A weekly ode to the joys of moaning about your holidays.
I've majorly stuffed up more than a few times in my life but I'm relieved to say my marriage proposal was not one of them. The setting was Tauranga's truly stunning French Country House on New Year's Eve, 2016. The ring was hidden on a platter the manager had prepared while we were out feeding the horses (this always sounds like some sort of dirty metaphor when I tell the story but we were literally feeding horses), the music was a rare Bee Gees gem, Sun In My Morning and, most importantly, she said yes. And she liked the ring.
Proposal stories are usually fun and — dare I say it — especially the awkward ones. So often the most awkward marriage proposals are when people have gone on holiday to do it. Or even better, decided spur-of-the-vacation-moment, "What the hey, we're having such a great time, let's get married too!"
One of my favourite bad holiday marriage proposal stories involves a Kiwi couple in their early 20s who were in Phuket for a week. The bloke made the call, mid-snorkelling trip, that he was going to propose. So excited at the prospect, he opted not to wait until he was back on dry land and had, you know, chosen a ring and perhaps thought how he might like to pop the question. No, no, instead, he went with asking his gal, right then and there.
Armed with no ring but with colourful fishies and coral as the backdrop, the couple were underwater with their snorkels and masks when he tried to gesture that he was getting down on one knee. Flapping his arms to stay afloat while positioning his legs, his bride-to-be was faintly alarmed. He then started shouting, "Will you marry me?" through his snorkel, but underwater, all she heard was, "Wuh yuh muhuh muh." Fearing her boyfriend was either having some sort of fit or had perhaps ingested some funky mushrooms at lunch, she lifted him from the water.
