The Proposal

Everyone knows of the mandatory marriage proposal, but does anyone still do the girlfriend proposal?

I doubt so. Especially when you hit late twenties, it's either a unanimous agreement or an unspoken one.

My friend, OB is 28, but he still plans to propose to this girl 25, on Valentine's Day to be his girlfriend. It won't be any grand affair, but he will be taking her to a picnic, baking her a brownie and possibly prepare a present (heart shape necklace?) Couldn't be any more cliche.

Here's the dilemma. Valentine's Day this year coincidentally falls on the first day of Chinese New Year. That is the cannot-be-missed day where relatives visit each other. She being Chinese, he's not, he can't help but worry what her rejection would mean.

Back in school, boys proposed to me with flowers, letters, cards and all sorts of gifts. The sweetest was a boy who left a bag of gummy bears in my school bag when it was left unattended in the hall. He handpicked only red gummy bears because it was my favourite colour. Unfortunately, red gummy bears taste the worst (taste like medicine to me). He attached the note "Sweets for my Sweet". He was also the one who later hand-made me cards and carved a wind chime for me in his Design & Technical class.

Another guy in school wrote to me that when i wear my hair in two pony-tails, i make him delirious. I found that amusing.

I used to find myself attracted to men who are good in Science and Maths, something i was horrible at. I thought their intelligence was attractive, and that shy geekiness was appealing. But over the years, it's not quite true that opposites attract. I realised men who are good with art creates the best proposals.

"I knew I wanted to find a very special way to propose to a very special woman."

He's an artist/illustrator.

I bet you would have seen the Disney proposal on Youtube as well, done by a man and his friends who are in theatre.

I love hearing stories. So i ask my Singaporean friends for their stories. Most proposed over dinner, with the ring hidden in dessert (yawn, how easy). Many proposed on holidays, one knee bent. Many proposed by sending her on a treasure hunt (i don't think girls really like getting sweaty, guessing riddles and looking for the next clue). One proposed with a huge banner laid outside her bedroom window. One wants to propose underwater, with the ring hidden in a clam. (he's a diver, but his gf might not be! I wonder how then.)

Regardless of how simple or complicated the proposal might be, it's nonetheless nerve wrecking for the guy even though he knew 90% she would say "yes". It's still a "what if....."

If you don't have any ideas, the internet is the greatest invention (it is originally invented for porn, seriously). There are gazillons of videos uploaded on Youtube taunted as the BEST PROPOSAL EVER. Most used multimedia to propose. This guy even carved his own ring box!

I don't know what is with that Korean song midway though. The girl is vietnamese, isn't she?

This one was shot and edited with a Motorola phone (great advertisement for the phone)

Thankfully, we girls don't have to wreck our brains over proposing. Although i would LOVE planning such things because i am creative (usually). It's absolutely heart warming seeing the men taking so much thought into planning and coordinating (they are usually such a lazy species!)and roping in their friends to help (who usually only gather to watch soccer and not do something romantic).

I often wonder how does the guy guess her ring size. Someone told me you can use a string. I'm not sure how true is that.

My musically talented elder brother uses songs to propose to girls (to be his girlfriend). He just composed one song and conviniently change the girl's name each time. It works every single time.

How will yours be?

My dad proposed to my mum by asking "Want to buy HDB with me?"