BostonGirl, When you first start you generation, or your first person, you get the first proposal about 6 or 7 minutes into the game... After that they do become very rare. I've found out in one of my families, that if your person's spouse dies, they might sometimes get another marriage proposal, even if their almost 45 years of age!

Hope this helps!

This only happens if the couple did not have any children. If a person is widowed and has children, they will not receive marriage proposals.

Thanks Nora Willow and Jenny for the advice!
I have an unmarried woman that adopted a cute boy when she first moved back in at 26 years old. She did get a proposal the first day but didn't take it. Now she's 40 and has only gotten two proposals. Luckily she has the boy to inherit, but I wonder if already having a child limited the proposals?

It doesn't normally. As already mentioned, the proposals get rarer the more they are rejected, but adoption doesn't seem to have an effect on their frequency.

Thanks Arnie,
I have noticed the proposals do tend to thin out if the singles are too picky and reject them early on. This woman got a second adoption last night,(never had two in one family before) and this morning she finally recieved a third marriage proposal at 47 years old. Naturally she drug him into the house and started celebrating marriage! Better late than never. Sometimes the game has strange quirks that just make it more interesting.

How far apart are the marriage proposals if they're rejected? I've rejected two, I didn't like the status he had on wanting children (Boots already has "No way!" as her status) and the second guy I just didn't like him in general, but I've yet to see a third proposal today.

It has been my observation that after the first 2 proposals are rejected, my peeps seem to get additional proposals at the rate of about 1 proposal per 24 hours of game running. Marie was 26 when she took over the house and rejected at least 5 men. I finally decided to marry her off at the age of 42 so that she would be young enough to produce children since no abandoned children had shown up at her door.

It depends of what generation you are in the game. At the first generation, you may have one proposal per hour!
But at the 30th generation, you'll have to wait 24 hours! (I think it's the max)
As for how many proposal you may reject, I don't know but I already reject 5 or 6 without any problem!

My girl peep rejected four proposals so far... er I guess I did lol... None of them want children. Now my girl is 48 years old and has an adopted daughter who is now 15, 3 at time of adoption. I fear it may be too late for my adoptive mother to have more children. *sigh*

Even if the person proposing marriage doesn't want children, they can still have them. Go ahead and marry your woman to the next gentleman who comes knocking and perhaps there will be enough time to make a baby. An adoption event can still happen as well. Just know that your game will not end after your female passes away because there is someone to inherit the house, the female who is now 15.