Georgia Voice wedding proposals

Georgia Voice readers reveal how they popped the question

We asked readers to send in their proposal stories and you obliged! Some were in Atlanta, some were on vacation, some were on the couch, some were bilingual and all were unforgettable.

“Our college friend group is spread out all over the U.S., so every year we choose a new city in which to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We decided to host [it] at our place last year because we were fresh to Atlanta and had just purchased our first home. I proposed to Spencer while we were surrounded by close friends and on the precipice of an exciting new chapter of our lives. The day after was our five-year anniversary.”

-Tamer Barsbay on his proposal to Spencer Michael Watts (Midtown)

“We met online and from the first moment we met … we knew we would get married! In fact, I even told Leslie the first night, ‘I will marry you one day!’ Two months later, we all went to Boston for my Ph.D. hooding and graduation ceremonies. My best friend orchestrated all of us to sit outside on the dock (we were staying on a houseboat). Next thing I know Leslie got on one knee with a piece of blue ribbon with anchors on it and proposed! How she got the ribbon is the real story!”

-Heather Cooper on Leslie Cooper’s proposal to her (Bethlehem, GA)

“We had been dating for three-and-a-half years when Jay had to go to D.C. to attend a conference. Having lived there for 10 years before [moving] back to Atlanta, I told him I’d love to tag along. Both of us being history buffs, I convinced him to take a midnight monument walk with me on the National Mall. I coaxed him around back of the Lincoln Memorial telling him I wanted to show him my favorite place in the city. He asked me why this spot was special. I got down on one knee, said this is why and proposed.”

-Jared Degnan on his proposal to Jacob Davis (Midtown)

“I had been looking at rings and I thought I had found the one! Everybody was telling me that I should make a big deal about it (have a flash mob, record it, etc.) but I wanted to do it while we were — being us — on the couch watching TV. One night he asked what was going on. He said I’d been acting weird. He thought there was someone else. I thought I was being slick. I said, ‘We’ll talk about it soon.’ He replied ‘Yeah! Right now!’ His face was as red as a stop sign. So I sat down, went through my phone and asked ‘Which of these rings do you like the best?’ He went from red to ghost white then asked if I was asking him to marry me. I smiled and said ‘Yes’ and the he said ‘Of course!’ It wasn’t the exact way I wanted to do it, but it was close enough and it worked out because we got to look at rings together. I didn’t think he would want diamonds, but the next morning he said that he did.”

-Timothy Drew-Walters on his proposal to Jonathan Drew-Walters (Decatur)

“My fiancé is Colombian and is fluent in Spanish. On our first date, I thought I would ‘woo’ her by telling her I spoke a little Spanish myself. However, the only words I really knew were your basic ‘hola,’ ‘adios’ and for some odd reason ‘yo tengo dos gatos y un perro’ which means, ‘I have two cats and one dog.’ She thought it was hysterical and it has since become our little first date joke. The day I proposed, close to three years later, I took her back to the exact same spot where we first met. We reminisced about the past few years, our first date, my little ‘two cats, one dog’ liner, etc. She laughed and asked whatever happened to me learning Spanish. I told her I knew I hadn’t gotten very far but I’d been teaching myself a little and asked if she wanted to hear it. She looked surprised and said of course. That’s when I stood up, turned to her, knelt, popped out the ring and said ‘te quieres casar conmigo y ser mi esposa,’ which means ‘do you want to marry me and be my wife.’ The tears and shock overwhelmed her so much that she screamed out ‘Si! Si!’ And now we’re planning our wedding.”

-Jennifer Karlebach on her proposal to Vivian Guzman (Grant Park)