Vault: He Got Down on One Knee and Somehow Ruined Everything

Summary

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The Bert Show – Vault: He Got Down on One Knee and Somehow Ruined Everything

Date: March 18, 2026

Overview

This episode centers around relationship proposal stories with a blend of heartwarming, awkward, and hilarious moments. The main theme explores the impact of proposal style—surprise versus perfection—and whether a “bad” proposal can still become a memorable, cherished part of a couple's story. The cast shares a team-member’s recent engagement tale and invites listeners to call in and recount their own proposal experiences, some of which were less-than-dreamy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Big News: Lindell’s Proposal Story

(01:32 – 06:11)

• Lindell, a show producer, announces her engagement and is congratulated by the team.
• She details how her boyfriend recreated the night of their first kiss—complete with a trip to IHOP and a Goonies movie viewing.
• Surprise element: The engagement ring appeared on her cat’s collar, which caught her completely off guard.
• Takeaway: The significance of personalizing the proposal and prioritizing authenticity over spectacle.

Notable Quotes

• Lindell (03:31):
  “He took, like, some memorable moments from, like, and experiences, places we'd gone from or stuff we'd done from the first two weeks ... So he takes us to IHOP, which is totally not, like, romantic setting.”
• Lindell (04:44):
  “[My boyfriend] has two cats. And he brought one of them over ... he put the ring around Jack's collar. And so when I was patting him, then I was like, oh, my gosh. And he asked me, will you marry me? Of course I said yes.”
• Co-host (05:31):
  "He is a brave man putting a ring on a cat. Because that cat could randomly decide that it wants to be under the porch ... and you could never see that ring again."

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Expectations & Disappointments: Listener Proposal Stories

(06:24 – 11:40)

• Discussion shifts to how some people are disappointed by proposal circumstances, especially when they don't match expectations or the moment feels thoughtless.
• The team debates if surprise or perfect execution is more important and notes that many women value being surprised over having a “grand” proposal.
• Multiple listeners call in, sharing stories of proposals that went awry, were awkward, or were hijacked by family.

Memorable Listener Stories

• Caller 1 – The Backseat Proposal (08:39 – 09:40)

  • Her fiancé panicked and proposed while she sat in a car, with his mother driving and watching.
    Quote (09:21):
    “After he picks me up, his mom's driving ... and then he turns around and says, by the way, will you marry me?”

• Caller 2 – The Canceled Scavenger Hunt (09:54 – 10:58)

  • The boyfriend's elaborate plan fell apart. Instead, he proposed by requesting her to try on the ring while she had a towel on her head, watching TV and in a bad mood. Quote (10:53):
    “He said, oh, hey, can you do me a favor before you go to bed?... Can you just see if this fits? And pulls the ring out. And I was like, really?”

• Caller 3 – After-Sex Proposal (11:08 – 11:40)

  • Her fiancé proposed naked, post-sex—leaving her unable to share the story widely.
    Quote (11:21):
    “I was proposed to naked after sex, so it's not even a story that I could tell anyone.”

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Deeper Reflections: What Makes a Good Proposal?

(07:05 – 08:31)

• The hosts and guests ruminate on the “right” way to be proposed to:
  • Some cite the value in being authentically themselves during the proposal, even if they're in sweatpants.
  • Others recall past lists of proposal do’s and don’ts (e.g., don’t do it in public or in front of family).
  • The importance of tailoring the proposal to the couple’s unique style rather than social expectations.
    • Lindell (07:26):
      “Everybody needs to get proposed to in a way that means something to them ... If I had been the one that was taken to the fancy restaurant, I would have known something was up.”
    • Co-host (07:43):
      “Every girl needs to listen to Lindell right now.”

---

Behind the Scenes: Wedding Plans & Traditions

(11:47 – 12:36)

• Lindell describes how Mormon temple weddings work:
  • Only church members can attend the ceremony, but all can attend the reception.
    • Lindell (12:18):
      “If I invited y’all, you guys wouldn't be able to see me get married, but you'd be able to come party at the reception afterwards.”

---

Timestamps for Key Moments

• [01:32] – Announcement of Lindell’s engagement
• [03:31] – Lindell explains the recreated “first kiss” date
• [04:44] – Cat-collar proposal reveal
• [06:24] – Host opens up discussion about proposal disappointments
• [08:39] – Caller: “The backseat proposal”
• [09:54] – Caller: “Scavenger hunt gone wrong”
• [11:08] – Caller: “Post-sex proposal”
• [12:18] – Lindell describes Mormon wedding customs

---

Conclusion & Tone

True to The Bert Show's authentic and playful tone, this episode delivers a blend of humor and sincerity about love, relationships, and life’s awkward moments. The team and their callers highlight that, while fairytale proposals are nice, it’s often the imperfect and surprising ones that stand out in the long run—personalization and authenticity trump polish.

Key Takeaway:
“Everybody needs to get proposed to in a way that means something to them.” — Lindell ([07:26])

Transcript

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[Lindell]

Fantastic.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

So whether you need to hire four, 40 or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com Zip to try ZipRecruiter for free. Don't forget that ZipRecruiter.com Zip finally, that ZipRecruiter.com zip hey, the bird show.

[Host]

The life of one bird show member drastically changed last night.

[Co-host]

Is she the one in that video?

[Host]

She's not a fresh on Mario.

[Lindell]

I am this morning. No, but I can tell what the news is by just the look on her face. All right, I know what it is now.

[Host]

What happened? What happened?

[Caller/Guest]

What are you talking about?

[Host]

Tell us what happened drastically in your life.

[Caller/Guest]

Nothing happened drastically last night in my life.

[Host]

Wouldn't you?

[Caller/Guest]

Uh, uh.

[Host]

How about you, Wendy?

[Lindell]

No, not me. But now I can. I can kind of figure it out.

[Caller/Guest]

I was like, man, who's. Who's. Huh?

[Host]

Jen, was it you?

[Lindell]

Not me.

[Host]

Well, me. Jeff, was it you?

[Co-host]

No, I. I warmed up, but I think we all did that, so that doesn't really have to be.

[Lindell]

We thawed out.

[Host]

Lindell, why don't you go ahead, grab a mic. Producer Lendle, I already.

[Lindell]

I got a new piece of jewelry last night.

[Host]

Yes, you did.

[Co-host]

Oh, yes, you did. Congratulations.

[Lindell]

Congratulations.

[Host]

Look at that ring.

[Co-host]

That's.

[Caller/Guest]

Congratulations.

[Lindell]

That's. Yeah. You cannot ever play poker, by the way. I'm really good at it.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

I beat a lot of people standing over there.

[Lindell]

As soon as Burt said the tease, I looked at your face and you were like, glowing. Congratulations.

[Host]

She flopped her hand on my desk this morning and I plopped my hand on top of hers.

[Lindell]

He didn't even notice.

[Host]

And I didn't even notice.

[Co-host]

I was gonna say, how did you.

[Caller]

Let's see the ring.

[Host]

It's beautiful.

[Lindell]

Thank you.

[Co-host]

So how did he ask you?

[Lindell]

He did a really good job.

[Co-host]

Did you guys get drunk and he just spit it out?

[Lindell]

Oh, yeah. All the time. Mormons than us, right? No, he did a really good job. Today is our three year anniversary, and I kind of forgot. So last night.

[Host]

Are you like the dude in this relationship and he's more like the chick? I'm just curious.

[Lindell]

Well, I don't think so, but normally we've never really made a big deal of anniversaries and celebrated them. So I remembered, like, towards the end of the evening, right before he asked, but totally forgot and had no idea what he was doing. But basically he'd. He counts the first time we kissed as, like, the beginning of us being, like, boyfriend and girlfriend. Okay, so. Aw, that's cute. Anyways, we dated for a couple.

[Co-host]

She is the Duke.

[Lindell]

She's the Duke.

[Co-host]

Yeah, whatever.

[Lindell]

We dated for a couple of weeks beforehand, and he basically last night took, like, some memorable moments from, like, and experiences, places we'd gone from or stuff we'd done from the first two weeks, I guess, to, like, put him into last night. So I was supposed to make dinner, and then he goes, no, let's go out. And I was like, well, I just brought all the groceries over to do this. And I was like, okay, fine, whatever. So he takes us to ihop, which is totally not, like, romantic setting. I was in, like, sweatpants hoodie. Like, I'm not.

[Co-host]

Is it the one in Sandy Springs?

[Lindell]

Yes, it is.

[Co-host]

Because that's a romantic one.

[Lindell]

It is so awesome. Definitely good vibe there.

[Host]

And at this point, you're totally and completely clueless.

[Lindell]

Oh, yeah, IHOP. It's open. It's 10. We have to get dinner, whatever. So we do that and then we go back to his place and he just pops in a movie and he put it on. He has a projector, and so he angled it to, like, one of his rooms in his house has, like, vaulted kind of weird ceilings so you can lay on the floor on a bed and, like, Kinda look at the movie up on the ceiling. And he put in the Goonies, which I was like, oh, fun movie, whatever. Totally not thinking. But that was one of the romantic movie. It was the movie that we watched the night we kissed and the night we went to ihop. We just like the. Originally, we sat there for hours and hours and hours and just talked. And so he took me to IHOP and we watched the movie. And I was not.

[Caller/Guest]

He was recreating that.

[Lindell]

And I had no idea. I was like, oh, this is fun. And I was so tired because it was like midnight at this point and I work here at 5 o' clock in the morning.

[Co-host]

Our job sucks. Yeah, our job is not romantic.

[Lindell]

Not at all.

[Caller/Guest]

No.

[Lindell]

But so we were watching the movie and he kept panicking and just getting up and, like, sitting back down and going. And I was just like, okay, whatever, I'll just stay here and watch the movie. And in the end, he went out of the room and came back in and he got. He has two cats. And he brought one of them over. And he's like, oh, you know, Jack wants to play with you. And I was like, I'm tired. And he's tired. He just wants to sit. So I patted his head for a little bit and didn't realize it, but he put the ring around Jack's collar. And so when I was patting him, then I was like, oh, my gosh. And he asked me, will you marry me? Of course I said yes.

[Host]

So you realized it once. Okay.

[Lindell]

I was totally.

[Co-host]

I gotta tell you, he is a brave man putting a ring on a cat. Because that cat could randomly decide that it wants to be under the porch or outside. And you could never see that ring again.

[Host]

Seriously.

[Lindell]

He did, like, kind of lecture me before, like, the evening had started and was like, do not let the cats outside tonight. And I was, you know, wondering why. He goes, it's just really cold. Don't let it out. It's like, okay.

[Caller/Guest]

But he remembered what you did the first night you kissed and recreated that. I mean, that deserves a ton of credit.

[Lindell]

I was told I was totally oblivious, and I didn't think until it was almost midnight, but he kept looking over at the clock and I was like, oh, yeah, tomorrow's our anniversary. And we watched Goonies the night before. I was like, oh, that's kind of fun. Totally oblivious.

[Host]

So at no point did you think, oh, my God, I think maybe a proposal's coming.

[Lindell]

Mm, mm. Because I was in, like, sweatpants. And so with the endor. Good job. It Wasn't so cute. Now that's Gonn restaurant. It was just totally us and it was perfect for like us.

[Co-host]

Now you're a cool chick, so that's fine. But I guarantee you that there are women who are to this day pissed because their boyfriend proposed to them while they were wearing sweatpants or they didn't have their hair did, or they were like their nails were all chipped or they were had a cold or something like that. To this day, he couldn't even wait till me. He wouldn't even let me get dressed up. I mean, I knew we were only going to ihop, but he could at least told me to put on something nice.

[Host]

Yeah, who's listening right now that will come on the voice disguiser and say, yeah, I'm really disappointed by the way I was proposed to. It was just the wrong timing wasn't the way I had anticipated being at all.

[Co-host]

I think the ones I'm specifically going for, the people where. Where the guy should have somehow warned her prepared.

[Caller/Guest]

Didn't we do a list before where one of the charming things or one of the real things about it is if you are not all dressed up when you get proposed to. I remember a long time ago, because we the do's and don'ts and don't do it in public, don't do it in front of the family. But one of the things that, I don't know, I vaguely remember it somehow being the fact that, you know, it's almost like this real, like, I love you for who you are kind of thing.

[Lindell]

I think that everybody needs to get proposed to in a way that like, means something to them. Like, I'm not the kind of person that needs to go to the fancy restaurant and needs to have like the flowers and all that stuff. So if it's comfortable for you, do it that way. And if I had been the one that was taken to the fancy restaurant, I would have known something was up.

[Caller/Guest]

Right?

[Co-host]

Every girl needs to listen to Lindell right now.

[Host]

Well, I'm curious because I wonder if the question that guys are listening for right now is because for us, I think the ultimate proposal is a big one, but also one where you're completely surprised. To us, surprise is priority number one.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

And I would say most women aren't surprised.

[Host]

That's what I'm asking, like, as a. As a woman, is it more important to be surprised or have it perfect? Have it just bright and big and grand.

[Caller/Guest]

I'd rather be surprised.

[Lindell]

Same here. Surprise is better. And honestly, if you're In a relationship to where you know that marriage is kind of on the horizon. You kind of know that he might ask you, but, like, the way he does it should be a surprise to you. Not to be where you're like, okay, we're at the store and then he proposes at the store at the joy counter. That's just not.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

See, he.

[Caller/Guest]

I'm more like Linda Ware. Symbolic and surprise.

[Lindell]

Yes.

[Caller/Guest]

And had both.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

And had your boyfriend taken you out to a fancy dinner, you would have

[Lindell]

been completely tipped off. I was just dumb and just not paying attention.

[Co-host]

Perfect. At all.

[Host]

Hey, good morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller]

Good morning. How are you doing? Good. I love your show. My proposal for my husband was pretty crappy. I mean, I love my husband. He's wonderful, and I love my mother in law. But she didn't want to get out of the car. She wanted to see him propose to me. I was interning at the public defender's office, and his plan was to get out of the car, you know, go in the middle of the courthouse, get down on one knee and propose to me. But the way that he ended up proposing to me was, you know, we're riding in the car and everything. After he picks me up, his mom's driving. I'm sitting in the back seat behind her and talking to her. And then he turns around and says, by the way, will you marry me?

[Caller/Guest]

Oh, no. He panicked.

[Caller]

I was so upset. I mean, I loved him so much, and I was happy that he proposed to me. But to this day, we've been married for three years and I still rag him about that. I told him he could do a do over because we're supposed to renew our vows because his mom took over the wedding too. She even tried to pick out my wedding dress.

[Host]

Oh, geez.

[Co-host]

You know what? I could have told you that was coming the day that if I knew you back then you told me how he proposed, I could tell you you'd have mother in law problems. Yeah, no kidding.

[Host]

Good morning. Amber here wants to be on the voice disguiser. Go ahead.

[Caller]

Good morning.

[Co-host]

Good morning.

[Caller]

Beyonce actually proposed to me. Hardly at all. He had this one day that he had done this whole huge proposal day with like, the scavenger hunt and the romance and the fun and all of this. And at some point during the day, it fell apart. To this day, I don't know exactly why he decided he couldn't do it and just kind of like called the whole thing off. And, you know, by that point, I knew what he was doing. So for the next couple of days, I'm thinking, it's coming, it's coming. He's going to make up for it. He's going to do something just awesome. Well, it turns out, instead, on a Tuesday, I was sitting on my couch with my hair in a towel watching tv, and I was in a really crappy mood and said, you know, I don't even want to watch this. I'm going to bed. And so he said, oh, hey, can you do me a favor before you go to bed? And I was like, what? And he said, can you just see if this fits? And pulls the ring out? And I was like, really?

[Caller/Guest]

Oh, no.

[Host]

Really? Is that the way it's gonna be done right now?

[Caller]

This is it. And that was my proposal.

[Host]

Yeah, dude, you get one crack at this. One crack at it. Be careful with it. Good morning, Lisa. You're on Q100. Hi.

[Caller]

Hey, there.

[Host]

Hi. You're on the voice disguise.

[Caller]

Okay, good. I was proposed to naked after sex, so it's not even a story that I could tell anyone.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

What did you do in bed?

[Host]

Yeah, literally, you're laying there on the bed, and he says, hold on one second.

[Lindell]

You rolled over?

[Caller]

No, he got down on one knee. But I'm like, are you serious?

[Lindell]

I can't talk to anyone.

[Caller]

We've been married for almost 10 years, but still, I'm like, I've never told anyone how we got engaged.

[Co-host]

Understandable.

[Host]

You have to make up a story. Congratulations to you.

[Caller]

Congratulations.

[Lindell]

Congratulations.

[Co-host]

Lindell, have you set a date yet? I imagine it's next week sometime.

[Lindell]

No, we kind of are just, you know, it's kind of exciting. Just kind of, like, basking the globe at Joy. Enjoy it. And it's fun telling people and seeing their reactions or hearing them. I had to call my parents last night because I didn't want them to find out this morning, like, at work. So they were half asleep and like, oh, yay, that's exciting. And good night. My dad thought it was a dream. He's like, did you really get engaged last night?

[Host]

So Lindell and her boyfriend are both Mormon. So is the ceremony or is the wedding different? In the Mormon religion, it is in

[Lindell]

the sense that we would get married in one of the Latter Day Saint temples, and the people that can go inside the temple are those that are members of the church. So, like, if I invited y', all, you guys wouldn't be able to see me get married, but you'd be able to come party at the reception afterwards.

[Host]

That's really all we want to do.

[Co-host]

Anyway, God bless. I love the Mormon.

[Host]

Yeah, really.

[Co-host]

That's just the way to do it right there.

[Host]

Go bring them young.

[Co-host]

Uh huh. Hey.

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[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

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[Lindell]

Fantastic.

[ZipRecruiter Narrator]

So whether you need to hire four, 40 or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com Zip to try ZipRecruiter for free. Don't forget that ZipRecruiter.com Zip finally, that's ZipRecruiter.com Zip Finding great candidates to hire

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