Dying to plan the wedding and get on to the couple-all-the-time bit? Check out our great ways to let that special person know that you want to say ‘I do’

1Do it the old-fashioned way. Get down on one knee with a rose clenched between your teeth and the ring in hand — just before you eat dessert in a busy restaurant.

2 Turn up at her/his office in the middle of the afternoon armed with a red rose, a bottle of champagne and a champagne flute with the ring in it.

3 Write ‘Will you marry me?’ in chalk on the street outside his or her house in big enough letters so that he/she will notice it.

4 Ask your favourite radio jockey on your local radio station to pop the question for you over the airwaves at a time that you know she/he will be listening.

5 Gather friends and family outside his/her home waving banners with the words ‘Will you marry me?’ on them. (Make sure that they get the right house and that he or she knows who they’re asking for!)

6 Send a professional clown to her/his workplace to sing of your love. Walk in just after he’s popped the question for you. (Don’t know a clown? Ask a party planner.)

7 Put a set of gift-wrapped boxes, one into each other. Place your ring in the smallest.

8 Take her/him away for the weekend; pop the question on your last evening.

9 Get up extra early and give him or her breakfast in bed, with a rose, champagne and a kiss, then declare your love.

10 Cook your loved one a romantic meal and place a note around a candle asking him or her to marry you.

11 Give your sweetheart a foot massage; place the ring on his or her little toe — and hope it fits!

12 Bake him or her a cake; write ‘Will you marry me?’ in icing on top.

13 Take out a full-page ad in a paper that you know your loved one reads regularly and be close by when he/she reads it.

14 Buy your loved one a watch and have it inscribed with ‘Marry me’.

15 Pour him or her a glass of white wine with the ring at the bottom. When he or she says, ‘Yes!’ get out the champagne.

16 Propose at Christmas by hanging the ring from the top of the tree, instead of a star or a fairy.

17 Run him or her a bubble bath with rose petals thrown in. Surround it with scented candles, and float in it a rubber duck with the ring tied around its neck.

18 Serve him or her oysters in bed with the ring inside one of the shells. Make sure it doesn’t get swallowed or spat out!

19 Spell your proposal out in glow-in-the-dark star stickers on your ceiling.

20 Leave a trail of notes for your partner to follow and when he/she reaches the end, be there standing naked with a banner wrapped around you with the words ‘Will you marry me?’ on it.

21 Scratch your proposal in the dust on his or her car’s windshield.

22 Take her or him up in a hot air balloon and announce that you’ll jump out if he or she doesn’t marry you.

23 Sneak into his or her home, fill it to overflowing with flowers and put a teddy bear in the middle holding the ring and a note asking him or her to marry you. Girls, here’s one better for you — WEAR a teddy and make him a proposal he will not be able to refuse.

24 Play Hangman, with ‘Marry Me’ as the phrase to be found.

25 Write him or her a diary of your relationship. Then end it with the date you’re proposing on, telling how you’re doing it, and say the story of your love can’t go on until you have the answer...

GOT COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS? E-MAIL US AT femina@timesgroup.com WITH ‘ROMANCE — BEFORE YOU DO’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE