The norm of proposing marriage has normally been a man buys a diamond ring, gets down on one knee, professes his love, and asks his partner to marry him.

But these days, some women are choosing to flip the script and take engagement matters into their own hands.

Wondering how to propose to the love of your life? Wonder no more, below is how some men and women proposed to their partners.

The compilation was done by Facebook's David Papa Bondze-Mbir.

#TheProposal (Part 1)

1. “We had dated for Five (5) years. He knew I wanted to be married, yet pretended he couldn’t read my desire. He couldn’t be bothered, though I knew how much he loved me. Another funny thing was, he had made his intentions clear to me that, he didn’t want any kids, thus, he wasn’t sure about being a parent. And here I was thinking - I wanted to be a mother of Three (3).

Dave, I got pregnant somehow, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to break the news to him either. We were together in his living room, watching a movie, ‘The Three Idiots’, and a scene from the movie brought tears to my eyes. Dave, I began to cry. I wasn’t sure whether it was because of the scene in the movie or my own predicament included, but I began to cry uncontrollably.

He looked at me in a confused state, asking why I was crying. He smiled, and then gently whispered to me,

“Why, did you seriously think I was going to ask you to abort our pregnancy? You must be crazy. Stop crying. I am happy we are pregnant.”

He pulled down his pant, removed his underwear, and there was a ring, tied to a white thread on his penis. He asked me and the pregnancy to marry him. I got to know later on that day, that, he had bought our rings already.” – From SP

2. “My husband is not romantic at all, that’s why I am sharing his warp proposal to me. We’re both followers of your page, so he’s definitely going to mirror this story. Dave, can you believe this dude slipped me his used, nasty and dirty handkerchief in an examination hall, while writing an end of semester exam? Meanwhile, we hadn’t met or talked before.

‘Hi, you’re very beautiful. My name is Obeng, and I think I really like you.’ He had written on it.

Smfh! He pissed me off eh… Because that foolish act nearly got us into trouble. Our examination papers were nearly cancelled that day. Our only luck was the foolish message on the handkerchief. That message, saved us. The officiating examiners/invigilators read the information on the ‘foreign material’, and then concluded – it wasn’t an ‘Apor’.

Six (6) years after that fiasco, we had become very good friends. My Dad invited him over to his office for a chat (Dad was trying to hook him up to a new job vacancy in his friend’s company). I work in my dad’s company, so I saw him when he came around. After his meeting with my father, I joined them in my Dad’s office, and Obeng pulled a clean handkerchief this time, from his pocket. He handed it to me in the presence of my father. I wasn’t pissed this time but was just wondering what he was up to again that he couldn’t simply speak it:

‘You remember when I told you that I liked you? I really did! And now, I know why I am in love with you… So, I’m just asking, WILL YOU MARRY ME, PLEASE?’ It read.

I still keep this beautiful handkerchief in my safe-bag. It’s for keeps, forever. And it still does smell good after all these years.” – From BA

3. “Did he even propose? Because me, I DON’T REMEMBER. What I know is, we were in his car, traveling to Kumasi. We were talking about something saa and then he chipped in this:

‘Charley, make we marry eh?’

And I also said, ‘Yoo’ without thinking. We’ve done Eight (8) years and counting, and Two (2) kids after that conversation.” – From TE

4. “So I made it easy for the guy by telling him I had a crush on him, which gave him the confidence to tell me he liked me because he viewed me to be a ‘high priced’ lady and felt I would turn him down if he proposed.” – From RD

5. “The screen of her phone had cracked, and she was expecting me to buy her a new phone. With what money? Lol! There were important things on my mind. But because I couldn’t tell her I didn’t have any money for a phone, I intentionally went window shopping with her at The Accra Mall, to check the prices of their phones. After the window shopping, she told me which brand she wanted as replacement. The price of that phone was almost Ghs 1,700.

I had to think fast. When we got out of the shop, we met a mutual friend. I took my phone out, typed a text message to be sent to her number, but under the pretense of my friend, taking a photo of us. I whispered to my friend to just send the message to her number – when I put my arms around her as my pose. The text was simple:

‘Will you marry me?’

So I posed, and he sent it to her phone when he instructed us to be ready for the shot. Her phone vibrated and made a tiny noise. She was holding it. I asked her to check the message before we take the picture. She smiled, and then looked at me in a way: The, ‘Are you serious’ look. I nodded. She burst into tears after reading it.

‘But why now?’ she asked,

‘Why not now?’ I replied. ‘Choose between the phone and a marriage to you’

All this while, our friend was taking shots of every second of that remarkable moment. She said, ‘Yes!’ to the marriage proposal, but made me promise to buy her the phone as well – as her wedding present… Which I DID NOT!

We’ve been married for Two (2) years, and she’s bought her own phone. We are very happy laidat.” – From YB-L

6. “My story should be the very reason why NO LADY ought to marry an excessive drinker. According to my brothers and sisters in-laws, my husband had planned a very beautiful concept to propose to me. They had worked everything out to the very last detail to surprise the living hell outta me, and then BOOM: this Siaaaa Boy, one Friday evening, after hanging out with whomever, came knocking on my door, drunk. One of his colleagues actually drove him over to my place… Wasted!

He started sleep/drunk talking, telling me all about his secret marriage proposal plan with his siblings. Dave, the ANNOYING part of it all was when, before falling flat on his face in my bedroom, whispered,

‘Make sure you don’t tell anyone, okay?’

I married him but I wasn’t the least surprised when he and his siblings happily ‘surprised’ me. I wasn’t even in the mood that day, because the moment he activated the plan into motion, I could remember each process verbatim. Till date, anytime I smell alcohol on his breath, I get angry… Because it reminds me of how he drunk his senses off, ruining the very one beautiful experience I would have loved to remember forever. His drunk Ass took my surprise away from me. “– From CO

7. “Anytime she was attending any of her best friends’ wedding, she would beam. Everything about her would change. She would be in a good mood the whole week to the wedding date. The excitement in her life that week to whoever’s wedding, translated into a heart so welcoming, accommodating and sweet towards me too. I loved her so much, anytime she was in that ‘zone’.

In one of those ‘Yay’ days, she called to ask me to drive her to a seamstress at Osu. She was sending her cloth to be sewn – for another wedding. I drove her there, and watching from the entrance of the shop, I couldn’t help but laugh. Her excitement that evening, at the seamstress, made me wonder how she would feel if I also asked her to marry me, so others could sew nice dresses to attend her own wedding for a change.

That was my trigger to propose to her. After driving her home, I returned to the seamstress to discuss a possible ‘marriage proposal’ idea. She was to drop my engagement ring-box, in the beautifully designed poly-bag with the printed inscription, ‘Marry Me’ on it. She wasn’t supposed to say anything to my wife until she figured it all out herself. We agreed on it, and I sent the seamstress the ring and the poly-bag, two hours to her collection time. My wife drove to the seamstress alone to take her dress. I’m told she tried the dress on, and it fit her perfectly. The seamstress then, carefully, placed the ring-box in the folded dress, placed it in the bag, and then handed it over to her.

Again, the seamstress tells me, my wife called her late in the night, asking whether she had mistakenly placed any wedding ring in her poly-bag. She said no, but then informed her that I wanted her to read the inscription printed on the poly-bag. We had been best friends for almost 13 years, and I wasn’t even sure as at that time, whether or not she was seeing anyone. We weren’t dating or sleeping together. We were just great friends. We cared about each other in a way we could best understand.

The rest of the story is history: I mean, the screams, and shouting, and crying… the praise and worship on phone, all this, according to the narration of the seamstress, to me, made me also experience what they both experienced on phone that evening.

I did not hear anything from her that evening. I got her response the following evening through my mother. My mother called me around 10:30 PM, just say,

“Kweku, Akua says YES!”. – From KW

8. “He sent me a friendship request on Facebook. I accepted it, and his first message to me was, “Would you marry me?” Lol! I laughed and didn’t respond. I got a phone call from him, barely a minute after that message. He had contacted a mutual friend on Facebook for my number. It was a +44 code. He wasn’t in Ghana.

His question was still, “Will you marry me?”

I clicked on his profile picture, and I liked his cute look. He was pursuing his Masters degree. I asked him to introduce himself to me, and I liked what I was hearing. I started being fond of him. We became friends eventually. He got the response to his question – when he arrived at the Kotoka International Airport, Five (5) months after his Facebook gimmick. We got married Three (3) months afterwards.” – From RZ

Compiled from the inbox of David Papa Bondze-Mbir (31/07/18)

#TheProposal (Part 2)

1. “If I remember correctly, the first time my husband came into my life was when we were both called to the office of our headmaster. We attended Ghana National College. His parents were friends with the Head then, and had come to the school to tell the headmaster to caution their son on his poor grades that term. I was in the office to be introduced to him, to help him sit up and study. I was the ‘Shark’ then, the whole school. Lol! Not bragging: I am for real!

Dave, as days and weeks went by, almost everything would remind me of him. Then after SSS, we both went our separate ways. He scored aggregate 09 for his SSCE. I did way better. 06 and some 1's still hanging.

Then his parents wanted to thank me at the party thrown in their son’s honor. That was when I believe he really caught my eye – as someone I might be in love with. There was something about my husband that drew me to him. His parent’s bought me a brand new mobile phone as their ‘Thank You’ present, and the only number stored on it was that of my husband. He had also been rewarded with a similar phone. We kept in touch as friends, dated different people till we completed our University education. He schooled at Legon, I studied at UCC.

I had closed from work one day, and was buying Kenkey and fish. I turned to stop a Trotro, when I thought I saw my husband, driving in his car. I dropped my Kenkey and even my purse, and quickly ran to the direction he was driving, just to call his name. I was accidentally knocked down by another moving vehicle. That’s all that I remember.

Next thing I knew, he was sitting next to me on my hospital bed when I opened my eyes. He spent hours, every day, with me at the hospital. The night before I was discharged, I woke up to find my pills (drugs), arranged to construct a sentence on the floor of my hospital bed:

“I luv U. Pls marry me?”

I cried. All the nurses were excited for me. Apparently, they made sure he had bought me new prescriptions before using the ones I had - to propose to me.” IO

2. “My Twin sister met this guy on the STC bus. They became friends because they were seated next to each other. My sister clearly didn’t like him, because according to her, ‘He talked too much’. Secondly, my sister was dating this other guy she wasn’t so sure of, but liked. So she came up with this idea that, since she wasn’t sure about her stands with her guy, she would want me to ‘play’ her, and keep this STC guy busy with conversations – while she checked her ‘how far’ with her lover boy.

When the STC guy alighted, he asked for my sister’s phone number, and she gave him mine. I wasn’t dating then, so I had extra time on my hands to humor myself. I humored myself well - well. Especially when he would call me at night, fussing and telling me how he couldn’t sleep at night, because I was always on his mind. Lol! The deal was for me to report to my sister, after each day’s interaction with him. We made so much fun of the guy till it wasn’t funny anymore.

My sister’s boyfriend had started paying attention to her and things seemed to be moving on smoothly. Little by little, she lost interest in wanting to hear about the STC guy. That was when I realized how alone I was. It dawned on me, that I was SINGLE! Long story short, I didn’t want to play games anymore. I wanted to know him. And, I got to know him. And he was sweet, and a gentleman. I liked him so much, he took my breath away. All this while, we hadn’t met. We were just phone buddies.

I had forgotten I had told him were I worked. And, did I also mention that he had an Eight (8) year old son? Yes! So I was busy meeting a deadline at work, when this 8 year old boy, from nowhere, walked to my boss’ office. I don’t know how they did it, but the security man directed him to my boss’ office. Later, I got to know that my husband had used him to go seek permission for what he was about to do that afternoon… And knowing my boss, and how much she loved love, gave him (the little boy) permission to approach my desk.

“Sister Lydia, my name is Bosompem. My D3ddy is D3ddy Mike. He says I should come and ask you if you will please marry him?”

Dave, I burst into tears, and it took everything to hold it together. In a million words, I told the little boy how his father is the most wonderful man I had ever known. All my dreams came true when I asked Bosompem to go and tell his daddy that, I said,

“YES!” – From VM

3. “A Facebook friend I was a fan of, borrowed Ghc 1,500 from me. He was supposed to pay in Two (2) weeks’ time, and that would have been the ending of that month. Two months after deadline, he was still cooking stories and excuses to delay payment. I had taken a bank loan for a project, and it was during that period that he also, urgently needed money. I didn’t know what he was using the money for, but I trusted him enough because of his reputation and personality on Facebook.

He wasn’t answering my calls at a point; I got furious, and asked a few mutual friends of where he worked. I chased him at work on several occasions, and he was always not around. I got to know where he lived. I chased him there too. He was always not home. Even days his neighbor could swear he was home, he would not open the door when I knocked.

So, I got a hint one weekend of his whereabouts, and I chased him at his parents’ home in Tema. I rang the bell at the gate, and I forgot myself when I set eyes on her. And in the most embarrassing way, I stood speechless, staring deep into her eyes. When I came back to my senses, I told her why I was there. She made me understand her brother took my money to add to another money he had borrowed elsewhere – to pay her school fees at KNUST that semester.

She begged me to give her brother more time for him to find money to pay back. But for her beauty, I agreed, and took her number (just in case her brother wouldn’t pick my calls.) Ever since that encounter, she has been very intentional in her way of loving me. She knows me, likes me, respects me, and cares so much about me – I forget a lot of my worries.

She convinced me to help pay her brother’s other debts – as he truthfully, did not have the money. So, I ended up giving his brother an additional GHc 2, 300 loan to pay off his other debts. We were at my place, listening to a radio program together, when I made a request via their WhatsApp line to be read live on air. I asked her to marry me, and right after the host of the radio show had read my message, she turned to look at me to be sure her name was, indeed, what she thought she heard on radio. I nodded, and then smiled back at her. As she kept silent to understand her own feelings towards me, I realized how much I really loved and needed her. She said,

‘Yes’.

Her family did not take any money from me as bride price or any other fee. I just presented her things on the list that I had to buy, and that was that. I took my wife home.”- From DV

4. “I don't know if I proposed or he did. We were mates at SSS but never spoken to each other. We met after the University and after one year of giving excuses, I accepted to date him. But I was quick to add:

"Though I accepted to date you doesn't mean I will marry you".

After One (1) month of dating him, I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. So the next time he came visiting, I told him

“I will marry you”

His response was, ‘That's what I have always wanted.’ We are in our seventh year of marriage blessed with a child. I'm happy I married him.” - From LB

5. “As for my wife dieer, w’oabon sen bibiaaa, tweeeah! I proposed to her for Four (4) weeks, and she did not realize I was asking her to marry me. I asked a friend to print, ‘Will you marry me’ on Five (5) different T-Shirts (Green, White, Black, Pink and Yellow), which are all her favorite colors (thinking, it could give her clues as to why I kept wearing almost all of her favorite colors – in four weeks, back-to-back-to-back, any time I visited her at her home.

I indirectly even drew her attention to what was happening right in her face, by forcing her to take selfies with me, in my proposal shirts, with her own damn phone, so she could see what I was up to… But no! This chicka was rather adoring her pretty smiles and poses in the picture. She would worry about how she did not tweak her lips well in the selfie with me, and would delete picture after picture, and not see the information on my shirt. I spent over GHc 1,300 to get those shirts and had my proposal printed on them.

One evening, I was very sad, wondering whether or not I had even wasted my time and money trying to get her to SEE ME! I decided to wear my shirt for the last time, and then let it go – if she could not pay attention to me. We were at Circle, trying to get a Taxi, when one of the kids begging for money, held her hand, for money. She asked him to leave her hand. Seconds later, I felt a tiny hand, holding my hand too, asking for money. I turned and it was that same kid. I took my wallet out, and then paused for a second to think. I dared him to read what was on my shirt – for GHc 20. This kid looked at it carefully, and then smiled:

“WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

My wife smiled lightly, and then began clapping for the little kid. She still did not understand what was going on. I gave the money to the little kid, and one of his sisters also started running after me, reading the inscriptions on my shirt,

“WILL YOU MARRY ME?

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

WILL YOU MARRY ME?” she cried

I stopped walking, and took out Ghc 10 for her. Anyone who passed by us would laugh and not stop looking at us, shaking their heads. It was when we got in the taxi, that I think she took notice of my sad face, and had to read what was on my shirt again. Then she took out her phone, and started flipping through selfie after selfie, in her favorite colors of my choice of T-shirts. She burst into uncontrollable tears in the Taxi, and said,

“Yes, I will marry you, again and again and again and again and again:"

Each ‘again’ representing a color of shirt on which my proposal was on – to her. She kissed me so intensely, I shed a tear. I had to forgive her for not seeing me for four weeks. We’ve been married for Six (6) years this year.” - WG

6. “So l asked her out one evening and had fun at West Hills mall, got ourselves some chicken and chips then went up to watch movie. So after about five hours, we got home and on the street, I proposed to her and asked her not to say anything but she could respond to it the following day. Next morning all she said was,

“Then every week you'll give me money ...”

Lol! That's it Dave.” – From PKEB

7. “We’ve been mutual friends since childhood days. As a matter of fact, she was my junior in JSS. One afternoon, I called to discuss a few things with her. In the course of the conversation, she paused and asked when I am getting married. I exclaimed,

“Huh!”

Then she said, as fine as I am, if I did not marry quickly, the ladies would worry me. Then I said loudly,

“Then marry me!”

The line went dead silent. She didn’t answer my call the rest of the day. The next morning, she called and said she arrived in Tema, from Kumasi. She came over to my house. Upon seeing me at the gate, right in front of my Mum… She said,

“Yes, I will marry you.”

She came from Kumasi to say yes, and then went back that same day. We’ve been married for 15 years with Four (4) children.” – From IKS

8. “We met on KNUST campus during Queens hall week. I was sh33ing jama for my school for back to school. Later we met at salsa and started dancing together. We were friends for Six (6) years and he was the last man I would have dreamt of dating. He asked me to marry him in 2013 at Okponglo junction. I had just finished an exhibition on Legon campus and he came from work to help me. We walked to Okponglo and he asked me to marry him at the bus stop. Married Four (4) years with Two (2) kids and one on the way. We still dance salsa even when am pregnant.” – From AAFO-D

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Compiled from the inbox of David Bondze-Mbir (02/08/18)