Of course having experienced one proposal, I am an expert on this.
Make it personal. Remember your audience. Be original.
A girly girl that doesn't like any sports? Avoid the jumbo-tron. A shy girl? Don't do it over a P.A. System.
Proposals, like a lot of other relational events, are over-dramatized in media. Contrary to popular assumption, you need not be wearing a fancy dress or have your nails/hair/makeup done. He doesn't have to be wearing a pressed shirt and be bearing a rose or any flowers at all.
For me, I like surprises. I am pretty intuitive and like to think that I can figure out a surprise before it comes. I purposely look the other way sometimes just so that I am surprised. I sometimes even put my hand over the next paragraph in a suspenseful book so that I wont skip ahead and see if someone dies, someone gets kissed, etc...
My proposal was a total surprise. I had on little makeup, had just eaten a sodium-filled take-out meal and was wearing a couch blanket like a shawl. Far. From. Glamorous. But I was surprised and he kept his love professions short and sweet so that I could remember them and recount the story to family and friends very easily (He knows I hate long phone calls and that my memory is terrible.).
Another proposal that caught my eye involved a girl from the Bachelorette. You might think that this is going to prove the falicies in any counterpoint, but I actually quite liked this proposal - especially because it had nothing to do with TV ratings:
Stephen planned out my proposal perfectly. My dad was in town visiting Memorial Day weekend in 2010. It was a Sunday…the end of the weekend. I knew we had to take my dad to the airport that evening to head back to the East Coast. Stephen kept insisting that we go to the beach, an hour out of our way I might add, to have dinner with his parents. When we arrived at the beach, everyone was being kind of strange…so, I excused myself to the restroom. When I returned, the only person standing in the room was Stephen’s mother, Lynn. She was holding a bouquet of flowers and she was crying. My first instinct was, “This is it!! He’s proposing!!” But seconds went by for what seems like forever and Stephen’s mom was still crying. Then, my feeling turned to fear as I blurted out, “Mama Bear, you’re scaring me.”
We laugh about it to this day because she cried, which was so special, but I could not prepare myself for the beautiful things she was about to say. Stephen’s mother told me about how she had prayed for a woman like me to come into Stephen’s life, how she is happy to have me as a daughter, and that she loved me so much. Then, she hugged me and walked me about 25 yards down the beach to Stephen’s father, Frank. Frank did the same thing, told me that he already considered me a daughter, he loves me very much, and that he wants me to know that I now have two fathers to trust and confide in. Frank then walked me another 25 yards down the beach to Stephen’s twin brother, and my friend, Michael. Michael and I just cried because we were both so happy! Michael told me he loved me and was happy to call me his sister. Michael then walked me 25 yards down the beach to my very own father. My dad hugged me and kissed me, told me he loved me, and how proud he was of me. My father then walked me down the beach toward the ocean and in between two sand dunes, standing in the middle of flowers laid around him, my father handed me off to Stephen. Stephen told me how much he loved me, how happy he was that he found me, and that he wanted to love me forever. He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. This will forever be one of the best days of my life. It was a perfect moment and a perfect proposal.
Story about former Bachelorette via Green Wedding Shoes.
