Since the mental_floss article Modern Marriage Proposals was published in 2007, I have read about many more marvelous methods men have used to asked for their sweetheart’s hand in marriage, plus a couple of proposals that started out traditionally and ended up in the news because of embarrassing unforeseen circumstances.

1. Hay Bales

William Butler took advantage of the rolling fields of Underhill, Vermont to propose to Natalie Coughlin. He wrapped hay bales in plastic and assigned one letter to each bale to spell out “Natalie, will u marry me?” Then he added bales that had boxes she could mark “Y”or “N”. When he took her (blindfolded) to see them, he had a can of spray paint ready for her to check her answer. It was “Y”.  See more pictures in this gallery.

2. Google Street View

Michael Weiss-Malik works for Google. They don’t normally announce when the Street View vehicles will be out, but they did once to allow people to line up and get their pictures taken. Matt took advantage of this to “upgrade” his recent proposal to Leslie. She had already said yes, but this gives her something for the scrapbook! Weiss-Malik created a website to commemorate the occasion, and you can see the proposal in Google Maps as well.

3. Perl Script

A PerlMonks, Colin McMillen asked fellow geek Kristen Stubbs to marry him with a perl script in the shape of a heart. When rendered, the code printed “kristen, will you marry me?” The post was titled “Propose”. Her reply was the first comment posted, which said simply “ $propose++; Yes! :) ” This proposal was later referenced at PhD Comics.

4. Street Magician

For his big moment, Arvin approached magician Dan Trommater for help with his proposal. He took Cindy on a walk and just happened to catch a street performance, where Trommater directed Arvin to get down on one knee to help him conjure up a “magic box” that held an engagement ring. It was a complete surprise to Cindy, who accepted. Of course, it was all captured on video.

5. Whisper Chain

Jake Bronstein of Zoomdoggle was onstage at a World Record Appreciation Society event at Crash Mansion in New York in July. He was attempting to break the world record for the longest whisper chain. Bronstein whispered ““Kristina, will you marry me?” to a participant. The message went around the room, through 59 people before it got to Kristina Hoge. Luckily, the message had not changed. Hoge was not expecting a proposal, but accepted immediately.

6. LOLcats

I Can Has Cheezburger hosted a marriage proposal on Valentines Day in 2008. In a series of LOLcat images, Jon popped the question to Loretta. It was later updated with more LOLcats to verify that she did, indeed, accept.

7. Jack-o-Lanterns

This Old House held an online pumpkin carving contest for Halloween 2008. One of the 12 winners was this series of jack-o-lanterns that spelled out a proposal, submitted by Katie G. of South Bend, Indiana.

These pumpkins were carved using a pumpkin carving tool and family for workers. My fiance carved every single letter when he proposed to me on Halloween 2007. There’s also a heart-shaped pumpkin below which held my engagement ring. I said YES of course!!

8. Stealth Website

KC’s boyfriend made a website to ask KC to marry him. The odd thing is that he didn’t tell KC about it! His aim was to spread the word via random networking on the internet until it got back to her. Meanwhile, anyone visiting the website could accept the proposal -but had to pass a quiz to determine if the respondent was the real KC. After nine months, KC finally found the site and passed the quiz, and the answer to the proposal was yes!

9. Not Exactly as Planned #1

Don Walling prepared a memorable proposal for Gina Pellicani. He took her, her sister, and his family to the walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge to present her with a ring. Then at the big moment, he dropped the ring, which fell through a crack down onto the roadway below! The ever-gallant Walling climbed down onto the roadway into heavy traffic and retrieved the ring, which was bent but repairable. Pellicani accepted his offer of marriage.

10. Not Exactly as Planned #2

Reed Harris planned a creative proposal for Kaitlyn Whipple by planting a ring in her milkshake. She was supposed to be surprised when she reached the bottom of the shake, but there was no ring. She had swallowed it! The couple went to a hospital and x-rays confirmed that Whipple had the ring inside her. Harris then proposed by presenting Whipple with the x-ray evidence. She accepted, and the ring, uh, appeared two days later. Also see the case of Simon Hooper, who swallowed an engagement ring at the jewelers because he didn’t want to pay for it.

Previously:  Modern Marriage Proposals