Debating whether or not to pop the question? Read through these stories before you decide to pull the trigger, it may come more useful than you think.
My friend and I witnessed a proposal at the fountain on our trip to Rome last year. Obviously, they happen there all the time and the idea of it is nice but the real thing looked so uncomfortable. Two feet from us this guy got down on one knee and proposed. She said yes and I’m sure she was happy but it was baking hot, we could barely move for the crowds of people and they both looked red and sweaty and uncomfortable. She burst into tears, he was crying, strangers everywhere were clapping and cheering and all I could think was that it seemed like an awful way to propose!
We were in the food court at a local mall. It wasn’t even the good mall, it was the ghetto one where everyone was loud and unruly, but I digress.
I was 20 and 8 months pregnant with his child, we were discussing an argument we had a few days prior that resulted in me leaving, afraid of him and his temper. He showed up in a suit and tie, handed me a ring that his mom gave him, and when I asked, “what’s this for? ” He slithered out of his chair onto his knees and asked me very loudly to marry him. I’ve never heard the ghetto mall go so quiet, and the place was packed.
I said, “uhhh, seriously? Here? ”
He took it the wrong way and began gushing about how yes, he was serious, how marriage could fix us before the baby came, he doesn’t mean to choke me a few days ago, he’s sorry…
I had to walk away. I was embarrassed and wanted to melt through the floor. I left him there on his knees, angry. He screamed to me, “fine, be that way you BIIIIITCH”
I should’ve grabbed my Chinese food though. Only regret.
We’d been friends for about 3 years and I finally agreed to give him a chance and go out with him.
He showed up at my work, after 2 dates, when I’d told him the night before I thought we were better off as “just friends”.
He spent $8000 on a ring, made a spectacle of himself, and refused to leave my workplace parking lot after I said “Sorry, no”. The police had to be called to escort him away.
… We are no longer friends.
Not my story, but my friend’s. A guy she had known from work for about one year invited her to lunch, she assumed as friends because he had a girlfriend for the entire time my friend knew him. Anyway, they went to O’Charley’s, and he started telling her about how he had found Jesus. Apparently, Jesus came to him in a dream and told him that he and my friend were destined to be together, so he got down on one knee in O’Charley’s and proposed. She declined and GTFO’ed.
Not me but a friend. She went to London for her college exchange program and had a beautiful lovestory with an English guy, then came back and they were talking on Skype almost everyday for a year. She started having second thoughts and he asked what he could do to fix it. She told him to come to Brazil so they could see if the magic was still there. He booked a flight the next day. After two great weeks together, he was even more in love and she decided she should move on. She took him to the airport and he proposed right at the gate. She said no and left. Brutal.
A friend and I once climbed to the top of the O2 / Millenium Dome in London. It’s a whole thing where you have a guide, and you put on safety equipment and you climb up the dome with about 30 others in single file.
Once at the top the guide told us about a previous climb where a guy proposed to his girlfriend, she said no, and they had to climb down separately with him crying all the way.
I wanted to propose to my wife at our favorite pub on New Year’s Eve, right as the ball hit zero, with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend in attendance.
She somehow got wind and put an absolute stop to it. She did not want to be proposed to in public and made it very clear she would say No in as public a manner as possible if I still did it.
So I delayed the proposal two months until the end of February on our Valentine’s Day date (I had been out of town for two weeks starting on the 13th). Took her out for dinner, then took her to our favorite spot on the mountain that overlooked the entire city and the lake and the cruise ship and did it there at midnight.
Public proposals can be really tacky if not done right or if you don’t know your partner.
Id already told him no in private!
