The Most Laid-Back Celebrity Marriage Proposals

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Celebrities have earned a reputation for going the whole nine yards when it comes to proposing to their partners. Many well-known faces have gone from girlfriend to fiancée on trips abroad, for instance. Sophia Bush said yes to the love of her life, Grant Hughes on a European getaway, Hailey Bieber got a surprise of a lifetime in the Bahamas, and an African safari made the perfect setting for Keleigh Sperry's special day.

Of all celebrity proposals, few are yet to come close to the grand way Kanye West asked for his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian's hand in marriage back in 2013. West booked an entire baseball stadium for Kardashian, and as they were serenaded by an orchestra, he got on one knee. Speaking of the moment on "Power 106," West said, "I just thought it would be dope ... It's very much like a Donda exercise. I sit with my team of creatives and we say, 'What's the best version of this?'" Had West had his way, Lana Del Rey would have performed that night.

Unlike him, however, a couple of celebrities have over the years chosen to skip the technicalities that make a mega proposal in society's eyes. Quiet dinners, downtime at home, phone calls, you name it! These proposals were so subtle, but it's the thought that counts.

Once Hollywood's most eligible bachelor, it was love at first sight when George Clooney met his would-be wife, Amal Alamuddin Clooney. Despite the sparks that flew on their initial meeting, George was unsure of where he stood with the Lebanese attorney. To steer things forward, he hatched a scheme to woo Amal in the most adorable way; a smitten George drafted letters, some of which were notes from his dog.

When it came to proposing, the "Far From Heaven ” star had an equally affectionate plan that somewhat backfired. George had laid it all on the table, quite literally. He'd put a ring box in a hiding place, made dinner, and curated a playlist that included the song "Why Shouldn't I" by his aunt, Rosemary Clooney. Amal, who'd just returned from a London trip, was oblivious of the special setting before her. And right when George's song of choice was almost on, she blew his plan to smithereens. "She gets up to go wash the dishes, which she's never done," George revealed on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Amal didn't get it either when George put taper candles out and lied about a lighter being in the ring box. "She reached around, she pulls out the box, and I've got just the ring sitting in there ... she looks at it and she's like, 'It's a ring.' Like somebody had left it there," George amusedly detailed, adding that he got a yes in the long run, but it took Amal 25 minutes to get there.

Even though they were years away from gaining worldwide fame at the time of former POTUS Barack Obama's proposal, the Obamas had a simple dinner in which Barack played to Michelle's combative nature. While Michelle was under the impression that they were dining to mark Barack's completion of the bar exam, he lured her into his real trap with a conflicting option about marriage. "He picks a fight," Michelle divulged on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." "And so, I deliver because I, too, am a lawyer, and I have my points to be made."

Michelle was passionately arguing until dessert arrived, and as she described, "The waiter put a platter in front of me with a little box with a ring on it. In the middle of the argument I was like, "Whoa!"... He opened up the box and he said, 'Now that oughta shut you up.'"

The proposal was allegedly Barack's third, overall. He presumably fired the question to historian Sheila Miyoshi Jager before Michelle came along. According to author David Garrow's account on "Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama," Barack proposed twice to the East Asian Studies professor. Jager declined his first proposal due to age, and by the time he was ready to settle again, it was an effort to salvage a relationship that was on its knees.

Comedian Hasan Minhaj had every intention of keeping up with the Joneses when he asked doctor Beena Patel to marry him. Armed with a credit card and a sprinkle of audacity, Minhaj turned to Groupon for an ideal inexpensive balling set-up. "So I go to groupon.com, backslash adventures, I scroll down, I click on 'sunrise hot-air balloon ride,' purchase," Minhaj recounted on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

 It didn't help that he made a Wednesday booking. Minhaj woke Patel up at dawn. She hadn't changed out of her pajamas when he led her to an open field. He dismissed any help from a Groupon attendant and regretted it immediately after a different couple overshadowed his dream proposal.

As soon as they were back on land again, Minhaj had to quickly think on his feet. His family would be calling in for an update, but he was yet to propose. His plan? Aimlessly drive to the nearest eatery. "The minutes are counting down ... I take the first exit, I don't know what's open," Minhaj told Kimmel. "9:59 AM as my phone is ringing, the only thing open is an Applebee's. And at ten o'clock in the morning, inside of an Applebee's, I just get down on one knee and I'm like, 'Beena, will you marry me?'"

Prior to getting hitched to his "Bugsy" co-star Annette Bening, Warren Beatty was already on the fast track to lifelong bachelorhood. Beatty was a bit skeptical about matrimony. "Maybe society has to accept that we don't have to feel terribly guilty for more than one marriage, "he remarked on "The Dick Cavett Show." "Maybe life can be made up of [a] series of marriages."

In spite of his opinion, and a reputation around the entertainment scene for being a casanova, Beatty's heart warmed up when he met Bening. During an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Bening revealed that Beatty's proposal was a still affair in the comfort of their home. "He gave me this ring when we were just on a place in our house, just a quiet moment by ourselves," she shared.

What led the notorious bachelor to a change of mind, you may ask? As it turned out, Beatty was simply dodging separation. "I wasn't trying to avoid marriage, I was trying to avoid divorce," he said in an interview with "The Today Show." True to his word, the duo has kept the flame up for three decades and counting.

As highly publicized as the relationship between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry has been, Harry's proposal to the Duchess of Sussex was a pleasant homely experience."A standard, typical night for us," they jointly shared in a chat with CBC News, adding that it happened after they had dated for a year and a half.

Markle was stunned, such that she hardly let the Duke of Sussex wrap up before giving him a nod. "Then there was hugs and I had the ring in my finger. I was like, "Can I give you the ring?" She was [like] "Oh yes! The ring!" It was a really nice moment, just the two of us," Harry recalled.

The couple was no stranger to having a tranquil aura, free from the watchful eyes of the public. When the world wasn't aware about the brewing love between the heartthrobs, serene times, such as a five-day camping trip in Botswana, helped them bond.

The late "Full House" star Bob Saget conveniently interrupted shared screen time to propose to his widow Kelly Rizzo in 2017. "We were up in Big Sur," Saget detailed on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." "I had the ring in the safe and we were watching 'Stranger Things' on the iPad and I paused it ... I got on one knee and I didn't phrase it right. I said, 'I would like to be with you for whatever days I have left.'"

Through a post on Instagram, Saget delightedly made the announcement to his followers. Before that, he'd let a number of people in his inner circle in the know, including John Stamos and singer John Mayer. The lovers had a Californian beach wedding in October 2018, during which a special performance and guitar gift by Mayer encouraged Rizzo to attend music classes.

In the face of Saget's unexpected passing, Rizzo continues to honor her late husband. On what would have been Saget's 67th birthday, she penned a heartfelt tribute via Instagram, which read, in part, "I'll never stop feeling like the luckiest person on Earth to have had the privilege of spending 6 years with this amazing man. Life is short and we never know how long we are going to be here."

Fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg, famed for the invention of the wrap dress, had an on and off relationship with media mogul Barry Diller for years. Every time he proposed, she said no. One New York drive, however, brought them together for life. The sweethearts caught sight of an elderly couple walking across an avenue. As the husband was shielding his wife, it dawned on them that they aspired to be so loving. "We both thought the same thing: that we wanted to be that couple someday. We said it to each other right then," von Furstenberg revealed in a chat with O Magazine. 

And when she was geared up for the ride of a lifetime, she suggested it casually. "One year I didn't know what to give him for his birthday, and I called him and said, 'You know, if you want, for your birthday I'll marry you,'" von Furstenberg revealed. Diller enthusiastically jumped in. 

Although they had a short civil wedding, he pulled off an unexpected romantic gesture. "This is so Barry," von Furstenberg shared. "He gave me 26 wedding rings, for the 26 years we had not been married."