Reminds me of my proposal: awkward giving of ring and all. But ironically for the opposite motive, we were in a mid distance relationship but I was getting a job in her town. So I proposed as soon as I got the job as we would need to go house hunting.
The proposal itself was more obvious, I asked her to show to my house well dressed and I made a high tea set up from scratch (scones, cucumber sandwiches, etc). She knew I was going to "pop" the question but I kept missing my openings. Eventually we were sitting on the couch and I just gave her the box, and said "you know what this is?" I never actually said the standard stuff. It worked out,obviously.