What should I say for my geeky marriage proposal?

March 24, 2011 5:37 PM

What should I say for my geeky marriage proposal?

My boyfriend and I have been together for several years. He's made it clear that he would like to be married to me, but he'll wait until I give the word (I just got out of a bad marriage before dating him). I finally decided that I'm over my commitment phobia and want to pop the question (or rather, give an answer to the question that he asked years ago). So the big part (the decision!) is done, not comes the other part: how to do it!

I'm not being lazy and hoping the internet will do all the work for me, I'm just looking for some ideas and inspiration. So, I'll tell you a little about us, and if you can think of anything to make this moment even better, I'll be incredibly appreciative!!! If I come up with some good stuff, I'll post the final product. A thousand thanks!

Ok, the setting will be at a geeky social event (huge dancing nerd-fest of fun). We're both geeks, so it seems like a natural place for me to get up in front of everyone and embarrass the hell out of myself. So anyway, here's some random inspirations:

Games:
board & card games
video games
RPG games (Dungeons & Dragons and that type)
I rolled a natural 20 and got you
ready to go from solo-player games to a two-player cooperative

Movie/TV:
Firefly/Serenity
Star Trek
Star Wars
Nightmare Before Christmas
Princess Bride
mawwiage is what bwings us together
Will you stand next to me on the bridge of the Enterprise Class D when Captain Picard says 'Engage!'?
You are Han to my Princess Leia (but more like Leia from "A New Hope" where she's a gun-toting rebal leader, and not Leia from "Return of the Jedi" because I'm not going to wear the gold bikini).
You are the Apollo to my Starbuck (but I won't suddenly disappear).

Other:
Computers/technology
Halloween
NASA/space exploration
medieval/renaissance
music
internet humor/memes


I also posed this question to the Reddit community, and the first comment was "tits or gtfo". Seriously.

posted by BadCat! to human relations (23 answers total)

Can you get custom 12-sided dice made that say "YES!" on every side? (or similar)
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 5:41 PM on March 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

If you guys like games, could you set up charades, and have someone give him the clue "marriage proposal," so that he acts it out in front of you? Like have him get on his knees and mime asking you, and you say yes?
posted by xingcat at 6:12 PM on March 24, 2011 [8 favorites]

Do that thing from the Firefly episode where Mal winds up married: pour him a bowl (or, erm, glass) of wine, place a garland of flowers on his head, and dance around.
posted by kestrel251 at 6:14 PM on March 24, 2011 [14 favorites]

Congrats! This is soo sweet! I maybe misreading your fest - but if it is dancing or any type of event with a MC - would you want an it as an announcement?
posted by cestmoi15 at 6:15 PM on March 24, 2011

Oooh! So I (Ms. Vegetable) was like this about a year ago (and yes, now Mr. Meat and I are married). But nothing fun/dorky/public like this happened.

I vote for something like charades or pictionary, where every single clue is a married couple, and the last one is like a finish will you marry me type one. It would require everybody else to be in on it, which might make it funny.

You could make the corniest soundtrack of love songs and awkward romance ones. Put "I Do" by 98 degrees in there a LOT. See if he gets it.

Stand up and make a speech. Or speeches. About why all the coupled/married people with you are supposed to be together.

Fortune cookies.

A vote he has to tally that everybody's written down and he has to read.

I think "mawwiage is what bwings us togewer" would be a hoot to see.

If it's actually a geeky dance, perhaps a "holy ghost" space reference for all the unmarried dancing couples. And then ostentatiously skip you.

Show up to the "costume" party wearing a jail jumpsuit. Realize it's not a costume party. Take it off to reveal a very white dress that's obviously a wedding dress-type thing. "Oh, so what are you now?" "The bride."

Something about "scoring."

Some of these ideas require the cooperation of other people, and I'm not sure how much you want to involve them.

Oh I'm laughing. Please do share what you decide.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:18 PM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

it's an invitation not a proposal, but by way of inspiration, this is the best geeky wedding invitation i've seen in a while. also, some apples to apples and munchkin marriage proposals. also, foursquare marriage proposal.

for internet memes, you could always fall back on some kind of "i can haz you" or "i can haz ring" lolcat.

one of my favorite love songs is the magnetic fields' "the book of love". the last line in it is "you should buy me wedding rings".
posted by rmd1023 at 6:21 PM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Heh, with all the good stuff you listed, I'm not even sure why you needed to ask us!

I really liked "Will you stand next to me on the bridge of the Enterprise Class D when Captain Picard says 'Engage!'
posted by Glendale at 7:29 PM on March 24, 2011

Do you really have to do this in public? Can't you just snuggle up to him and whisper your answer?
posted by Ideefixe at 7:36 PM on March 24, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh please please please do the Saffron dance where you give him a hat made out of a tree.

(Also I think afterwards you should give him a sparkly engagement ring.)
posted by elsietheeel at 7:59 PM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

You get up front with the mic and tell him by name "BF, ask me to marry you"
instant entertainment for everyone
posted by anadem at 9:26 PM on March 24, 2011

Hand over a 20 sided die

"Roll it, studly."

Look surprised.

"The GM says that I'm going to marry you."
posted by porpoise at 9:45 PM on March 24, 2011

How did the two of you meet?
posted by gypseefire at 10:27 PM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Mr. [bf's last name] - the word is given."
posted by blue_wardrobe at 7:00 AM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hack a Magic 8 ball, or a web-based magic 8 ball. ZMazel tov, you crazy kids.
posted by theora55 at 9:31 AM on March 25, 2011

For music, you can't do better than Andrew WK's recent single, "I Was Born to Love You." (SLYT) It is as triumphant and geeky as any song could want to be. Congrats!
posted by marcin_zissou at 9:44 AM on March 25, 2011

We played Hangman and I used "Will you marry me" as my 'word' a few rounds in.
posted by Four Flavors at 9:50 AM on March 25, 2011

Do that thing from the Firefly episode where Mal winds up married: pour him a bowl (or, erm, glass) of wine, place a garland of flowers on his head, and dance around.
posted by kestrel251 at 6:14 PM

And then seduce his crew and steal his ship? ;)
posted by BadCat! at 1:38 PM on March 25, 2011

I maybe misreading your fest - but if it is dancing or any type of event with a MC - would you want an it as an announcement?
posted by cestmoi15 at 6:15 PM on March 24

Hope I'm not giving the secret away if any locals happen to be reading this, but the event is Geek Prom - music, spaz dancing and nerdy fun. For some reason I feel like making an ass of myself and doing it publicly. I asked the event organizers, they're onboard - now I just have to figure out what to do.
posted by BadCat! at 1:41 PM on March 25, 2011

Do you really have to do this in public? Can't you just snuggle up to him and whisper your answer?
posted by Ideefixe at 7:36 PM on March 24

I was going to do that, but decided that I've made him wait around long enough, it'd be nice to have a bit of fun with it and have all our friends there.
posted by BadCat! at 1:43 PM on March 25, 2011

How did the two of you meet?
posted by gypseefire at 10:27 PM on March 24

Technically, the first time we met was when I called him for a pizza delivery (Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust had just come out and I was craving it) and tried to con him into delivering to me even though I was out of the delivery zone. He was up for it, but the manager-guy wasn't, so no pizza for me that day.

We actually got to meet for the first time when he came over to our house for rpg gaming, invited by my then-boyfriend (I was a gamer too, but not a fan of Traveller system so he had to recruit some back-up gamers). I stayed in the living room modding action figures and managed to super-glue both of my hands to the table (what a great first impression).

Not too long after that, we worked together at several different jobs over the years and became very close friends. After finding out my Traveller-playing boyfriend then husband was a habitual liar with no intention of changing, I dtmfa and decided to move on to a much happier life!
posted by BadCat! at 2:02 PM on March 25, 2011

Also, I'll be making us some swank PacMan, Ms. PacMan costumes to wear if that helps inspire anything! :D
posted by BadCat! at 2:25 PM on March 25, 2011

Oh, superglue! Superglue him to you!

And then some dorky "oh, now I'm permanently stuck on you."
posted by a robot made out of meat at 4:14 PM on March 25, 2011

The deed was done at last night's Geek Prom!
The Geek Prom organizers helped by rigging the geek trivia portion of the night. Bryan was surprised by how some of the questions seemed to be written just for him (they were). At the end, he was given 10 seconds to translate a ridiculously long string of binary. I then got up to give the translation ("Bryan, my most perfect geeky love, will you marry me?").
He was stunned and incredibly happy. :D
Thanks everyone for all the great ideas!!!
posted by BadCat! at 4:33 PM on April 10, 2011 [4 favorites]