If you would like to share your wedding engagement too, email us.

Here’s Nancy and Scott’s story . . .

“Last February I took my then-boyfriend, Scott, to the Turks & Caicos. We traveled to one of the smaller islands, North Caicos, for a week’s vacation to celebrate his 50th birthday. After we arrived at our small hotel we enjoyed a delicious lobster dinner with a complimentary bottle of champagne that awaited us. After dinner we went for a walk on the completely empty, moonlit beach. It was so lovely. We walked about a quarter mile enjoying the sights and sounds of a tropical night before taking a seat on the beach. The moon was full, accompanied by Jupiter high in the sky. Scott took a moment to kneel down in front of me, pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket and said, ‘With Jupiter as my witness, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?’ Of course I said yes! And because the beach was empty, we stripped off our clothes off and baptized our union in the ocean right then and there. It was wonderful.

Our story is even more romantic than this, though.  Scott and I were on the gymnastics team together in high school. He had a major crush on me. At the time, I told him that I ‘liked’ him, but I didn’t ‘like like’ him.

It took twenty-five years and an email out of the blue from me to him to get us together and realize that we’re soul mates. I’m a very lucky girl.”

Turtle Love Co. really loves Scott and Nancy’s story – the Turks & Caicos sounds especially great right about now (we got snow for the first time in a month yesterday and we’d forgotten how cold Maine winters it can be!)

If you would like to share your story too, email us!

Here is Elizabeth and Ed’s story . . .

“My husband and I fell in love on our first actual date. We lived in different cities and met on a chairlift at a ski mountain. On our second date, he asked me what my plans were for the summer (this was late April and he was a school teacher with summers off). I responded that I was headed to Tibet. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked in return. ‘If I have to go half way around the world to be with you,’ he answered, ‘then I guess that’s what I’m doing.’

Three months later he joined me on a two-week horse pack trip across the Eastern Tibetan plateau where he proposed to me on a mountaintop overlooking a monastery at around 14,000 feet. He had picked up a ring while we were en route through Hong Kong and kept it hidden in his saddle bag until the time was right, about half way through our trip. He was pretty nervous watching that saddle bag during one particularly deep river ford where the horses had to swim! The ring was too big so I did a ‘field dressing’ of duct tape around the inside so that I could wear it right away.

(This photo was taken in July, 1999, at about 12,000 feet on the eastern Tibetan plateau, to celebrate our engagement earlier that afternoon. Those are authentic Tibetan robes and finery – we were adorned by our Tibetan guide and his spouse in their own ornaments. On the hillside behind us is a sprawling Tibetan monastery and town.)”

What a glorious tale of true love! Elizabeth Yarnell is a cookbook author and natural health expert. She invented an earth-friendly, back-to-basics cooking method for one-pot meals (her technique layers whole foods into a Dutch oven and flash-cooks it all for a meal in 30-45 minutes). You can check out her website GloriousOnePotMeals.com!

“My (now) husband and I volunteer on stage crew at the Calgary Folk Festival.  One year an artist, Ndidi Onukwulu, performed many times on our stage and we just loved her music and her personality – she was very kind and fun with the volunteers (not all performers are).

In late 2006 we saw she was going to be touring so we bought tickets for her show for us and my two sons from a past marriage.

My then-boyfriend emailed her reps and her booking agents to see if she would help him propose to me at the concert.  Some of her people were adamant that it wasn’t going to happen, but others were willing to work something out.

So there we were, in the Jack Singer Concert Hall with 2,000 people at this amazing sold out show and Ndidi suddenly says, “This next song is for my friend, Lori” and she sang a beautiful song.  My boyfriend tried to get me to stand up to dance, but I wasn’t willing to do that – it wasn’t a dancing crowd and we would have blocked someone’s view.  He kept saying, ‘She’s waiting for us to dance’ and I still really wasn’t getting it, thinking that the Lori she referred to was someone she actually knew.  Finally he pulled out the ring and proposed to me.  I finally understood that the words to the song were meant for me (and the reason for his wanting to dance).

It was quite funny and totally magical!”

We just love Lori and Duane’s story – it really sounds like their engagement proposal truly embodied the things they loved.  Minus dancing!

If you’d like to share yours, email us!

Here is Holly’s story . . .

“Joseph and I had been dating a year or so when he finished grad school and moved eight hours away for a job.  We had casually discussed marriage and Joseph would always playfully say ‘I’m waiting for you to ask me!’  So I would jokingly pop the question. One weekend when he was back for a visit, after I had fallen asleep, Joseph slipped the engagement ring on my finger and waited anxiously for me to wake up.  When I finally did wake up the next morning (I’m a late riser!) I felt something odd pinching my finger and gazed sleepily over at my hand.  An excited shriek alerted Joseph (and the neighbors, I think!) that I was finally awake.

Best morning ever.

And he never even had to ask!”

What an amazing proposal story!  Too go to bed a single woman and wake up an engaged one sounds like something right out of a Jane Austen story!

If you would like to share your proposal story too, email us!

Here’s Giacomo’s Story . . .

“Looking for an unconventional way of expressing my commitment I found your company the perfect fit. I purchased two styles of engagement rings. And then couldn’t decide which one to give my soon-to-be wife, so I gave her both! I asked her to marry me with our children present where she and I had our first date (this is the second marriage for both of us).

Everyone was in agreement, especially her!

We got married on November 6, 2009, at the Paterson Museum in New Jersey. Actually, that’s where I met her. She was bringing her class on a visit to the museum and I happen to be the museum’s director (and that was three years ago!).

We are very happy together. Some things get better each day. She wears both rings I proposed to her with: one on her hand and the aother around her neck on a chain.”

Aww, Giacomo – thanks for sharing your story with us! We’re super glad that Turtle Love Committee gets to be a part of your awesome relationship!

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their stories!

If you would like to share your story too, email us!

Here is Bill’s Engagement Story:

“I am a rather traditional guy and live out in the country. Family values and old time traditions mean a lot to me. Christmas and Easter is not only the time of year when many colleges go on break, but where I live it’s maple syrup making time on the farm as well. It’s also the time of year I knew I would someday want to propose in. Given the wonderful family memories and times I had at the sugar shack, I knew that should be the place to start my own someday family.

Twenty years ago I was in a long distance relationship; my girlfriend and I were living on opposite sides of the state. As luck would have it, she would be home for spring break, and I knew it was time to propose to her. I spent weeks cleaning the sugar shack, trying to make it nice and cozy.

She came home, and it happened to be nasty spring weather. While she wasn’t keen on the idea of walking out in the rain and wind, I coaxed her into sitting with me outside in the sugar shack where a rich fire was roaring while the sap boiled itself into syrup.

Once inside we sat on a bench, and with a bit of a corny opener I asked her to be my wife. She started crying and I immediately started to think something was wrong. I asked her if she was alright and she responded, “I wasn’t expecting you to ask and never pictured being proposed to in a place like this.” I was nervous – maybe this was a dumb idea! But, she added, “This is so much like you. Of course I’ll marry you!.”

She later explained that she was actually impressed and was just a bit overcome with happiness and wondered what I was worried about. Sometimes it’s just better not to say something when you’re already ahead of the game – my first lesson for my new married life!

Included are two photos: one from when we got married and one nearly twenty years later. And we are still in love (if not more!) and making maple syrup in the spring remembering that story night.”

1989:

2009:

Thanks, Bill – who doesn’t love romance and maple syrup?!

Check out Bill’s website Groom Wedding Speech, which gives tips on writing and giving that perfect wedding speech!

If you’d like to share your proposal with us, we’d love to hear it!, so please email us!

Here is Jessica’s Engagement Story:

“My partner, Matt, and I are in a long-distance relationship, and reading through your website together, albeit it three states away!, was a nightly activity for us over the last few months. Your quick, helpful responses to our gem-history questions were a huge relief – wonderful service, wonderful mission, wonderful product!

Thanks again!

Jessica”

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their stories!  If you would like to share your story too, email us!

Here is Alison’s Engagement Story:

“Hi there, saw your interview with Megan and thought you may enjoy my story.

I proposed to my hubby via phone. We lived together, but I decided while on my way to a friend’s house I wanted to marry him.

Being the compulsive person I am, I called him and told him (yes, told him) that I wanted to get married. We booked our venue the next day.

As for our wedding rings, we made them ourselves at (http://www.thedevilsworkshop.ca/workshops_weddingbandworkshop.shtml). I made his, he made mine. We had them hand-engraved.

Thanks for the taking the time to read our story

Alison”

Here is Matt and Steph’s Engagement Story:

“Dear Turtle Love Committee,

Having bought a blue topaz Kennebunk ring from you (and my fiancee having loved it), we thought we’d share our engagement story.

Our story was featured on the front page of a local newspaper in Bath, England (see image below). We came to England to study abroad, and I proposed to Steph in the independent cinema by having the staff show a short film I made myself, containing photos and video the two of us took over the past 12 months here in England, before giving her the ring (I’ve attached a screen shot of the question).

We both love the Kennebunk ring (and I’m excited to get my wedding band from Turtle Love), and we thought you might be interested in hearing our story.
Thanks very much!

With love,

Matt and Steph”