It’s National Proposal Day! (how our media team discovers these things I know not but I’m glad they do!)

So I call up my buddy, James Monroe Iglehart (Bobby) and ask him, since I know he is happily married to his wife, Dawn, and asked him about how he proposed, a story I had ironically never thought to ask until I heard about National Proposal Day.

Here’s part of the story as he re-told it to me:

“It was not a good proposal.” James begins. “You would think as creative as as I am, I would do something fun, but when it came to proposing to Dawn, I did not do anything cool.”

The backstory: “Dawn hates the restaurant, Denny’s. She’s never been a fan of Denny’s- she would only go if we had to.”

(“uh-oh” I think to myself as James puts this plot point out there).

James continues. “I thought it would be really funny, if I proposed in Denny’s because then she would have to have a love/hate relationship to it. She could still not like it, but would have to like it because I had proposed there. But, ultimately, I proposed to her in the one place she really didn’t dig.”

“We were in a Denny’s in Fremont, California, after church in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. My niece, brother and aunt were there so I stood up and asked everyone in the restaurant for their attention. But nobody paid attention. I proposed and Dawn cried but none of the old people really reacted. Basically the only reaction I got was from Dawn who later said, “you proposed to me at Denny’s??”

“It was not romantic,” James chuckles.

There is more to this story of course and James continues, “The interesting thing is, that was 11 years ago. I’ve had friends who got engaged around the same time and have done really romantic things to proposed- ring in the glass of champagne, proposing onstage- but when we look back on it, they are now all divorced.”

“The morale of all of this, and Dawn said this to me, is that it doesn’t matter how you propose, it is what you do during the marriage that counts. The TV/Hollywood romantic fantasy stuff doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to last.”

Thanks to James for sharing this story. It’s nice to hear that whether it is over Moons Over My Hammy, or under a blanket of stars, the proposal is actually just part of the bigger story.

Happy Proposing! Make sure to share your story on Memphis Facebook!

-Carolyn

Carolyn works as an Associate Producer at Junkyard Dog Productions- Producers of MEMPHIS. She considers James Monroe Iglehart her “work husband;” Dawn knows about it, so no worries there.