5 min read
How to ask the question properly
You get one attempt at this. A page can carry the build-up beautifully, and it can also make the whole thing feel like a gimmick. The difference is entirely in how you use it.
Do not let it replace the room
This works best as the opening move or as the keepsake afterwards, not as a substitute for being present. Very few people want the most important question of their life delivered entirely by link.
Send it the night before. Or hand them the phone and then say it yourself. Either is better than asking from another building.
Three beats, then ask
The build-up matters, but a long one dilutes the moment. Three moments and then the question on its own screen is the right shape.
Everything after the question should be written for someone who has already said yes.
Answer the "when did you know" honestly
People expect a holiday or a crisis. It is almost always a Sunday afternoon and something completely unremarkable.
The unremarkable answer is more convincing than the cinematic one, because nobody would invent it.
The same thing, written badly and written well
You are my soulmate and my forever.
You were humming in the next room and I realised I had already decided.
Will you make me the happiest person alive?
Will you marry me? Take as long as you like.
If you are stuck
Answer one of these honestly and you will have the sentence the page needs.
- 01When did you stop imagining a version of your life without them?
- 02What is the least dramatic moment that convinced you?
- 03What are you actually promising, in plain words?
- 04What do you want them to feel in the ten seconds before they answer?
