"One year on, I still love the way he proposed."

It wasn’t what I expected at all, but I loved it.

Did you ever picture how you would be proposed to?

I imagined it would be Christmas morning at home (being a Christmas tragic), with my kids by my side. (We already have kids, I wasn’t imagining non-existent kids, don’t worry.) The ultimate Christmas present or something. I always thought my, now,  fiancé would get the kids to ask, he’s never been the most outwardly romantic guy and getting the kids to ask is always a bit of an easy way out.

But no, as with most things in life, my plans didn’t eventuate and that’s not how it happened at all. Not even close.

Instead it was an overcast May night. No kids and no Christmas decorations in sight.

The day he proposed was actually our anniversary. I clued in a little when he got my mum to mind the kids but, honestly, it was so far from our radar at the time, I think I talked myself out of it being a possibility and figured dinner on our anniversary was a nice idea.

I wonder whether these people were expecting different proposals too. By the looks of things they were all thrilled with how their partners decided to propose anyway. Post continues after video.

I was the one who suggested staying in, he just used it to his advantage. He asked me to drop the kids to mums and pick up dinner on the way home. Oblivious to his plan I went along with it. Even texting about being bored while I sat waiting for over half an hour at the Thai place for dinner.

I got dinner and drove home and when I drove up the driveway I could see the house was in darkness, or so it looked from the bottom of our sloped driveway. In my head I thought, “Is he serious? He’s probably fallen asleep watching the footy.”

That was until I walked onto the deck and could see the faint glow of the candles through the blinds.

Our deck is up high and our dining room doors have no blinds so I saw his handy work before I even opened the door to come in.

There were candles. Hundreds of candles. And a beautiful big heart on the floor of our dining room floor, with a note in the middle of it.

Next to every candle there was a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. My all-time favourite chocolate. He’d even spelt out ‘I love you’ on our bench in Ferreros.

I looked around and couldn’t see him.

I picked up the note.

“Read the cards, as you enjoy some wine. They are numbered.”

I looked into my lounge room and saw more candles, more Ferreros and more cards.

For the next ten minutes or so I read the different cards. Some were filled with anecdotes, some accompanied by pictures. My, previously, completely unromantic other half spent the time finding pictures of our best adventures and written about our favourite moments together and all the things we'd achieved.

I was led down the hallway by the cards and I ended at the door to our bedroom.

At this point I still hadn’t seen him. I had read and laughed and cried as I walked around my house reading these cards and, to be honest, was wondering where he had been hiding so many Ferreros from me, and for how long.

Card number nine told me to open the bedroom door.

I opened the door, and he was standing next to the bed. On the bed was another Ferrero love heart and the end of the bed had candles and one final card.

I looked at him half laughing, half smiling and picked up the card.

In it, just seven words:

“I love you. Will you marry me?”

I turned to him, he reached for his pocket and before he could even do anything I giggled and laughed and said “Oh my god yes!”

He laughed and said, “You didn’t even give me time to get on my knee. Don’t you even want to look at the ring?”

We both laughed. Luckily the ring was exactly what I wanted and it fit. Phew.

We spent the next few minutes laughing and I think I jumped around the house like a kid on their birthday. He told me he thought he almost burnt the house down because dinner took so long, we laughed even more.

The next day we took it all down and the kids counted over 100 candles and almost 160 Ferreros. He never did divulge his hiding spot for the Ferreros.

A year on, I’m still in love with this story.

It was absolutely nothing like what I expected but exceeded my expectations beyond anything I could imagine.

And as it turns out my fiancé knows me better than I know me, and the proposal was everything I didn’t even know I wanted.

I wonder how he’d go planning all of the wedding...

Tell us your proposal story in the comments below (we really would love to hear them).

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