Sean Palmgren and Betsey Krause submitted this marriage proposal story in our Marriage Proposal Story Contest. Sean and Betsey win a set of $4,300 platinum wedding bands courtesy of Novell Design, pictured here. The contest was co-sponsored by Platinum Guild International. Here’s Sean’s story:

Well, it all started with a dream.

I woke up one summer Sunday morning (June 8, 2008) and looked over at my girlfriend with the biggest smile on my face. I told her, “I know how I am going to propose to you!”

She proceeded to say: “Don’t tell me, don’t tell me.”

I wasn’t going to by any means; I love surprises.

My dream consisted of a bunch of umbrellas lined up in row with each umbrella having a different letter on it to spell out the words “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

The next step was to figure out when I should propose and without even second guessing myself I decided to do it on June 20, 2008. Knowing that my fiancée, Betsey, had two of her closest friends in town from Florida and California that weekend would make this experience even more memorable.

I now had 12 days to plan the surprise. The first few days consisted of picking out the engagement ring; thanks to the sales consultant who had already been talking with Betsey and her mother made it a little easier and much quicker than I anticipated it would be. So I picked it out, came back a week later to pay for it and to pick up this gorgeous, platinum engagement ring.

Now, having the idea, the date, the ring, it was time to ask the future in-laws for their permission to marry their beautiful daughter. Without any hesitation I went over to their house, bringing a bouquet of flowers for my future mother in law (which doesn’t hurt the situation one bit!) We stepped out to the porch, beers in hand, and I said, “As you know I love your daughter very much and I couldn’t be happier in life than I am with her. I am here today to ask for your blessing to marry your daughter.” Without any hesitation and a few tears (happy tears of course) I had their blessing. As soon as I had their blessing I pulled out a detailed plan of how everything is going to happen for the next few days.

Monday, June 16th – Ordered 30 black umbrellas to be delivered on the 18th.
Tuesday, June 17th – Asked parents for their blessing.
Wednesday, June 18th – Painted the top of each umbrella at a friend’s house to spell out “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”
Thursday, June 19th – Made sure everyone who was involved was very well informed on what was going to happen Friday evening.
Friday, June 20th – The proposal

On Tuesday night, I sent out a blast email to all of my close friends, family and to all of Betsey’s close friends and family to let them in on the surprise. I told them where it was going to happen (Lake Calhoun); what time to meet at Betsey’s parent’s house (7:00pm) and how each of them would be involved. Different people had different duties. There was a group of people who were in charge of getting everyone to the location on time and to practice the proposal. There was a group of people who went incognito and followed around the lake with a video camera. And then there was the group that walked around the lake with Betsey and me.

On Wednesday after watching the FedEx tracking online and knowing the package of umbrellas were delivered I proceeded to head over to my friend’s house. There, the three of us started to spray-paint letters on the top of each umbrella.

The Big Day… I had to convince Betsey that I really wanted to take a “walk” around Lake Calhoun on Friday night say around 6:15pm. Not an easy task, but with the help of her best friend, Molly, flying into town with her boyfriend from Florida made it a little easier to persuade her.

I made dinner reservations at a local restaurant around 8pm so that the four of us would have enough time to have a drink and to walk around the lake. The dinner reservations were a nice decoy. With Molly and Tom arriving at our condo, I told Betsey that we really needed to do this walk because it was a long day at work for me and I needed some fresh air. So we drove over to Betsey’s parent’s house, who actually live a block away from Lake Calhoun. We went inside and chatted for a bit and finally got on our way with the big walk.

Unexpectedly the surprise was almost blown by an early arrival… luckily Betsey’s dad took care of that situation without any of us knowing.

With my hands in my pockets feeling the ring every two seconds made this walk a little nerve-wracking. I also kept looking around trying to find my incognito friends who were on the 007 spy mission filming the walk and not once could I see them. Upon the finish of this three mile walk around the lake we proceeded to walk towards this line of people all holding an umbrella right above their heads.

Betsey was very intrigued on what was going on and wanted to take a closer look so we all played along. About 100 feet away, someone counts 1-2-3 and everyone flips their umbrella over to spell out the infamous “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

Betsey starts looking around saying, “Oh my gosh, someone is getting engaged!”

I smiled and got down on one knee and slipped the ring on her finger while saying:

 “You know I love you with all my heart and there is no one else I would rather spend the rest of my life with than you… will you marry me?”

With her hand over her heart she said yes!

As if the proposal wasn’t surprise enough, the crowd of umbrella holders started to walk toward Betsey and even more shock was brought to her face. The crowd of umbrella holders started to get familiar to Betsey as they got closer… her mom, dad, brother, cousins, aunt, uncle, close friends and my dad, mom, step-mom, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and close friends were all here to witness a beautiful moment. And a special moment it was since Betsey was so surprised!

After the proposal we all went back to Betsey’s parent’s house for a champagne toast followed by drinks and apps at a local drinking establishment.

Sean Palmgren
Minneapolis, Minnesota

I’ve been wanting another cat for awhile and my now fiance, Gerald had been telling me for weeks that he had seen a white kitten in our backyard that he had befriended.

On Sunday night, September 28th, Gerald was out in our backyard while I was oblivious and inside cooking dinner when he came inside and told me that the white kitten was in the yard. I hurried outside and tried to look through the darkness when I turned my head I saw 9 pumpkins that were carved out spelling MARRY ME (heart) G, all lit up with votive candles in them. I turned and Gerald was on one knee and asked me to marry him. Needless to say I said yes, but was sad that there was no white kitten even around.

Katie O’Looney (Santa Rosa, CA)

I didn’t have a lot of money so it took me 6 months to pay for the ring. This worked out well as it gave me time to discover a really nice restaurant and plan the event. I got the manager at the restaurant to work with me to make the plan just right. Early in the day, shortly after the restaurant opened, I dropped by the restaurant with a really nice flower arrangement and the ring. I asked the manager to make sure we had a semi-private area of the restaurant and next to a fireplace. I also asked the manager to put the flowers on the table and bring out the ring with the desert menu. He stored the ring in the safe until it was time.

When my fiancé and I arrived at the restaurant, we were taken to a great table tucked away in the corner of the restaurant and were seated. After some wine and some great food, it was time for desert. The desert menu arrived with the ring; I went down on one knee, took the ring box off of the menu and asked her to honor me by being my wife.

It was one of the greatest nights of my life and we are now happily married with two great kids.

- Jason L., Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia

FIRST - Monday night my friend Trink called me and asked if I would come have a movie and desert night with her that Friday at 7pm. I was a little suspicious because she didn’t sound like herself so I questioned her - but she gave good excuses and by Friday I completely believed it was going to be the two of us watching a movie.

WELL - I was wrong. I got to her apartment about 2 minutes after 7 and on her door it said “Dreyer - Come on in Love, Trink” So I opened the door and I noticed that the room was dark - there was a candle on the coffee table next to an open bible, with a letter on it, two champagne glasses filled with sparkling cider, and a single rose in a bud vase. I mumbled something under my breath and as soon as it came out Jared began playing his saxophone. It was beautiful and I asked him what it was when he was finished and he said “Stay with me” (or “Brass Bed” by Josh Gracin) and it is one of my favorite songs, so I begged him to play it again.

We sat down on the couch and as he began to play he got nervous and stopped. so I teased him, and he began to play again and played it beautifully. After he was finished I asked him “You want to tell me what this is?” , looking at the bible and note. He said “why don’t you go look” and I responded, “why don’t you tell me?” He responded, “why don’t you go look?” again so I said “ok” and knelt down in front of the coffee table. At the top of the note it read, Colossians 3:12-14. The bible was opened to that passage so I read it out loud. Next I read the letter out loud, and when I was done Jared asked me to stand up. Once I was standing he got down on one knee and said “Sarah, Will you marry me?” I responded with, “uh huh, YES!” He then slipped the ring on my finger and I hugged him, then ran and turned on the light to see it in the light. Turned off the light, ran back gave him another hug, then looked at it in the candle light. Needless to say I was very excited. I even got dessert - yum yum!

- Sarah D., Upland, Indiana

For Christmas, Fenchurch asked for a new digital camera with a printer dock. I said, “OK…I’ll see what I can come up with.” Another white lie. I had Christmas planned a VERY long time ago. It just took a lot of running around the last few days to pull it off.

First, with the departure of my friend Nancy, who moved south last summer with her husband to take a position in civilization, the Senior Choir was left without anyone “in charge” of it. I stepped up. In September, the plan for tonight was being set in motion.

Fortunately, Fenchurch ended up working nightshift Christmas Eve. This played right into my plans with perfection. As she went to work this evening, she had expected to come home in the morning and start ripping things apart under the tree. She LOVES Christmas.

Instead, I had made arrangements with my choir (have I espoused the many virtues of my incredible kids I get to work with enough in my blog yet?) for them to perform at the hospital at midnight, Christmas Eve…. Tonight. They would go to the hospital, coax Fenchurch outside, sing a Christmas Carol, and I would sneak up behind her as they finished “Winter Wonderland”. At that point, they would begin humming “Silent Night” after I had dropped to one knee and caught Fenchurch’s attention. it almost came off without a hitch, but the snow crunched under my feet a little early, and I ended up looking like a deer in the headlights.

I love Fenchurch.

She turned her attention back to the choir after saying, “Oh, hello.” In talking to her after, she says she thought at the time that I was just there giving them a ride and “supervising” them. They finished off Winter Wonderland.

When they began to hum “Silent Night”, I had already laid out a towl in the snow and dropped to a knee. I told her how much I loved her and opened the tiny little velvety box I held in my hand and THEN she realized what was going on.

I’ll let you picture it for a moment.

That should be good enough.

My apologies to so many women out there, I’m sorry if I have broken your hearts, but I can only dedicate my entire existence to one woman, and she is IT.

She loves the ring, it’s a perfect fit, it’s shiny and sparkly.

- Arthur D., Lynn Lake, Manitoba