Today’s engagements: www.xl-love.us

Both my daughters got engaged in churchyards. The husband of my older daughter said he didn’t want to ask her to marry him in a New York restaurant that could soon go out of business, so they took a walk through the historic St. Luke’s churchyard in lower Manhattan. Our younger daughter’s husband had taken her to New Mexico where he had lived at an important time in his life. He thought the cemetery of the historic Spanish church in Chimayo along the High Trail had the gravitas required for this major life event.

I remembered the churchyards when I began to think that this column should do something special for Valentine’s Day, which, in case you’ve forgotten, occurs this next Sunday. Young men all over Boston must be fretting about where they will ask the girl of their dreams—or the boy of their dreams, or maybe it is a young woman about to ask the boy or girl of her dreams—to marry them.

So in the interests of love, I surveyed some of my friends, who have by now seen it all, to gather suggestions for a venue for popping the big question. This is what they suggest.

If you like the churchyard’s permanence, but don’t know how it will go over since often there are dead bodies buried in such places, take your honey to the Boston Athenaeum. The fifth-floor terrace conveniently overlooks the Old Granary Burying Ground, and neither that place nor the Athenaeum is going anywhere soon. My friends and I weren’t the only ones thinking the Athenaeum made a good location for a proposal. The terrace recently hosted a loving couple’s engagement, complete with champagne and videographer. You can see the heartfelt action at www.xl-love.us. It will definitely get you in the mood.

The only way to get into the Athenaeum is to take out a membership, a welcome engagement present for a honey who is an avid reader.

You can record a proposal anywhere though. Lovely natural settings are appropriate, especially if your loved one is an outdoorswoman or man. A proposal at dusk on the Public Garden bridge would be terribly romantic. There is a large weeping beech in the Public Garden that enfolds those beneath it—another possibility. Or the metasequoia glyptostroboides, if a symbol of longevity appeals to you. This beautifully-shaped tree along the path between the Ducklings’ statue and the rose garden is a redwood. It’s not going anywhere for a long time.

If you can wait until spring, you could join Community Boating and take a twilight sail. Just make sure your beloved’s excitement won’t tip over the boat. Or try just about anywhere on or around the harbor.

If you’re old-movie buffs, you might consider taking the T to Harvard Square and walking over to 119 Oxford Street, supposedly where Oliver and Jennifer moved after their marriage in “Love Story,” and where she pronounces that “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

If it’s too cold for you to make your move outside, then you might have to go to a restaurant. The street-level bar at the Taj stays the same even though its owner may change. Cozy banquettes a few steps down or in front of the fireplace on the upper level make this inside spot romantic and memorable.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is also romantic and dramatic and a good warm spring-like spot on a cold winter’s day. But if you’d like a more exotic location, try the Japanese Garden at the MFA. This is open between April and November only, so you can’t use it this week.

If you’re waiting until the weather gets nicer, you may have a treat in store for an engagement venue. The restored Brewer Fountain is scheduled to be unveiled this spring at its long-time location on the Common near the Park Street Station. Its scantily clothed gods and goddesses and its putti looking down on the basin make it a bit sexy, but still decorous with the State House sitting solemnly up the hill.

Now that I think of it, I can’t remember where I got engaged. So maybe the setting is less important than I thought. Or maybe we just needed a videographer.