Proposing

Planning your proposal? Avoid the seven most common mistakes, from proposing too soon to getting the setting wrong and putting pressure on her to say yes.

Thinking of proposing at home? Get ideas for making a home proposal feel genuinely special — setting, timing, and tips to pull it off well.

Before the ring, a few honest questions about money, timing, and whether you agree on the big things. Worth sitting with for an evening.

She's started saying "when we're married," not "if." The signs she's waiting, and the ones people tend to misread.

A public proposal is electric if she loves an audience and mortifying if she doesn't. Work out which she is before you hand the ring to a stadium.

The ring box in your coat, the jeweller's texts, the friend who can't keep quiet. Keeping a proposal secret from the buy to the big day, without the tell-tale slips.

The unique part isn't a flash mob. It's the detail only you two would catch, the proposal built around your own story instead of a script.

Blanking on the words is the most common regret. What to say when you propose, how long to make it, and what to leave out.

Asking her father first can read as gracious or badly dated, depending on the family. The tell is in how he already talks about you, not in the tradition itself.