Well I guess I could see how my post could be mis-read as "please random strangers on the internet, openly insult my girlfriend and my relationship with her". Haha, actually, I know this is the internet and expected people to jump on this post as a chance to say really stupid mean things so I would still call the many useful responses a net win.

Clearly she doesn't expect me to do anything remotely this extravagant. She has zero expectations and would be happy if I just popped the question in central park on a random Sunday. I've talked around it enough to get an idea what would make her especially happy, so what is so wrong with wanting to make it really special and way beyond her expectations? I only get to do this once (if I'm lucky) so I want to make it a great memory for her.

However, that said, I'm certainly taking the overwhelmingly negative feedback from the women on here to heart. If this many women really would be horrified by a surprise like this then its enough to make me spend some more time thinking this through. I'll defend the idea of going through trouble to make it special, but only if I am still convinced it will actually be special.