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Article created by: Kotryna Br
You’ve got the perfect ring picked out, you’ve chosen the best possible place to go down on one knee, and you know exactly what you’re going to say when you’ll look deep into your partner’s eyes and tell them that you love them, asking them to marry you. There’s just one tiny snag, though: they said ‘no.’ And now you’re heartbroken and posting about it on the internet.
Internet users have opened up about the proposal rejections they’ve given, experienced, or witnessed on the massively popular r/AskReddit online community, and their stories are captivating, emotional, sad, and dramatic. You might shed a tear (or even accidentally laugh at how awkward and ridiculous some of these situations are). Have a read below and let us know what you think about them in the comments. And if you’re feeling up to it, share your own experiences proposing or being proposed to as well.
Meanwhile, be sure to read Bored Panda’s interview with Anna and Sarah from The Wedding Society about proposals, what we should avoid doing, and how to control our nerves before popping the question.
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#1
Was dating the girl next door, when i went away to Boot Camp. Got out of Boot, went to Tech School in Texas. Was able to come home, which was in Rhode Island, every couple of months or so. I asked her to marry me. She said no, we were too young, and I was only asking since I was away and lonely. I persisted, but she was resolute. Got out of Boot, and was at my first Duty Station, a year after I had gone in. I asked her again. She said no, still too young to know what we were doing. Got in a fight, kinda had a "break" in the relationship for a while. Got back together, and I decided not to ask again, as she was obviously not going to marry me.
Six months later, she said to me, "So, did you give up on marrying me?" I said "Pretty much, yeah"
Her: Well, my answer might be different now.
Me: Can't risk it, my fear of rejection is insisting I never ask again.
Her: No, really, I might have changed my mind.
Me: Sorry, twice bitten, yada yada.
She basically had to guarantee me should would say yes before I would ask her again.
Today, I woke up, rolled over to give her a kiss, and realized this is our 41st Christmas together, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
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#2
I don't remember.
I woke up after a surgery and apparently I was madly in love with the nurse because she brought me a dull sandwich and a cup of coffee. My parents say that I told her she was the best human being I've met, and that she should be crowned queen of the world. Then I asked if she wanted to marry me so I could be king, but she was already married.
#3
She told me that she was so desperate to get married she would marry anyone who asked as long he wasn't the biggest loser on the entire planet. I learned something about myself that day.
#4
Not myself but I did watch one once and it's god awful. Guy just won an amateur bodybuilding contest and his partner came up on stage with him. He immediately drops to one knee and asks for her to marry him. She doesn’t say a word and starts to shake her head no and he starts to weep on stage while still holding the microphone.
Nothing like watching a grown man oiled up in a banana hammock ugly crying in front of an arena full of people.
#5
My grandfather proposed to my grandmother in a hot air balloon. She said yes, and she claims the balloonist said, "Thank God! You don't know how many people propose up here and then we have to spend 2 hours of awkwardness up here if she says no!"
#6
A guy proposed to me a couple of years ago. He was just depressed about the lady he was actually in love with rejecting him. And unless I'm mistaken his thought process was: "well this girl liked me a few years ago and has been a halfway decent friend, maybe since I can't have true love and she doesn't seem to have any prospects we can just settle on each other..." I did not agree.
#7
I was meeting up with an old friend, Joe, from back in the day. We were at the part of the catch-up where we were talking about relationships etc. I told him about my long-term boyfriend (8 years) and our house and dogs. But he just couldn't fathom that Nathan and I weren't married and that I didn't care that we weren't. No matter what we talked about next, he'd always bring it back to, "you must be so unhappy he doesn't love you enough" and "what a shame a nice girl like you is stuck with him." Got quite annoyed but sort of forgot about him and the whole thing pretty quickly.
Fast forward to a year later, and I was at a friend's wedding with my partner. Joe was also there. Nathan had just gone to grab us some drinks and came back to Joe down on one knee proposing to me, with a ring and everything. He was saying how he could make me so much happier and give me the life I'd always wanted with children and I'd never had to work again. Which if you know me, is very not me. I was just looking at him with my mouth open, completely taken aback.
Nathan just looked from me to him then back to me. I had a deer in the headlights look. I honestly had no idea what to say or do. I scrambled out of my chair and said, "no thanks Joe. I'm good." Downed my champagne and ran to the dance floor. I've never been happier to dance my whole life, and I really don't like dancing in public.
#8
My dad actually was rejected by my mom the first time he asked. They were on a cruise and he proposed at dinner, in front of people, and she said no. She just wasn’t ready, and he was embarrassed lol. This is why I plan ahead and will never propose publicly
#9
Not me, but my secretary's boyfriend proposed in grand fashion: Rented a white horse, suit of armor showed up at the office and performed the whole scene. His friends called the local news station and it was on the evening news. She smiled/grimaced through the whole grisly act and said yes for the cameras. Later, when they were home and alone, she let him down gently. They stayed together for a couple more months, but then she broke up with him when she found out he had gotten two women pregnant during their relationship.
#10
Older guys comes into the restaurant where my friend worked with a hot, much younger, girl.
He asks for a ring to be put into her glass of champagne and delivered to the table about halfway through the meal.
When it's delivered she obviously notices but ignores it.
She excuses herself to go to the ladies. On the way she gets her coat and tells the member of staff "tell him I said no" and leaves the restaurant.
#11
I witnessed a proposal that was shot down in a blaze of awkwardness. I was at the Cheesecake Factory sitting at a table where one side is a booth and one is a chair. The tables are super close together. The guy at the table next to me gets down on a knee between our tables (only he barely fit and kept bumping my table). She was horrified he was asking and said no.
They hadn’t even eaten yet so they had the rest of their meal while bickering about the proposal. He kept yell asking her what he should do with the ring now. Truly the most awkward meal of my life sitting less than a foot from that.
#12
A buddy of mine from college just got rejected while proposing. She was very, VERY adamant about getting married, having babies, looking at rings, the whole thing. Wanted to be a housewife and stuff bc she hated working as a teacher. They even talked about it and she'd said stuff like "I'd be prepared to say yes as soon as you ask." Pretty up the middle right?
Well, he proposed and she said she wasn't ready for the settled life, tried to keep the ring, broke up with him (she needed to find herself apparently?), And when she couldn't explain why to her friends and family, made up (and then recanted) an abuse saga to justify her leaving. Turns out she'd actually been low-key gold digging the whole time and was only dating him because it cut her rent in half and she could drive his truck (couldn't afford a car). She ended up with one of the 'nice guy' types but she's basically ripping that dude apart right now (and just crashed his car...). So bizarre and she seemed pretty normal when she was dating my buddy. Bullet dodged ig
#13
My boyfriend of 4 years and I went on a holiday together. I was still very in love with him at that moment and i thought he had the same feelings. The 3rd night I had a bad fever and told him he could go out if he wanted because I was going to bed at like 7pm. So he went to the hotel bar I think. I woke up at 4:00ish all sweaty and took a shower and he was still not back from drinking, so I went to the hotel bar (this was a big hotel so it was stil open and pretty crowded) and saw my boyfriend being a little to comfortable with some college-age girl. I asked a waitress of she had seen him do anything, and she told me they had been making out dozens of times. I was too shocked/hurt that moment for the confrontation so promised myself to break up with him as soon as we got home. 3 days later, while we were at another hotel, he asked me to marry him. The answer and the reason were pretty obvious.
#14
My boyfriend proposed after we had our first child. We’d been together 3 or 4 years at that point, lived together, planned to have the kid. I turned him down and told him it was because I thought he was doing it because of the baby. I wanted it to be because of me and not an obligation and I think I was a little hurt that he hadn’t asked before when it was just me in the equation. I told him If he waited one more year and still wanted to and asked again I would say yes. It took him three more kids and like 5-6 more years to ask again (so now we have been together for almost 11 years and have 4 kids), but we are finally getting married in two days :).
#15
My grandmother used to be a caretaker for an old optometrist who had ALS. She lived with him on a farm and one could definitely see they had loved each other. He asked her to marry him and she laughed, thinking he was just joking. He wasn't.
A few months later he passed away at the hospital, smiling because she was on her way to visit him.
#17
I once saw a public proposal at a horse show. It was awful. The woman tried to leave the stage when she saw her boyfriend entering the ring as a special surprise. But they would not let her leave. So painful to watch. She did not answer his question and everyone watching was cringing
#18
One guy proposed to me because he was going to be deployed somewhere far. We were 19. He was a friend from hs who flirted with me a lot, I thought, jokingly. He was home from leave and had had a growth spurt. Which was great for him but he thought the reason I never went out with him was because he was short. So when he came back, he thought I’d go from not wanting to be his girlfriend to wanting to be his wife when I saw him. It was sad, he was lonely in the military but I was nineteen! I tried my hardest not to hurt his feelings but I never heard from him again.
#19
I didn’t reject her, but apparently, I walked away from my fiancé down on one knee MULTIPLE times, not realizing she was proposing
#20
I thought she'd say yes because she kept hinting at it, showing me pictures of rings she liked, etc. When I actually proposed, she said, 'You're too nice a guy for me.
#21
I laughed because I thought he was joking. I was 19, neither of us worked, the ring was a promise ring that cost like $20 and wasn't my style.
The whole situation was hilarious to me until I saw how disappointed he was, then it was just awkward and uncomfortable. We broke up a few months later when he went crazy and pinned me by my neck up against a wall.
Not to mention it wasn't even legal for us to actually marry because were both dudes.
#22
I witnessed a lunchtime Olive Garden proposal go awry after the gentleman had the server insert the ring into a breadstick. Yes, the ring was pushed into a breadstick, so just the stone was sticking out of the top. Of course, the breadsticks are first to the table, so they seemed to be having a pretty awkward lunch after she said no.
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