In terms of life events, being proposed to or proposing to someone can be one of the most memorable and romantic days of your life. After all, this is the moment your relationship has been building towards: you’ve dated for long enough to know that you want to spend the rest of your life with your significant other. However, you want your proposal to be memorable and often that means making it unique. Now, just like we urge you to do with your wedding day, make the proposal personal; if you’re the kind of couple for who it makes sense to do a traditional proposal in a restaurant, than do it! But if you’re looking to get a bit adventurous with your big day, check out some of the crazy and real life examples below.
To begin, let’s first take a look at outdoor or public proposals. These are the kind of proposals that take advantage of a public situation or event. For example, if you are both baseball fans, proposing to her on the Jumbotron, or even better, on home plate won’t just symbolize your love together, but will also give you unforgettable proposal pics to share with your grandkids. If you’re going for a place a little less hectic than a ballpark—think a park, botanical garden, or a place that means something to you both—then you get a bit more extravagant, whether it be a hiring a choir or small string quartet to serenade you with your favorites during your proposal.
When proposing outside, the world is truly your oyster and there are countless ways to make a real impact with your proposal. For instance, if the aquarium is one of your favorite places, you can likely pay to get some custom “Will you marry me?” signage in your favorite whale tank. Or if you both like games, put together a treasure hunt where they have to figure out clues based on your relationship. Finally, hiring a sky writer, while it’s been done, is a grand way to spell your love across the clear blue skies.
Another popular proposal theme is the destination proposal. Whether you’re taking a vacation for the holidays or summer, being whisked a thousand miles a way from home has a certain romantic quality to it that’s hard to deny. Of course, there’s also the surprise destination proposal where we’ve heard of grooms sweeping their hopeful fiancées off of their feet and onto a plane where they propose at 35,000 feet over the water. But if you can wait until you get to your destination, the beach, a customized hotel lobby, or taking over a local attraction are all great places and ways to propose.
While there are many props and pre-made proposals that you can buy in a store, there’s something special about a homemade proposal. For example, if you both have a dog together, consider affixing a small basket with the ring to the collar of your pooch with a “Will you marry me?” sign hanging from the neck. Sometimes, including your friends and family in the proposal—especially if you’ve been dating for upwards of five to ten years—is a truly beautiful way to represent the merging of your two families and friend groups, not to mention you can ha a party afterwards.
However, if the above ideas don’t quite strike you as being representative of your unique relationship, sometimes it helps to start from base one and that often starts at home. So many unforgettable proposals have taken place in the very home or apartment a couple sometimes shares and while destination proposals have their obvious perks, there’s also something sincerely romantic about staging your proposal at home.
Whatever you decide on, be sure to make personal, heartfelt, and aimed directly at your audience: the proposal is usually her big moment, so do everything in your imagination to make the moment as much about her as possible.
