The first group is for the person planning to propose, to think through alone. The second is for couples who talk about the proposal openly. Either way, the useful questions are about the moment itself: where, who is there, whether there is a ring, and what you will say.
A proposal is a question, so the other person needs to be free to answer it. That is the main reason to find out ahead of time whether your partner would want an audience. A crowd, a camera or a family dinner makes “not yet” much harder to say.
Practical details worth checking
Find out ring size and taste through a friend or relative who can keep a secret, or simply ask. If a blessing from a parent matters in either family, check how your partner feels about it before you ask anyone; some people find the tradition warm and others find it outdated. Decide who hears the news first so nobody important finds out from a post.
Ask your family how they did it
The third group is for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Start with the plain facts: who asked, where, whether there was a ring and where it is now. The story usually follows. For more about an older relative’s early life, see the questions for grandparents.
After the question
The bigger conversations about money, children and where to live belong to the engagement. For those, use the engagement questions or the questions to ask your fiance. When the wedding gets closer, the wedding planning questions and our guide to writing your own vows pick up from here.