Will you marry me? Local couples share their stories

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. But when a man - or a woman - pops the question, all bets are off. The moment can be laugh-out-loud funny, awkward or nerve-wracking, or it can drive one to the depths of the ocean.

Because June is a traditional month for weddings, we asked readers to share their stories and, here, we share some of our favorites:

In front of God and everybody

Jonathan and Jené Chapman of Chesapeake
That Sunday, I wondered why my mother, my sister-in-law - everyone - was coming into town, but they said it was just for the church service.

It was Mother's Day 2009. The pastor at Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church in Norfolk asked me to come up to give my announcements for my children's ministry, but instead Jonathan stands up to give announcements for his ministry and starts to do mine. I'm on the pulpit, like, "Why are you giving my announcement?" I'm mouthing to the pastor that I'm about to sit down.

The pastor motioned for Jonathan to hurry, but Jonathan assured him, "I've got this, I've got this."

Then he said, "I've known this person for a very long, long time. I want this special person to stand next to me."

Jonathan is so off the chain I never know what he's going to do or say, but everyone else was already screaming. I get up, he tells me to come over by him and he gets down on his knee. My godsister yells across the congregation, "She will!"

Once everyone quieted down, he said, "Will you spend the rest of your life with me?" I said yes.

Everyone cried - including the men.

^{Photo by Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot}

A do-it-yourself arrangement

Bill and Esther Leary of Virginia Beach
I met Esther B. Faulkner at a square dance in 1939 at the American Legion Post in Kinston, N.C., and asked her for a dance. She was 15; her dad was a banjo picker in the band.

About a year later, I met her at the same place and danced with her again. We dated regularly for a few months. I hitchhiked from my home in Kinston to her home in Greenville.

On Saturday, May 31, 1941, I proposed to her as we sat on her front porch swing. She was 17; I was 20.

Her reply: "I cannot iron shirts."

My reply: "Well, I can't wash dishes."

With that agreed to, we decided to elope to Dillon, S.C., the next Saturday.

On June 7 this year, we celebrated our 69th anniversary.

She still doesn't iron my shirts, and I still don't wash dishes.

^{Photo by Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot}

It went swimmingly

John, a City Council member, and Catherine Uhrin of Virginia Beach
I decided to ask Catherine to marry me underwater. We had a trip scheduled for Barbados, so I found the ring and had a banner made that read, "Will you marry me?"

On the third day, we scheduled a scuba tour. My intent was to pop the question on the second dive.

About 10 minutes into the first dive, I reached into my pocket to make sure that the banner and the ring were still there. The ring was, but the banner wasn't.

I broke off from the group in a frantic search and found the banner between two coral heads. Catherine, unable to find me, had become upset and used up all of her air. When we got back to the surface, she was the angriest I had ever seen her. But I couldn't tell her the reason for my desertion.

During the second dive, we entered a cove with three shipwrecks. When we rounded the third wreck, I swam out in front of her, dropped to my knees in the sand and opened the banner.

I could see the smile in her eyes as she shook her head yes. I slipped on the ring. We finished the dive holding each other, and the other divers gave us the thumbs up.

After we had all boarded the boat, she told me she wanted to hear me ask her, and so I said, "Will you marry me?"

She said, aloud, "Yes."

^{Photo by Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot}

Love was in store

Tim Eubanks of Portsmouth and Marcie Bricker of Chesapeake
We'd been friends all our lives, even boyfriend and girlfriend in junior and high school days, but we had gone our separate ways, married others and had children.

In 2003, we met again. Four years later, Marcie got divorced, and I found myself doing the same.

We developed a true friendship, then found ourselves once again falling for each other.

Last year, we were talking about marriage, and in October a dear friend died unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident. After sitting with his wife, Marcie and I returned to my house to watch our favorite TV show, "Grey's Anatomy."

The episode was about a young man with cancer who had held back his proposal because of his illness. He told the doctor that he had a ring for her and was waiting for the right moment. Later in the episode, he died.

That evening, Marcie and I went to Walmart. I had a ring for her and took it with me. I had decided that with our friend's unexpected passing and the TV show that life was too short to hold back the way you truly feel about someone.

In the frozen food aisle, Marcie greeted me with, "Did you get everything?"

I replied, "Here's the milk, here's the eggs, here's the cheese..." Then I took the case with the ring out of my pocket, opened it and asked her to marry me. After she giggled and recovered from the shock, she said yes.

^{Photo by Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot}

Right place, wrong time

Brian Pannone and Pam Rodriguez of Virginia Beach
The plan was simple: Take Pam back to the same Hawaiian beach where we'd been four years earlier in 2005 and at sunset ask her to be mine forever.

I wasn't nervous. I wanted to propose on the first night we were there, so we - I - could enjoy the rest of the trip. But we ended up eating dinner farther down the shore than that night years ago, so I gave up on the first-night idea.

The next evening, we were eating shaved ice and enjoying the moment in Haleiwa. I reached for the ring case tucked in the waistband of my trunks, and a truck pulled up and started blasting Tupac! Not exactly romantic, so I put the ring away.

A couple of days passed, and we started visiting tourist spots. We were at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and had made our way to the highest point. We had a view of Pearl Harbor and the beaches below. It was beautiful. I'm ready, but then I started thinking about how she probably wouldn't appreciate me proposing in a cemetery.

Our next stop was the Nuuanu Pali Lookout. After a few minutes, it started to downpour. It was fun, just Pam and I huddled below the rock railing above the valley. Here came the ring again. Then I started to think about why it's a tourist destination: It's where hundreds of Hawaiian warriors were once driven off a cliff. I knew that she would want to tell a story when she got home, and jokes of "capture" and "marriage" often accompany each other! On to the next stop...

By our last full day in Hawaii, I was getting anxious and went back to my original idea of the beach at sunset. We spent the day driving around Oahu, but the road wasn't exactly a 65 mph one. By the time we arrived, we had only a few remaining minutes of sunset. I grabbed the box, checked the ring position, we stood up and I knelt down.

"Pam, I love you. Will you marry me?"

After that, I don't know what she said; it came out all garbled. But she looked happy, so I took it as a yes!

^{Photo by Amanda Lucier | The Virginian-Pilot}

In sickness and in health

Terry Cullins and Vickie Williams-Cullins of Hampton
On Feb. 26, 2008, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. At that time, my boyfriend Terry and I had hit a rocky patch, and I told him that he could leave. He said he would stay.

I went through five surgeries and was scheduled for six rounds of chemotherapy. After the second round, I was so sick that Terry quit his job to take care of me. At the time, it dawned on me how much we loved each other, how much he was willing to sacrifice and that he was a ride-or-die kind of guy, so I decided I wanted to marry him.

After my third round of chemotherapy, I told him we were getting married on Oct. 12, 2008, the day before a holiday and six weeks out from my last treatment.

He said, "Ahh, OK."

^{Photo by Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot}

Love during wartime

Robert and Johanna Howell of Chesapeake
On a ship ride from San Francisco to Okinawa, Japan, during World War II, I read about a custom of some island people. The book said that to become engaged a man would present to his intended a piece of thread and a needle. If returned threaded, they were engaged.

I mailed the story and a needle and thread to Johanna, who was in New York City.

I received the needle and thread while on board a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Pacific. It was threaded.

This year, we will celebrate our 63rd wedding anniversary on Nov. 22. My wife is in a nursing home, but I visit daily.

^{Photo by Ross Taylor | The Virginian-Pilot}

He clued her in

Jim and Lee Belote of Virginia Beach
It was a crisp winter evening 15 years ago. My boyfriend had told me to meet him at his apartment after work, but when I got there, he was not home.

While I waited, a limousine pulled up, and the driver asked for my name. I was astonished, nervous, shaky.

We had been dating for three years. This must be a proposal in the making. Of course, that was a guess, and I asked the limo driver. He wouldn't say a thing.

He handed me a clue: Where did we meet? I told him to take me to the Seafood Harbor restaurant near the Oceanfront. When I arrived, there was a rose.

The next clue: our first date. I went to a rooftop bar a block away and retrieved my next rose. The last clue placed me in a hotel room.

When I arrived, the door was ajar. Barry White was playing, and I saw a wedding ring placed around a large carrot. Jim came from the balcony and nervously proposed while giggling. Of course, I said yes.

Why was the ring on the carrot? He said, "I wanted to give you a one-carrot ring."

^{Photo by Steve Earley | The Virginian-Pilot}

The best souvenir

Missy Klopfer and R.P. Kale of Chesapeake | In 1981, I went to work at a Marine Corps Air Station in Japan as a kindergarten teacher for the Department of Defense. It was there that I met R.P. Kale, who was stationed in Iwakuni for six months at a time during my tour.

R.P. ran races, and it was always fun to go to the events. At an airport terminal in Yuma, Ariz., we met for a New Year’s Eve celebration, and he surprised me with an engagement ring. I was unsure whether I was ready to settle down, return stateside and maybe give up my dreams of more college work and travel. Besides, I was in my early 20s, and R.P. was 10 years older with two sons.

My parents were not encouraging either. So R.P. and I went our separate ways – me to Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Okinawa – and I eventually became a principal. R.P. finished his military career with deployments in the Gulf and settled in Chesapeake.

With the exception of one brief phone call in the 1990s – and it was not warm and friendly – we had no contact. Then last year, I saw a picture of his son on Facebook and sent him a note, inquiring about his dad. His son sent several messages, including R.P.’s phone number and e-mail address.

I waited weeks to follow through. On June 4, 2009, I remembered it was R.P.’s birthday and gave him a call – and reminded him that he was still 10 years older than me! We made plans to get together in July. Within minutes of our reunion at the Norfolk airport, I felt as though the time apart had been 25 days, not 25 years.

He is still the same funny, caring and helpful person he was when I first met him.

As I leave Korea and retire from federal service, I know that the best souvenir of my time in Asia will be the one that I will keep forever: He is waiting for me in Chesapeake!

We will be married July 24 at Fort Story.

A Hollywood ending

Marilyn and Madison “Mack” Johnson, Jr. of Norfolk | Marilyn and I used to go to the Cinema Cafe on Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach and enjoyed answering the pre-show movie trivia questions on the screen.

She proposed on Leap Year Day before a movie. A slide she had designed popped up on the screen. She pulled out a ring and asked me to marry her. I couldn’t believe it.

I giggled and asked whether she was serious. Then I said yes.

The whole theater erupted in applause.

The signs were obvious

Jenny Reed and Chris Ollice of Virginia Beach | I proposed to Jenny on Dec. 14, 2009, at Sentara Leigh Hospital, where she is a breast surgeon.

I had two large banners made. One said: “Jen (Dr. Reed), Will you marry me?” The other, “She said yes!”

My plan was to place the first sign so Jen would see it as she drove into the parking lot. The second sign, of course, would be put up after she said yes.

I needed help with my plan, so I recruited Jen’s office manager and nurse. We plotted for weeks. I picked a day, and they purposefully kept a little time clear on her schedule that morning. I was up at 5:30 a.m. putting the sign in the parking lot.

The office manager came in early so I could get into Jen’s office. I filled it with pink balloons, figuring pink, like the breast cancer ribbon, was the best color.

Jen called me on her way to work, as always. She thought I, too, was at work, but all the while I was waiting in her office, which was buzzing because everyone coming to work had seen the sign.

As soon as Jen pulled into the lot, she called me with a one-word answer, “YES!” I told her I would ask her more appropriately that evening. When she came into the office, I was on one knee, holding the ring.

Our wedding date was June 12.

On the water

Clay and Kathi Culbreth of Virginia Beach | Kathi and I had our first date at The Cellars, a Virginia Beach restaurant located underneath the Church Point Manor bed and breakfast. I decided to propose there.

I purchased a white life preserver and had it professionally painted to say, “Clay Kathi June 5th, 1998.” I affixed a net to one side and anchored it 50 yards off the end of the dock associated with the B&B.

I knew the restaurant would be closed that night I planned to propose. Kathi and I were scheduled to meet friends for dinner, and I asked her if she would like to go to The Cellars for a drink first. She said yes, but with the restaurant closed, I suggested that we kill time with a walk on the dock.

When we got to the end of the pier, there was a canoe with a dozen roses and a cooler full of our favorite beverages. I asked her to go for a ride.

Once in the boat, I made a beeline for the life preserver. The water where the buoy was moored had taken on a unique fog, and I felt as though we were the only two people alive. Or maybe God was using the fog to protect the ring; this was a public waterway, after all.

When we came alongside the preserver, I reached into the middle of the ring, where a Bible was conveniently placed. I had pre-marked several verses that were related to husbands and wives. I read each aloud.

I got down on one knee in the canoe while turning the Bible over to extract the engagement ring that had been attached to it.

I asked her to marry me, and the rest is history.

On the air

Suzanne and Rick Dillow of Virginia Beach | My girlfriend, Suzanne, and I had been together five years, and I thought she was willing to marry me, so I looked for a ring. It was 1992; I was a promotion director for WJQI radio (JOY 95).

For a couple of weeks, the station ran promotional announcements about a live, on-air proposal coming up on Dec. 21. I had planned to propose that day, which was my girlfriend’s birthday and mine as well.

On Dec. 21, I told Suzanne we were going to the Heartbreak Cafe employee party. On the way, I said that I had to stop by the radio station. We walked into the studio to say hi to the DJ, Steve Davis, and he started talking to us on the air.

I took over, saying, “Well, Steve, I’m going to do this.” I took out the ring and said, “Honey, we have spent our last five birthdays together, and I want to spend the rest of mine with you. Will you marry me?” She said yes quickly – so quickly, in fact, that Steve had to announce that “she said yes,” with cheering sound effects in the background.

We headed for the party, and she tried calling friends and family, but no one was home. Instead, they were at the cafe. They had listened to the live broadcast and were waiting to greet us.

A tale of two rings

Gale and George Shpil of Virginia Beach | George and I had been dating, and he brought over a bunch of presents and put them underneath my Christmas tree. My birthday falls two weeks before the holiday, and I am used to getting birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas paper.

On my birthday, my 6-year-old son, Bryan, and I were to meet my boyfriend at my parents’ house for dinner. He called and asked me to bring the big box he left beneath the tree.

After dinner, I opened my birthday gifts, then tackled the big box. Inside was another box, and another, until I came to a small velvet box. In it was a beautiful diamond ring.

The reaction was mixed. My father had grown up in the Depression era and saw dollar signs. My mother, who loved my boyfriend, was elated.

But my son started crying. That week, he had bought a $1 ring for me for Christmas and was worried that he had been upstaged.

Needless to say, I wore both rings for many years!

That crying little boy is now 29 and will be married in August.

A bit of Serendipity

Jason Stanley and Rachel Whitlinger of Virginia Beach | Rachel and I began our friendship at Old Dominion University. We were both taking music classes our freshmen year and went to New York City to perform.

What started out as a group taking the city by storm dwindled down to the two of us. We went to a restaurant called Serendipity 3.

Rachel told me about a movie called “Serendipity” and how the restaurant played a key role in the film. Two people have ice cream there and feel an attraction but go their separate ways. Years later, they return to find each other.

Four years later, I took Rachel back to New York with two of our friends. I had reservations at Serendipity for the same table we sat at before. She thought it was a last-minute decision to go there, but it was planned months in advance. Our friends got up to look around, and I told Rachel how amazing it was that we were in the same place where she had told me that story.

The ring was in my jacket pocket, but the zipper was stuck. So I ripped it open, got on my knee, pulled out the ring and proposed.

She would have cried if it weren’t for the zipper problem. But it still was a memorable moment.

The manager told us that we were the first successful proposal in his restaurant and gave us our meal for free.

We are set to be married Dec. 11, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her.

A merry Thanksgiving

Melissa and Jacob Wycoff of Elizabeth City

My boyfriend was in Hawaii filming a movie when I realized that I was going to pop the question when he came home. I went to one of those jewelry carts in the mall and bought him a simple silver ring. I had it engraved with, “Will you marry me?”

I decided I would ask him over Thanksgiving with his whole family. I talked to his mom, and she said that would be great. The night before Thanksgiving, however, I started to get nervous. So that night in my apartment bathroom – the only private place – I gave him the ring. A few moments later, we were both in tears laughing because he was going to ask me to marry him on Thanksgiving at his mom’s house.

Not until I gave him the ring did I notice that it said, “Will you merry me?”

I should have waited till Christmas.

A lofty proposal

Donna and Rusty Bishop of Virginia Beach | Donna and I met in 1986. She was a teller at my bank, and I thought she was attractive and pleasant. One Saturday morning, my sister and I went through the drive-through and Donna waited on us. As I started to drive off, my sister said, “She likes you.” It gave me the courage to ask Donna out, and we began dating.

The next summer, I decided to propose at a family get-together at the Oceanfront on July 4. I wanted it to be memorable, and I thought of the ad banners trailing behind the planes at the beach. I called around and found a business that did that.

The day of the party, it was raining off and on, and I checked with the pilot five or six times to make sure he would be able to fly the banner. Just when the window of opportunity was about to close for the day, the weather cleared and he said he could do it.

I lured Donna outside with other family members, none of whom knew what was about to happen. The banner came right over our house: “Will you marry me Donna?”

It was perfect, and she said yes.

A one act play

Bob and Andrea Ellyson of Chesapeake | I met the girl of my dreams at the school where we both taught. I knew she was the one for me, but she really didn’t like me much. After three years of trying, things were getting interesting. I sent her, anonymously, the lyrics to “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” by Bob Seger.

My plan was to act out the words in the song and ask her to accompany me through life.

“A gypsy wind is blowing warm tonight ...
Out where the rivers meet the sound and sea,
You’re high above me now - you’re wild and free...
I’ll take my chances, babe, I’ll risk it all.
I’ll win your love or I’ll take the fall.
I’ve made my mind up, girl - it’s meant to be.
Someday, lady, you’ll accomp’ny me.”

I would need a place with a warm gentle breeze, and a place where the rivers meet the sound and sea, and it had to be done at sunset. I chose the Eastern Shore.

I watched the weather forecast for a clear day. Monday, April 12, 1993 was my best shot. I called for bed-and-breakfast reservations and asked Andrea if she would like to go with me for a one-day getaway. This was where I would take my chance and risk it all.

We shopped for antiques and had a small lunch. I checked and found that the sun would set at 6:21 p.m.

We were the only ones on the beach, and there was a nice warm “gypsy” breeze. I opened a bottle of wine, and we watched the sunset. I then related how important she was to me. As the sun slowly sank, I pulled out a diamond ring and asked Andrea if she would marry me. She said yes!

Andrea has “accompanied me” for 16 wonderful years.

It took a while, but he asked

Nancy and George Harvey of Norfolk

My marriage proposal wasn’t a question from my husband-to-be but a statement: “I believe it’s the Lord’s will that we get married.”

Being a new Christian and eager to know and do God’s will, I readily agreed. I was deeply in love, too.

But during our marriage, I’ve gently teased him that “I was never asked, just told.”

Our 50th anniversary came on June 16, 2004, and our family, including the four children and seven grandchildren, gathered to celebrate.

This time, he asked. What surprised, and enchanted me, was the form the question took:

A Slightly Belated Question

Once upon a time
In a far away place
I looked into your eyes
And saw a smile upon your face.

As we walked around the lake
Midst the woodland’s heavy scent
I knew ’twas time to share
With you my heart’s intent.

So I told you of my thoughts
And the Lord’s desire for us
And you quickly gave assent
Without a question or a fuss.

’Twas clear we both agreed
What we both were sure was true
As from our hearts we spoke
What long before, we knew.

So now the die was cast
And joyfully we wed
We began our lives together
But one word was never said.

Yes, amid our wedded bliss
Was one remaining task
And sometimes you’d remind me
That I’d never really asked.

So to rectify this error
Committed in my haste
I knew this crucial issue
I had at last to face.

And now upon my knee
In penitential stance
I’m prepared to make amends
As you awaken from your trance.

’Twas half a hundred years ago
We agreed upon our fate
And now I’ll pop the question
Would you be my mate?

So laying past omissions
Forgivingly aside
Would you now agree
To forever be my bride?