Popping the question is different for every couple – how it happens, where they do it, how they respond, and so on. But it seems with Chillisauce‘s recent, Marriage Proposal Survey, that there is some common ground…
After quizzing 7,000 people across the country, Chillisauce have discovered the hidden secrets of proposals, from both a man and woman’s perspective.
The best day of the year to propose
So we know that wedding season goes through the whole of summer, but Chillisauce have found that winter is the time when proposals reach their peak. With the festivities and joy of the Christmas period and the celebrations of new year, it’s no wonder that this time is the busiest time of year for people to get down on one knee and pop the question.
Of all, Christmas Eve is the most popular date to ask, with nearly a third of all the people surveyed choosing that day to propose– topping the 30% that opted for Valentine’s Day! Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve proved popular too, with 13% and 9%, closing followed with 6% choosing Halloween as the best time to get engaged.
When he/she thinks it’s the best time
Thanks to this nifty graph created by Chillisauce, we can see where men and women differ when it comes to choosing the best day to propose…
What makes a good proposal
When it comes to actually asking the question, what’s the best way to do it? Something extravagant? Or just a simple ‘will you marry me?’. We love to hear the stories of grand gestures in a man’s best efforts to propose to the lady he loves, but do the ladies themselves love it?
Over half of the people surveyed agreed that the best way to do it was to just ask the question.
Techno-proposals
Move over romantic proposals through dance, poem or song – say hello to text proposals! With 15% thinking the idea of using some sort of digital device to pop the question was a good idea, is technology really the best way forward? Social media is becoming more and more popular for making such public declarations of love, with 40% of women preferring to be asked through that than any other tech-based proposal. Would you propose on Twitter or Facebook?
Extravagant proposals
Within the survey, it came to light that Scottish women are apparently harder to please, with 18% saying they wanted an extravagant proposal. And poetry proved popular with the Irish, whilst in Wales, proposing through the medium of song works well.
Should SHE pop the question?
It is tradition for the man to propose to the women, but as time goes on, we’re seeing more and more wedding traditions broken – so why not this one, too? But it seems men still want to maintain this certain responsibility, with 65% of men saying ‘NO’ to the idea of women proposing. Interestingly enough, the number of men who would say yes went up among the older generations. But how many women would be brave enough to take this on? A huge 79% of them said they wouldn’t want to ask!
The best way to refuse a proposal
Looks like we do prefer it when people do just cut to the chase – more than half of those surveyed said just saying ‘no’ is the best way to turn down a proposal, while 29% said they would feel bad, cry and apologise. 8% said they’d avoid the issue by saying ‘maybe’ and going on to never speaking to the man again… cruel! But even more worrying – 6% said that would say yes, but turn it down at a later date.
We want to know what YOUR proposals were like – funny, clever, not as smooth as initially planned, or just plain romantic. If you’d love to share your story, send along an email to [email protected] and you might even get a spot in the magazine!
