Also, I find it kinda sweet not to say all those things you could, because asking someone to marry you should already be enough of a statement (I know, I know, a question is not a statement, yada yada…).

If someone proposed to me starting with the words “When we first met, I knew you were the one.” I’d probably mentally go like “Yeah, sure you did.”
I think I’d like stuttering and “Will you marry me?” or however my boyfriend would want to ask me to marry them better than a speech learned by heart or written down. I’m not saying a speech wouldn’t come as much from the heart as that, but hey…