RINGING HIM UP
Gals proposing to guys a trend
From #MeToo to #IDo. Many modern brides living in the age of female empowerment aren’t waiting for a Prince Charming to pop the question — they’re taking their happily-ever-afters into their own hands.
“I knew if I proposed, he would have a ring and I wouldn’t be like a kept woman,” said Rebecca Reed, who proposed to her boyfriend in July on their one-year anniversary date. “I was like, I’m taking it by the balls and doing it.”
Brooklyn-based writer Danielle Sinay, 26, emboldened by the women’s movement, asked her boyfriend of three years to marry her in October. “Knowing it’s accepted and seen as something positive opposed to a flaw, I felt a lot better doing it,” she said.
Event planner Ash Fox is staging a proposal next week for a female client asking her boyfriend for his hand in marriage. “She’s making it happen for herself,” she said of the traditional setup for the unconventional question. “You shouldn’t have to wait for a guy.”
Reed refused to get on bended knee. Instead, the 34-year-old wedding photographer and her 36-year-old fiancé, Steven Jauch, had just finished dessert at Grand Army in Boerum Hill when she slipped a card across the table. “In case you don’t want to be single Steve anymore,” he read from the note inside as Reed pulled out another surprise — a titanium engagement band she ordered off Amazon for $10.
“I did not get down on one knee. I felt like it is super-antiquated, and it was one reason I didn’t want him to propose to me,” Reed said.
“He started laughing, because at first he assumed it was a joke. So I had to go, ‘No, I’m serious. Will you marry me?’ ” Jauch said yes. Their waitress brought congratulatory champagne, and Reed snapped a photo of her ringless hand atop her new fiance’s.
On social media, they posted en- gagement photos tagged #hesaidyes, a hashtag they learned is typically used by gay couples and high-school girls asking guys to prom. When asked if the proposal was a blow to his masculinity, Jauch told The Post he was envious that Reed got to do the asking but that his ego is just fine.
“It doesn’t change anything,” he said. “It took me a moment to process what was happening, because it was like a total reversal of what my mind thought would happen.”
Wedding planner Jesse Reing, of Events By Jesse, who has two female clients who proposed to their grooms, thinks the growing economic equality between men and women is a factor behind the engagement trend.
“I think one thing that makes the man wait is the ring,” he said. “But now we are seeing a lot of people making the same amount of money, especially in New York.”