Teachers’ days are spent managing their students and establishing structure in the classroom, but when it comes to their personal lives, many find themselves filled with love and spontaneity when they take the plunge with their partner.
Spanish teacher Lisa Clepper said her husband’s proposal to her was essentially a scavenger hunt.
“I was working as a teacher in a different school district, and a coworker of mine came and got me,” Clepper explained. “She had a flower for me—a rose—with a note.”
She added the note directed her to her hairstylist, who did her hair and gave her another rose with a note, which took her to her apartment.
“I had a few friends who went to my apartment and got an outfit for me—a dress and shoes,” Clepper said. “They told me to change into it.”
She added those same friends drove her to Granville afterwards, and when she arrived, there was a limo waiting for her.
“The limo took me up to a cathedral,” she explained. “When I got out, he was waiting for me there, and of course I said yes.”
Clepper said her husband did a phenomenal job with his proposal, especially in his organization and involvement of her friends.
“That was about 13 years ago,” she explained. “We celebrate our 12th anniversary this year.”
Clepper’s proposal wasn’t the only one that required elaborate planning: science teacher Brandon Bright’s proposal to his now-fiance proved just as thoughtful.
Bright said when they were in college together, he wrote her a poem and hung it up on the wall.
“For the proposal, I wrote another poem asking her to marry me, and I hung it up on the mantle of the place we were staying,” he explained.
Not only was the proposal itself a reference to their past together, Bright added, but he proposed in the same place they had stayed on a previous trip to New Orleans.
He emphasized the stealth his plan required, as he had to keep finding excuses to sneak away from his fiancé in order to hang up different parts of the poem.
When the pair headed back indoors for the big moment, Bright said a mishap occurred when they found a lizard in the bathtub.
“I had to keep her from going into the room where it’s hanging up, so she doesn’t see it,” he explained. “At the same time, I was trying to get stuff to capture the lizard to throw it out onto the balcony.”
After successfully removing the lizard, the proposal was back on as planned, Bright added.
“Of course, when she finally walked into the room, she did not even notice it at first,” he explained. “She read it, turned around, I had the ring out and she said, ‘Of course!’”
Although his engagement occurred only this past May, their story has been a long time in the making, Bright said.
“We were together for a little bit in college, and then we were friends for a little bit,” he explained. “We married other people and went separate ways for over a decade, and when she was going through her divorce, she reached back out to me.”
Unlike Clepper and Bright’s proposals, science teacher Janet Mulder said her proposal happened during a movie.
“It was at my husband’s apartment at the time,” she added. “We were watching ‘K-PAX’ of all movies.”
She guessed her husband’s inclination to propose during the film had less to do with the movie itself and more to do with his own eagerness, she explained.
“He had already graduated, and I was still at school, so I was visiting for the weekend,” Mulder added. “He had the ring for a while, and I think he just didn’t know when to ask, even though he really wanted to.”
She said her boyfriend hurried off mid-movie, stating he would be right back. When he returned, he had the ring in hand, Mulder added.
“I was surprised he did it then, but we had gone and looked at rings months before— that totally caught me off guard,” she explained.
After the proposal, the couple went out for a nice dinner, Mulder said. Since then, she added they have been married for 21 years.
In a similar manner, librarian Mike Nolan said his proposal to his wife was comparably impromptu but no less heartwarming.
He first met his wife at a mutual friend’s house over a card game called Durak, Nolan said. The aim of the game, he explained, was to shed all of your cards; the last player with cards is the Durak or “fool.”
“You know who the last two players were?” Nolan said. “My wife and me.”
Afterwards, they dated two to three years leading up to their engagement in 1994, he added.
“We were living together,” Nolan explained. “She basically said—in so many words—’are we going to get married?’ It was very romantic, almost like an ultimatum.”
Last summer, the couple celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, he said.
“I think we’ll definitely spend the rest of our lives together,” Nolan added.
He said maintaining such a long, lasting relationship requires a lot of respect and patience.
“You have to honor each other’s wishes–compromises are incredibly important,” Nolan explained. “The best saying is ‘happy wife, happy life.’ That’s totally true, even if it’s unfair.”
In terms of maintaining such a robust relationship, Clepper added having a firm foundation of friendship with your partner is something to retain.
“We liked each other before we really liked each other,” she explained. “We liked each other as people, so I think it was a very natural progression…It really helped us.”
Bright added he attributes much of what determines a secure relationship to honesty and a general openness with your partner.
“Not just the things you say being honest, but being forthcoming and forthright,” he said. “Resentment is the killer.”
In terms of keeping one’s relationship stable, Mulder said communication is key.
“Be yourself, be honest, talk with each other,” she added.
