I thought I was going to get engaged during a romantic weekend away. It happened in a parking lot instead.

My first date with my now husband was on a cold December day. We had lunch at a diner, followed by browsing at Barnes & Noble. We had met on eHarmony, after years of trying to find love. It was a last ditch effort for both of us before giving up on online dating. Starting with that first date, I knew that there was something different, something special about him. While I’m not a person that expects grand gestures, I didn’t anticipate that eight months later he would propose — in a hotel parking lot.

Our relationship was a bit of a whirlwind

We met in December, got engaged in August, and married the next December. It may seem fast to some people, but we both knew we had found the one that we wanted to spend our lives with.

In the summer we started talking about getting engaged. I couldn’t imagine having a piece of jewelry that had so much significance — and that I was going to wear every day — and not having any input, so we went ring shopping together. Initially I thought I would pick a style I liked and then he would pick out the ring. Then I found a ring that I fell in love with.

He later told me he had ordered the ring, but I had no idea what he had planned for the proposal. I don’t love surprises, so something elaborate, embarrassing, or public was definitely out — and he knew that.

A weekend away seemed like the perfect time for a proposal

The first weekend of August we drove a few hours away so my now-husband could fill in with a quartet that he used to sing with. I went into that trip with a feeling that he was going to propose. But as we were driving home at the end of the weekend and day turned into night I figured it probably wasn’t going to happen, which was disappointing.

Then a song came on as we were driving through rural Delaware. It was “I Could Not Ask for More” by Edwin McCain, and he sang it to me. After the song was finished, he told me how much he loved me and how he could never ask for anything more. It sounded like a proposal speech, but no proposal came. He just said he wished he wasn’t driving so he could hug me. I replied, “I wish you could just pull over and propose.”

The author and her husband Tom while on a roadtrip in California in 2017. 

The proposal turned out to be a surprise, even to him

About a mile up the road, he pulled off into a Holiday Inn Express parking lot as I asked, “What are you doing?” After all, I hadn’t been completely serious about pulling over. Turns out, he was. He parked, reached over and hugged me as he rooted in the back seat for something. That’s when I knew it was happening. There sitting in the front seat of his car in a hotel parking lot he asked me to be his forever. I said yes.

I commented that he hadn’t gotten down on one knee. So he took the ring off my finger, went around to my side of the car, got down one knee, and proposed again. He was crying, but I was so excited I just started laughing and jumping up and down.

Honestly, the entire thing was pretty on brand for our quirky, goofy relationship. There may not have been a romantic dinner with flowers and champagne or a scavenger hunt that had been planned out for weeks, but I didn’t really mind. Yes, the proposal was spur of the moment, but I still think it was pretty romantic, even now that we’ve been married for nine years.