How to Ask Someone to Marry You

Marriage is a major step in people's lives, and asking the woman you love to marry you can be a nerve-racking experience. You only have one shot to get it right, and preparation is the key to success. This guide will show you how to ask someone to marry you.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Be sure that marriage is something you both want. Love is a complicated yet extremely fulfilling emotion. However, just because someone is in love doesn't mean he or she wants to get married. If you want to get married, make sure your girlfriend wants the same thing before giving it more thought. If she is not ready to take that next step in your relationship, respect her honesty and avoid pushing the subject. If you truly love each other, marriage will come when the time is right.

2. Get her parents' permission. After you've determined that she wants to get married, get her parents' blessing before you pop the question. This is a sign of courtesy and respect, and helps build a healthy relationship with your future in-laws.

3. Determine if she wants to pick out her engagement ring. Engagement rings can be fairly expensive, so you want to make sure to get one that she likes. Casually ask her to come look at some rings with you the next time you're at the mall. If she wants you to surprise her with a ring rather than pick one out herself, this at least gives you an idea of what kind of style and design she likes.

4. Propose in a surprising and creative manner. This step requires the most thought and planning. Don't propose at a sporting event or in front of her family. Pick a location that perhaps has sentimental value for both of you or a place with romantic ambiance. Make it a personal experience that you and your loved one can reminisce about in the future.

5. Tell her why you want to marry her. When you propose, tell her why you love her and why she's the one. This makes the proposal more heart-felt, more memorable, and more true. You want the one you love to feel confident that you've given marriage a lot of thought and that you're confident that you want to spend the rest of your life with her.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep it simple. A difficult proposal plan exposes you to a higher chance of something going wrong
• Do not hide the engagement ring in food

Resources

• The World's Greatest Proposals

[blakeurban]

on 8/5/2009 This article gives a slew of ideas. Fun to read and makes me feel better about proposing. Thanks for talking me through it. 5 stars and recommending to love birds.