How to Get Him to Propose

Real women share stories of how they got him to put a ring on it!

-Carrie Seim

You’ve been seeing a great guy for quite awhile (five years, five days, but who’s counting?) when you realize he’s the one. Single lady, you’re ready to put a ring on it.

Unfortunately, he’s not so swift on the engagement uptake. So how do you get him to pop the question before you pop from frustration?

Read Body Language Signs That He’s So Into You

We should point out that most psychologists and family therapists advise against manipulating or coercing anyone into an engagement. Instead, they urge honest and open communication with your fiancé-to-be.

“I don’t think anybody should be trying to get their boyfriend to propose to them,” says marriage and family therapist Cory Honickman, whose website, The Marriage Prep Adventure Series, coaches couples before they tie the knot. “That’s a huge red flag,” she adds.

Still, a little nudge can’t hurt, right? BettyConfidential asked real women how they got their husbands to propose. Here are some of their surprising answers:

Don’t be too eager.

A 32-year-old married lady in Los Angeles brags that she was insistent on a long courtship, which seemed to spur her boyfriend on the engagement track. “I actually told him I didn’t want to be married until we hit the two-year dating mark,” she says. “Maybe that helped?” Guess so, since he proposed right on schedule.  

One New York woman, who’s been happily married for more than 40 years, offers this advice on snagging a ring: “I found the best thing with my boyfriend – now husband – was to have an inordinate and unreasonable amount of patience,” she says. “I knew he was the one, but I didn’t rush him. I knew he’d come around.”

Bake him a chicken.

There’s something about an aromatic hot meal that leaves men drooling for more – of you! In 2004, Glamour magazine published a famous recipe for “engagement chicken,” which gained cult status because of the many proposals this fabulous fowl supposedly produced. Many women swear that baking this chicken is what finally made their boyfriends seem them as “wife” material.

Sounds a bit sexist/Mad Men to us. But hey, if you’re in a hurry to hit the aisle, it can’t hurt to turn on the oven once in awhile.

A 32-year-old occupational therapist told BettyConfidential that she came across the recipe while dating her husband-to-be.

“I do admit to making it once, although nothing could get my husband to propose any faster,” she says. “It took him four years of dating, three years of living together and a joint real estate purchase.”

Aha – that sounds a lot more 2009. But who knows, maybe the bird got the ball rolling?

BettyConfidential’s Recipe File: Chicken recipes