something extensive for our dream HM (we want to be gone at least a month!), the only real vacation time would be the summer of 2008 (he just started med school and that’s the only summer he has “off”). OK….hmmm…(at the time) that’s in a year and a half! Ack, we should be getting engaged soon! But I knew he was still DECIDING between med schools and it could mean leaving where we lived, which had only included brief discussions of me joining him if he did go elsewhere.
Fast forward to April, we went to British Columbia on the Sunshine Coast, a vacation we were planning months before any engagement talk. My dad had just visited the previous weekend before we left on our trip, and I had told J that Dad’s enough of a traditionalist that he had to ask for the proverbial permission. Not really to get his permission (my dad’s not like that at all), but just for my dad to feel included (and not be shocked). Trying really hard not to be involved, I really wanted J to feel comfortable around my dad and to have sufficient time and I made all kinds of suggestions for how I could be out the way. Finally, J said, “You know, it’s really awkward to just say to a man out of nowhere, ‘I’d really like to marry your daughter. Is that ok with you?’ Your dad’s coming back soon enough, I’ll get to know him better this weekend and wait until the next time he’s here.”
Fell for it hook-line-and-sinker. My dad left, we went on the trip, I had no idea J had ever talked to my dad, we had a wonderful time, and halfway through the trip, we had a really nice dinner on the coast, and after dinner we walked back to our luxury tent (yes, it was literally a tent but exactly like a hotel room). A little gas fireplace in the room had kicked in and the fire was roaring. All of a sudden, J is down on his knees, asking me to marry him. WHAT? My true response: “Yeah….really? Yes! But what about my dad?”, I asked meekly. LOL.
He said, “I already asked him! The last day he was in town. You were in the shower!”
“But you said it was too awkward to ask then.”
“Yeah, it was! But it’s official now! We can start telling people!”
YAY! So, we were engaged! Officially! And all throughout the trip, we saw hummingbirds EVERYWHERE, which have become a bit of a symbol for us.
He didn’t have a ring for me then. He wanted my input, but wanted to surprise me with the proposal. We bought something really simple, but unique, in July at an art fair, and I love every bit of how it all came together.
Thanks for reading. Sorry that was so long! : )
[...] the call and we ran to the collective to pick up the box. That night Mr. Hummingbird unveiled the comic and we were engaged. Everything seemed [...]
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Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist Engagement Date: May 4, 2007 Wedding Date: June 28, 2008 Blogging Since: September 18, 2007 Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property. About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
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