An unfortunate side effect these days of the hours of brilliant programming brought to us by television networks is that the tension and romance created by teams of writers and directors is taken in by females everywhere and stored in their minds as social norms. This poses a large problem for gentlemen when they are considering proposing to a female. In order to usurp the romance created by the magic of television you must study its behavior emulate it then finally, after countless minutes of study, surpass the television romance scenes by combining their top selling points to make a super proposal.

The reason that it is important to make a large and elaborate fanfare of your proposal is twofold. It's something that your soon to be fiancé will remember and recite to friends, family and strangers for ever so making a good job of it now will pay dividends in the future, and it's the precursor to your marriage so it's a good idea to lead off as you intend to continue.

Below listed are Five tips for proposal ideas some are from television or movies, some are I just think would be good. I would recommend combining at least two of them and then adding something cool like a hot air balloon or pod of dolphins for maximum affect.

1 Mcleod's Daughters (Australian drama) - In a scene from Australian drama Mcleod's Daughters The male intending to propose arranges for an elaborate dinner setting to be made up on the bank of a river under a tree. The table is set with fineries and food and there are wait staff to cater to the two dinners every whim. Upon handing a glass of Champaign to the female she notices an engagement ring in the bottom of her glass which she then fishes out and looks well satisfied when the man says "will you marry me" or something to that effect. Although this scene is great in a classical sense it loses points for getting the ladies fingers wet and sticky.

2 The Wedding Singer - Robbie played by Adam Sandler arranges with the flight staff of the flight that he is on to clear the isles of the plane so that he can propose to Drew Barrymore unobstructed. He does this by singing a romantic and humorous song which steals her heart and gets a positive response. The best part about this proposal is the fact it's on an airplane, airplanes are great places to propose as everyone will clap afterwards and your likely to be served free drinks by the stewards for the rest of the flight.

3 Spelling out the words in some sort of huge or abstract way, I just saw this proposal when I was looking around, its pretty romantic and would be great for an art lover.

Another way of doing this would be spelling out the words in petrol on a hillside then having someone set it alight when you are with you girlfriend and at a good viewing distance, I wouldn't imagine that Al Gore would endorse this particular proposal.

4 Having a famous musician play at a private show is a good way of getting the atmosphere right I would recommend someone like Elton John, that way if the songs start getting slow you can always request rocket man or Saturday nights alright for fighting.

5 The final tip would have to be to incorporate something that your girlfriend is passionate about into the mix. This will show your girlfriend that you put thought into the proposal and didn't just plagiarize something that you saw on the internet. For example if your partner loves flowers, have some setup a floral arrangement for you saying "will you marry me", or if your partner likes horse riding, proposing whilst out riding with her would be the way to do it, especially if you could make your horse kneel.