Most preposterously imaginative romantic gestures ever?

January 4, 2006 11:02 AM

With next month's Valentine's Day looming, what are the most preposterously imaginative romantic gestures you have ever given / received / heard of?

I've combed the AskMeFi archives and though I can see questions about romantic ways to propose marriage (and even my own Valentine's Day question from last year), I can't see anything about romantic gestures in general.

No limits to this question other than that it must be possible for the (reasonably comfortably-off) average citizen to achieve. So no etching sweet nothings on the moon using space lasers, please.

Here are some that come to mind for me:

- The couple who had a wedding ring made of bone generated from their own cells

- The farmer who wrote "I love you" in cow dung and then flew his wife up in a plane to view it

posted by skylar to human relations (21 comments total)

On one of our first dates, I bought her a ring from a vending machine, you know, a 50-cent thing that was sure to turn her finger green, just as a cute little gesture. She wore it constantly after that, on her right ring finger. When she forgot it at my place once, I took it to a jeweller, and had it re-cast in silver ($85), and gave it to her for our three-month anniversary. She thought that was pretty neat, to say the least.

On our one-year anniversary, I said, sort of casually, "How would you feel about wearing that ring on your other hand?" Sweet, huh? She now wears it as her wedding ring.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:24 AM on January 4, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

The couple who had a wedding ring made of bone generated from their own cells

I was part of the consideration for that project. In the end, unfortunately, they decided to go only with UK residents.
posted by Jairus at 11:36 AM on January 4, 2006

One friend flew across the country to surprise his girlfriend in a bar where she was hanging out with her friends on Valentine's day. My friend showed up at the bar wearing a shirt he'd had made that said "I love X.X." (XX = girl friend's name)

That bone story is making me feel sick.
posted by Amizu at 11:45 AM on January 4, 2006

My wife attended a grade school that was next door to a local chocolate shop in New Jersey. Every Christmas, the chocolate shop made a variety of chocolate Santas, including a 3-foot tall model. Every year she'd ask her mom to get her one, and every year (not surprisingly) her mom got her the six-inch Santa instead.

I learned all just by way of general conversation about chocolate and such. She wasn't hinting, and so she was surprised and pleased when she got a 3-foot chocolate Santa the following Christmas. (To get it, I conspired with her mom, who knew the name of the shop.)
posted by alms at 11:53 AM on January 4, 2006

The Aspen Heart. As a present for his new wife a rancher here in Colorado went up on the mountain above his ranch and cut down all of the pine trees in the shape of a heart. This left only the aspen which turn gold in the fall. Very sweet. This is the wrong time of year for it and I don't suppose you own a ranch but it's too good a story to leave out and it might give you some ideas.
posted by BoscosMom at 12:15 PM on January 4, 2006

These are all great tales. Amizu, I'm surprised the bone story makes you more sick than the dung story, but that's life!

A lover once stencilled my home city with "x hearts x" graffiti. Criminal damage and vandalism aside, it was pretty romantic.

Is this the sum total of romantics on AskMeFi or are there more tales to come? ;)
posted by skylar at 12:49 PM on January 4, 2006

There was some charter air company that was offering the "Pretty Woman" package, where they attempt to replicate the "private jet to the opera" evening as seen in the film.
posted by frogan at 1:04 PM on January 4, 2006

...that would be a great gift for your favorite hooker, but not a girlfriend, or wife...if she's likely to get the reference.
posted by tula at 1:13 PM on January 4, 2006

Somebody else on AskMe mentioned that they gave their significant someone a box containing twelve envelopes, each envelope containing a gift to be used in that month. I thought that idea was pretty damned spectacular.

Most of my gifts have been recipient-specific, but are things that involve time spent together. For valentine's this year, Mrs.Tacos is getting couple's dance lessons and a few nights out of dinner and dancing.
posted by I Love Tacos at 1:25 PM on January 4, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Is the preposterously imaginative romantic gesture the sole domain of men (in hetero relationships), or is it cool for women to do them too?


(Sorry if it's too much of a derail.)
posted by Amizu at 1:35 PM on January 4, 2006

This Christmas, my husband secretly bought tickets to see Dar Williams, booked a room at a country inn and arranged for my folks to watch the kids overnight. Then he wrapped the tickets in foil and hid them inside a Wonka bar to which he added a sticker reading "You may have won concert tickets!"
I was surprised to say the least.

Once, way back in the early days, he was managing a toy store at the mall. Christmas was his hell season, so I made him an advent calendar of sorts, counting down from "Black Friday" to Christmas Eve. Each day had a funny little saying, or quote or romantic notion on it.
posted by Biblio at 1:39 PM on January 4, 2006

Wait, wait...what's this about bone rings? Link please? Backstory? Is this something I can grow in my closet?
posted by nevercalm at 1:45 PM on January 4, 2006

In the Australian film "Bliss," (1985. D:Ray Lawrence), Harry Joy secretly plants (and cares for) flowers that will take 8 years to bloom near his lover's behives so her honey will taste sweet and she will forgive him for going back to his loveless marriage (she is not aware that he was coerced into doing so).

Even he remarks, "I must have been crazy, to send a love letter that would take eight years to arrive."

This always struck me as a ridiculously romantic thing to do.
posted by Crosius at 1:58 PM on January 4, 2006

nevercalm, Bone Ring Project
posted by evoo at 2:07 PM on January 4, 2006

Amizu, it's not too much of a derail. I think preposterously romantic gestures work in all directions: male-female and vice-versa / gay, straight and every point in-between.
posted by skylar at 2:13 PM on January 4, 2006

A friend of mine in college pulled off a nice trick where he got together a bunch of friends and gave them each a rose to surprise his girl with throughout the day as she went to her various classes and such. Tough to pull of while not in school, but cool nevertheless.
posted by Mercaptan at 2:50 PM on January 4, 2006

last year, i got my girlfriend a wet willy. seriously. I think i may owe her something nicer this year.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 5:14 PM on January 4, 2006

My boyfriend whisked me away to a hotel with a jacuzzi tub. He brought candles, music, chocolates, and bubble bath soap. Neither of us realized that any amount of bubble bath soap is too much for a jacuzzi tub... picture the two of us in the tub, trying to be all romantic and stuff, while bubbles are cascading over the sides! We ended up laughing until we were crying. He said 'Ya think ya used enough bubbles there, Butch?' - a reference to Butch using too much dynamite to blow up the train in Butch and Sundance.

My super-secret, private nickname is now Butch.
posted by Corky at 5:16 PM on January 4, 2006

that's so cute Corky.

For Christmas this past year one of the gifts I gave my boyfriend was a book of vouchers that I had made. One for a backrub, one for as many of his favourite baked goods as I can bake in an afternoon (he sometimes pouts that he thinks I bake for other people but not for him), etc, but also he's American and hasn't lived over here for very long, so I also gave him vouchers for things that I want to show him around Auckland.

Not the most romantic idea on this page by any stretch, but he liked it, and it won me some brownie points I think. ;)

Yay to the vending machine ring story, that's so romantic. :D
posted by ancamp at 2:56 AM on January 5, 2006

And, of course, I went and got one of those little plastic dome-like containers to put the new ring in, too, when I gave it to her. The funny thing is that it's not really a particularly attractive ring. But she seems to like it.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:32 AM on January 5, 2006

Sidewalk Chalk Spells 'Marry Me?'
posted by growabrain at 12:18 AM on January 10, 2006