Top Movie Marriage Proposals

Movie proposals aren’t usually the way things happen in real life, but it does tend to make them memorable. Here we take a look at 10 of the best movie wedding proposals.

When Harry Met Sally

Ask anybody about the most memorable scene in When Harry Met Sally, and they’ll probably mention the diner orgasm scene, but the finale where Harry rushes to find Sally after he realizes he’s in love with her is a fantastic moment. The line he delivers – “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible” might sound a little cheesy all these years later, but it still doesn’t stop people reaching for the Kleenex as the words are being spoken.

Gone With The Wind

There are many movies that claim the title “Greatest Love Story Ever”, but the constant chasing of Scarlett O’Hara by Rhett Butler, and his refusal to take no for an answer ranks as up with the very best. In the end, Rhett knew that drastic action was called for, so he took Scarlett into his arms and planted a kiss that had the censors of the time squirming. It was enough, though, to convince her that he was the man she wanted to marry.

Jerry Maguire

Probably known more for the type of man the title character is, than as a romantic movie, it nonetheless gave us a memorable finale in which Maguire goes through a long and rambling speech about how much he loves Dorothy. After several unsuccessful attempts to stop him talking, she eventually gets him to shut up with the immortal line “You had me at hello”.

The Wedding Singer

When wedding singer Robbie hears the girl he loves has flown to Vegas to get married, he manages to get on the same plane where he bumps into Billy Idol, and ends up telling his story to the whole of the first class section. Billy gets his guitar and Robbie ends up singing “I Wanna Grow Old With You” over the plane’s speaker system. He finally walks up the plane to where Julia is seated, tells her “That song was about you” and the pair fall into each other’s arms. Not an Oscar winner, perhaps, but still a feelgood finalé of a different kind.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

It’s not often movies start a whole new sub-genre, but here’s where proposals in the pouring rain first really got going. In a classic boy-meets-loses-and-meets-girl-again tale, Charles ends up at his own wedding, telling his bride to be that he loves someone else. After taking a punch for his confession, Charles proposes to Carrie outside in a downpour. Fortunately for him, she accepts.

Love Actually (The 3rd Story)

When you have one person who only speaks English in love with another who only speaks Portuguese, getting the message across that they are in love with each other can prove difficult. Unbeknownst to each other, Jamie and Aurelia have been learning the other’s language and, when Jamie proposes in Portuguese in front of a crowd taking bets on the answer, Aurelia accepts in English. Half the crowd was delighted.

Walk The Line

When you’re one of the biggest country singers in the world, it’s not easy to find a way to propose that doesn’t have the media all over it, so why try? The scene where Johnny Cash proposes to June Carter on stage in London, Ontario is reported to be faithful to the actual incident in 1968. Cash refused to carry on with the song until Carter accepted his proposal. They remained married until Carter’s death in 2003.

Sex and The City

You shall go to the walk-in closet Cinderella! By the time Mr Big finally got around to proposing to Carrie, most of the world had given up on it ever happening. For a relationship that had been on and off for its entire duration, it’s probably fitting that Mr Big proposed by slipping not an expensive ring onto Carrie’s finger, but an expensive shoe onto her foot. The world rejoiced and the sales of Manolo Blahnik shoes soared.

Sweet Home Alabama

If you’re going to propose – or be proposed to – there are few more convenient places to do it than in one of the most famous jewelry stores in the world. That’s exactly what happens when Andrew proposes to Melanie. She also gets to choose any ring in the store, lucky girl! We’ll gloss over the fact that she was already married, and that she left him at the altar.

It’s the proposal that’s important here!

To watch the whole movie, click here.

Love Story

You can’t have an article about stories of love, without including the defining movie of the genre. Young, in love and about to be separated after graduating college, Jenny is going to Paris on a scholarship, so Oliver asks her to marry him. When she asks “Why?”, he simply says “Because”. The movie doesn’t have a happy ending, but the beauty is in the simplicity of the proposal, proving you can never under-complicate love.

Runaway Bride

Julia Roberts, it seems, always has to encounter leading men who make things difficult for her. We know that’s what makes a good rom-com, but the poor girls always have a lot to contend with! But, when you’ve been one half of one of the greatest and most successful romances in movie history, it’s inevitable that the pairing will be repeated at some point. And so it was in Runaway Bride. After ditching 3 fiancés at the altar, Maggie (Roberts) tries for a fourth wedding to Bob, with the story of the engagement being covered by journalist Ike (Gere).

Maggie ditches Bob on the evening of the wedding after she realizes she is in love with Ike. He feels the same and suggests getting married seeing as how everything is already arranged. Maggie, yet again, leaves Ike at the altar. Later we see Maggie turn up at Ike’s apartment and, in a complete reversal of her life to date, proposes to him. This time, they live happily ever after.

Bridget Jones: The Edge OF Reason

Terminally disappointed Bridget finally gets her man in the second movie in the Bridget Jones franchise. After the first movie ended with her choosing Mark over his friend Daniel, the couple are living happily together, but with one problem. It seems, at least to Bridget, that Mark is never going to propose. However, on the night she thinks might actually be the night, they have a huge fight and break up. Bridget decides to confront Mark in his law practice to tell him how she feels. She tells him that, whilst their relationship isn’t movie cliché romantic, it is the kind of romantic she wants, and that she thinks he wants as well. Mark silences her by saying he has a question to ask.

Bridget refuses to listen, insisting he can only ask after she’s left the room and come back, so that her rambling speech wasn’t the backdrop for what was about to happen. She leaves, comes back in, and Mark simply asks “Bridget Jones, will you marry me?”

The Notebook

Rich heiress, Allie, is all set to marry Lon, the man of her family’s dreams. The big problem is that she doesn’t want to marry Lon at all. She really wants to marry Noah, a boy very much from the wrong side of the country tracks. Noah was warned off by Anne, Allie’s mother, many years before, and Anne has done all she can to keep the pair apart. Noah eventually restores the house he wanted to buy for the two of them, and Allie makes a last trip to the town where she sees what Noah has done. They rekindle their romance, and she leaves Lon for Noah.

Anne eventually admits she only tried to keep them apart because she’d been kept from seeing a boy in similar circumstances when she was young. Noah eventually proposes to Allie with the words, “I want you. I want all of you, forever. You and me, every day”.

Click here to watch the movie.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Few teen comedies ever get to become one of the most culturally important movies of all time. But that’s exactly what happened to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. From the parade to the wrecking of a super-rare Ferrari, everything about the movie has entered into cinematic folklore. The romance between Ferris and girlfriend Sloane is actually quite a thin thread which only really shows itself occasionally throughout the movie. But, after a fast moving and chaotic finalé, Ferris hops over the fence around his yard and tells Sloane he loves her.

In a true moment of teen wishful thinking, Sloane watches him leave and whispers to herself “He’s going to marry me”. It might not be the boy-girl proposal you’d expect but, at least for Sloane, it’s all she needs.

Moonrise Kingdom

In amongst a stunning cast, Sam and Suzy are the young heroes who decide they should be together regardless of what anybody else thinks. After orphan Sam runs away from scout camp to meet Suzy so they can run away together, the police, Suzy’s parents and the entire scout camp are out looking for them. After a physical altercation with the scouts, Suzy is taken home and Sam is taken to the home of the police chief to await social services after his foster parents said they didn’t want him back. Hearing this, the scouts have a change of heart, and decide to help.

An older boy, Ben, offers to marry the youngsters in a ceremony he admits isn’t legal. As he asks if they love each other and they both say they do he realizes they are both chewing gum. He makes them get rid of the gum before continuing. It’s a delightful, absolutely appropriate, little twist in an age old story.

The Proposal

If you’re going to name a film “The Proposal”, it’d better be for good reason. Margaret is a Canadian publishing executive who is working and living illegally in the US. She persuades her assistant, Andrew, that he should marry her in order that she can stay in the country, and to avoid his career so far being a waste of time. She does all this without realizing that Andrews family is very wealthy, and also extremely close knit. US Immigration gets suspicious of the plot, and call the couple in for separate interviews in order to prove the relationship is a sham. When Margaret realized the devastation the fake marriage would cause to Andrew’s loving family, she admits the entire thing isn’t real. Immigration officials give her 24 hours to leave the US.

Before she goes, Andrew finds her and tells her he really loves her. He proposes with the line “Will you marry me….because I want to date you?”. They convince the immigration official charged with deporting them that the relationship is now real, and everyone wins.

Knocked Up

With neither the most romantic title for a movie ever, nor the most romantic plot, the movie was still one of the most popular romcoms ever. Ben and Alison have a one night stand, after which Alison discovers she is pregnant. Eventually, she tracks Ben down and tells him. He promises to be responsible and support both Alison and the baby. Unfortunately, due to being habitually lazy and irresponsible, Ben isn’t the best father-to-be that ever lived. They do try and give the relationship a go, but soon break up and Alison tells Ben to stay away. Stung by the rejection, Ben gets a real job and makes a real effort to be a better man. This impresses Alison with his commitment to her and the baby, and they reconcile.

During all this, Ben presents Alison with an empty ring box, promising that, one day, he’ll fill it with the kind of ring she deserves. In amongst the laughs and the pathos, it’s a really sweet moment out of seemingly nothing.

A Walk To Remember

Teenage tearaway Landon is threatened with expulsion from school unless he agrees to tutor fellow students. He agrees and meets Jamie, a girl he has actually known for most of his life, but who he has always ignored due to her astronomy-led, geeky personality. They both have parts in the school play, during which a romance starts to develop. One night, Jamie admits to Landon that she has leukemia, and that it is not treatable.  One of the things Jamie wants to do before she dies, is to see a comet. With the help of his father, Landon builds a telescope on the back porch of Jamie’s house and, together, they wait for a comet due to appear in the spring.

As they view the comet through the telescope, Landon proposes, and Jamie accepts. They spend a last few months together before the leukemia claims Jamie’s life just at the end of the summer.

He’s Just Not That Into You

After a 7 year courtship, Beth is fed up of the prospect of marriage getting ever further away. The problem is that Neil doesn’t actually believe in marriage. After he rejects a final ultimatum, Beth ends the relationship. When Beth’s father has a heart attack during her sister’s wedding, the resulting chaos puts her relationship with Neil into clearer focus. The couple reconcile, with Beth insisting she will never expect Neil to marry her. She tells him that he is actually more of a husband to her, even without a wedding, than any of her sisters’ husbands are to them. One day, as Beth and Neil are sorting through the laundry, we finds an empty ring box. She turns round to ask Neil, and finds him down on one knee. In front of him, he is holding the ring from the empty box.

He proposes, she says yes, and they marry aboard his sailboat. It’s gloriously clichéd, and massively predictable, but it is wonderfully romantic anyway.

Hi Fidelity

Rob owns a record store and knows absolutely everything there is to know about music. Unfortunately, he knows absolutely nothing about women that he needs to know. As a result, his girlfriend Laura leaves him. After the initial shock, Rob soon gets over Laura and continues with his life at the store. Rob here’s that Laura’s father has died, and he attends the funeral with her. Realizing he misses Laura, Rob makes an effort to win her back, and they resume living together. Rob decides he has wasted enough of his life, and also neglected his future. He proposes to Laura in the most casual way he can muster, which makes Laura laugh. She insists he makes more of an effort, so Rob has another try.

Knowing that all other women are mere fleeting infatuations, Rob puts his heart and soul into the second proposal. He tells Laura “I’m tired of the fantasies, because they don’t really exist, and there are never really surprises—and it never delivers. I’m tired of it, but you’ll never see me get tired of you”. He then does the single most romantic thing a man can ever do for the woman he loves. He makes her a mixtape.