Mustachian Engagement

[morninglightmountain]

I plan on proposing to my girlfriend of 5 years in the near future.  She thinks diamonds are a scam, and I'm more than happy to plan an alternative. We will likely get eloped within a month of getting engaged, so any sort of engagement ring doesn't make sense.

However, for the actual proposal itself, it seems like I should have something or do something in addition to just asking her. We're be in Olympic National Park, so I plan to ask her at some point there. Any recommendations on romantic gesture alternatives to giving her a ring?

I wouldn't mind spending a couple thousand on something more practical and/or meaningful, such as a furniture for our home or a honeymoon trip.

[wordnerd]

You could use the ring she'll wear as a wedding band for both engagement and wedding. That's what I did. I have a white gold band with a pattern that DH proposed to me with, which I took off for our wedding ceremony and then put back on. :)

ETA: We also got engaged in a (state) park. DH brought his guitar and sang a song he wrote and had a picnic of all my favorite foods.

[solon]

DW and I got engaged at Rocky Mountain National Park. I pulled out a guitar and we sat and sang and watched the sunset. There were also some candles and wine coolers, but the details are fuzzy now.

[ixtap]

Part of being mustachian is making your decisions independent of peer pressure and tradition. A token free engagement seems perfectly mustachian to me.

[woopwoop]

You should go on a sunset hike, then when you get to a good place, fling yourself off the side of the cliff and scream all the way down. Then yell "I broke my leg! I broke my leg" while bending down and holding your knee as though in gruesome pain. When she scrambles down to help you, pull out the ring and say "jk, marry me."

My proposal was awesome. My husband had always wanted to go up the bell tower in Balboa Park when he was a kid, but it was off-limits. I called up museum security to see if they could do anything for me, and they were all about it! We had a guide take us up as a "private tour" I said was a belated Valentine's present, and then when we got to the top, he let us go up there alone and I popped the question. It was super fun and memorable and didn't cost a dime :)

[rubybeth]

I think this really depends on your intended. What would she like? What would she appreciate? Diamond rings as engagement gifts is a relatively new thing in the grand scheme of this whole engagement/marriage thing in western culture. You could come up with something meaningful for the two of you--something that symbolizes how you met, your courtship, or your future. Maybe it's as simple as a bouquet of flowers, or another type of gift you know she'd like--a book, a piece of art (lots of ways to get customized personal art like on Etsy), or maybe just hire a photographer to capture the moment you propose from a distance so there's a record for your own enjoyment or future children.

[Blissful Biker]

My husband proposed with a ring that I wear as a wedding band.  It is simple and perfect.

He nailed the engagement too.  We were doing a few drills, practicing finding avalanche beacons the night before a big backcountry ski trip.  When I pulled up the beacon there was a shiny gold ring hanging off it.  He got down on one ski (telemark bindings) and proposed. 

[Linea_Norway]

I received a rose instead of an engagement ring. Was fine for me. We also drank champagne.

[Imma]

In my country diamond engagement rings aren't really a tradition, although they're getting more popular through Hollywood films. My mother and grandmother never had an engagement ring, it just wasn't the tradition back then.

My partner asked the question the moment he felt sure he wanted to get married to me. He wasn't prepared and didn't have a ring and I doubt he had gotten a ring had he planned it. We're not in a hurry to get married because we quickly found out it's quite a hassle (the paperwork at least) even though we are just planning to elope, no big event for us. We've been engaged for almost a year now.  Our wedding bands will be plain white gold bands that cost around €250 each.

[MrThatsDifferent]

I got lucky as my partner doesn’t like diamond rings. I had a ring custom made with a favorite stone and color.

[MrsPete]

I plan on proposing to my girlfriend of 5 years in the near future.  She thinks diamonds are a scam, and I'm more than happy to plan an alternative. We will likely get eloped within a month of getting engaged, so any sort of engagement ring doesn't make sense.

However, for the actual proposal itself, it seems like I should have something or do something in addition to just asking her. We're be in Olympic National Park, so I plan to ask her at some point there. Any recommendations on romantic gesture alternatives to giving her a ring?

I wouldn't mind spending a couple thousand on something more practical and/or meaningful, such as a furniture for our home or a honeymoon trip.

If you're both fairly settled on eloping within a very short time anyway, why not have a pastor ready there at the national park ... and combine the engagement and the wedding?  It's a gutsy move, so think carefully about how she'd react. 

As for spending a couple thousand on something "meaningful" as an engagement gift, skip furniture.  I can't imagine being pleased with an engagement recliner.  However, I've been wearing my engagement /wedding rings for 27 years now, and I love them.  I expect to be on this earth another 50 years or so, and I don't anticipate giving them up -- not exactly an outrageous spend when you look at the length of its use. 

[Imma]

I would run away if someone wanted me to say yes to a marriage on the spot ... But to some the idea might be romantic.  I do think it's the law in many places that marriages have to be announced a certain period before the actual wedding.

If you do want a ring, I would go for a fairly simple one. After all, she's not picking the ring for herself so you're not even sure she likes it. If she wants to have a fancy ring as well as a plain one, she could pick the fancy one for herself as her wedding ring? As I said, I'm not completely familiar with the American traditions, so this might be a strange idea, but in my country elaborate rings with diamonds are gaining popularity as wedding rings.