You don’t know until you ask, and by asking you’re showing her the respect and that you value her opinion.

Exactly, don’t ask anyone to marry you if you don’t already know that the answer will be yes. Reality isn’t like the movies; a spontaneous marriage proposal isn’t romantic, it’s putting the recipient on the spot and forcing them to answer a huge question that they may not be ready to answer yet, and if they say no it’s likely to doom the relationship even if they may have said yes if properly consulted beforehand.

My wife and I had already discussed the possibility of marriage almost from the start of our relationship, to make sure that our expectations of where the relationship was going were aligned. Once we decided in earnest that we did want to spend our lives together, we discussed what she wanted the proposal to look like and what kind of a ring she wanted.

I tip my hat to you good gentlesir! Upvotes to the left!