Matthew McConaughey had been dating Camila Alves for five years, and had two children, before he asked her to marry him. Who would have thought her first answer wouldn't be yes!

"At Christmastime, we go around our family and everyone takes turns opening presents. So I had wrapped the engagement ring in about eight different boxes deep, so she would keep opening boxes to get with it," he recalled on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Tuesday. "We finally got to her, and I'm calling my family over. She gets to it, she opens it up, her eyes go wide. I take a knee and I ask her, 'Will you marry me and take my name?'"

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY'S CHRISTMAS DAY PROPOSAL

The 'Magic Mike' hunk, 42, initially declined to reveal how Alves reacted, but after some prodding, he confessed: "The first word out of her mouth was not 'yes.' I'm not gonna say what it was. But I did say, 'Look, I'm down on a knee. I'll stay here awhile. I will outlast you.' And I did! She conceded."

The couple -- parents to son Levi, 3, and daughter Vida, 2 -- tied the knot in Austin, Texas June 9. "We put 40 tents up in the yard. This is was her idea," McConaughey said of his new wife, 30. "She said, 'I want to build a village. I want all of our friends and family to come here, stay for three full days, have an experience with us, so they can really remember this weekend.'"

Guests at the McConaughey/Alves wedding included Reese Witherspoon, 36, Woody Harrelson, 50, and filmmaker Richard Linklater, 51. Though they didn't ask for gifts, however, they did receive a few strange presents.

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Said McConaughey: "[My friend] gave us a sword with a big card that says, 'For the couple that has everything. Swing your sword!'"