While proposals symbolize love, happiness and the start of a new life together...sometimes, they're done without a thought and willingness from the other person. These were awkward to say the least...
Lost At Sea
Was proposed to at the captains dinner on a cruise ship in front of the entire dining room. We had discussed marriage and we had both agreed we weren’t ready legit 2 weeks beforehand. Said yes so as not to embarrass him, then when we got back to the room told him no and confronted him for putting me on the spot. We got into such a violent argument that we had security called on us and were forcibly separated for a night because the neighbors were afraid for our safety. Source
Bold Move
First a disclaimer: while this didn’t happen to me, I was involved in it.
I’d been dating this girl (who’d later be my wife) for about a year. During that time, she’d been in touch with a friend..an “ex”. I didn’t really worry, I mean, I was comfortable in our relationship, and we were honest with each other, so when she told me that the guy was just a friend, kind of weird, but OK…I took her at it.
We were out at a park in her hometown one afternoon, I was taking bad photography (because I haven’t an artistic bone in my body), and we’d decided it was time to finish. We walked back to my car, and there was this guy. I knew who it was from her photos, but I was like, “eh?”
So she’s like, “Oh hey, what’s up.” Dude decides to go for the gold, drops down on one knee, and asks her to marry him….while she’s out on a date…with a different guy, that she’d been seeing for over a year
Note, she thinks this guy is her friend, and not even a friendzone friend, just a dude. They had dated 3 years previous for like two weeks before she broke it off.
She looks at me, then looks at him and goes, “You’re not serious, are you?”
He gets up, looks at me and gives me a..look. I was in better shape back then (2005) and at least 6″ taller than dude. He was kind of squat, kind of mushy, which is fine, but remember…pick your battles. He takes a swing. I step back out of the way. He rushes me. I move out of the way. He goes running across the parking lot to his car, peels out and that’s the end of it…
OR SO I THOUGHT
The next day, I get a visit from the police. Apparently, I was in a fight with this guy and beat the shit out of him, and he believes that, for HER best interest, there should be a restraining order against me on HER behalf. I ask the police if this is legal. They say no, but he can get a restraining order. I tell them I didn’t touch the guy, and they show me a picture…dude is beat to hell.
So I have to give a statement. I tell them what happened. They look at me, take a snapshot of my lily-white non-damaged hands (if you beat someone down, you’ll get bruises on your knuckles) and go on their way.
Dude gets in trouble for filing a false claim, as the g/f tells them the exact story I did.
Two years later, I did the one-knee thing. A year after that, we were married…fun times. Source
Dodging A Bullet
When I was 16, I dated a guy who was 18. We weren’t serious or anything. Just fun group-type dates.
One night completely out of the blue, he proposed. I was so shocked I just blurted out, “No.” Then he spent the rest of the date trying to convince me. I told him I was way too young to even think about that.
Next day, a friend says, “Hey, did you hear guy is getting married?” For about 10 seconds I’m completely confused. I know I said no. I said no over and over again. Then friend says, “Yeah, he’s marrying (some random girl I didn’t even know).
Turns out, I was his “public” girlfriend. She was his “private” girlfriend.
As far as I can figure, after I turned him down, he went to ask her.
Dodged a bullet with that one. Source
Serial Husband
I said no. Twice. To the same man. We had only been together a few months, and he’d been married more than a few times before. The first time I said no, he cried and cried and cried, a couple hours later asked again. I again said no. Told him it was too soon. Then I let my mother get in my ear with her “don’t let this one go” bologna. I said yes the third time, on the condition our engagement lasted a year. Him and my mom steamrolled me, and we married a couple months later. I put him on my health insurance, and he had 3 surgeries that he’d put off because he couldn’t afford it, then moved in with our realtor. He was engaged less than 2 weeks later. Our entire marriage lasted 8 months. I hear he’s on wife # 12 now. Source
Downright Crazy
It was my sophomore year of high school, we had been dating for two months. He legitimately asked his mother for his grandmothers wedding ring, and she agreed to give it to him so he could propose. Beautiful ring, crazy family. Source
Anything For Love
She just wanted a green card.
I didnt love her, I did not want to commit a felony, I was too young, and I worried about how much a divorce would cost me.
It was awkward until I walked away and never spoke to her again, afterwards it was a lot less awkward. Source
A Sad Turn Of Events
Believe it or not, it’s actually happened to me multiple times. The first, however, was a guy I’d only known for…maybe three weeks? And who, mind you, I wasn’t even dating.
We were pretty young, both 18, and he was going through a lot of emotional upheaval because his best friend had committed suicide not 6 months before. I felt incredibly bad for him, and turning him down was incredibly awkward despite the obvious whatthefuckery of the fact that he was even asking. I haven’t even spoken to him in over half a decade, and sometimes I wonder where he’s at and if he’s doing any better now. Source
A Text From Hell
My ex contacted me via text a couple of days after Thanksgiving, asking me if we could get married and run away together. When I told him that was a little strange, he lost his mind accusing me of judging him.
And that is why I said no. That is also what made it incredibly awkward. Source
Nothing To Lose
My mom said no to my dad twice. And the third time was just like, “F— it. He’s persistent I’ll give him that. What do I have to lose?”
Had two kids and then divorced and now she hates him and he’s secretly still in love with her.
It’s f—ing weird. Source
Happily Ever After
I didn’t get a “no” exactly. She said, “you’re crazy.” 20 years old, dating just a couple months.
I said yes, but will you marry me anyway? She still thought I was crazy, but married me soon after. 38 years and counting. Source
Arranging Love
I said no to her. She was nice but I had never met her. It was just as weird for her. We were both 18 at the time. Say no to arranged marriage. Glad my parents chilled out after that. Source
All Jokes Aside
I met this guy at my university. We dated for under a year.
He already had a degree & was pursuing another one because his first one didn’t allow him to get a job.
After 2 semesters, he found out he couldn’t pursue that degree anymore. His financial aid ran out, he used too much of it & he’d either have to pay his tuition out of pocket or pay off his debt.
I offered the idea of going into the military to help with his debt & education.
… to set the mood, please picture a crowded pizza place in the afternoon. The man is in front of me, not on his knee, he doesn’t have a ring, and I paid for our pizza. So after I told him about going into the military, he jokingly stated “Yeah, and then we could get married!”
On many many many MANY occasions, he told me he never wanted to get married. So that, plus the whole scene, I thought he was joking. So I said no. (I felt like it would be weirder to say yes to a fake proposal? Like a super crazy thirsty bitch wanting to get married)
Yeah, turns out he wasn’t kidding, at all. Thank god his mom is so nosy otherwise I wouldn’t have known how he really felt. He’s my husband now.
TLDR; I thought he was kidding when he proposed, so I said no. We’re married now. Source
Oh…
I caught my then boyfriend talking to another girl online and confronted him. To prove his love he asked me to marry him, to which I replied “next time you propose to a girl you better be on one knee, have a ring in your hand and you sure as hell need to pronounce her last name right!”
He then attempted suicide and I wrestled the gun out of his hand.
Fun times. Source
What An Apology
I’d been dating a guy for going on two years 17-19, lived with him for basically all of it because my mother moved and I didn’t want to change schools senior year.
At a year and something I discovered he’d been cheating on me for something like 5 months because he’d mentioned to his super skank ex hooker coworker that I didn’t like anal and refused to do it, so her being the loving sympathetic person she was she offered to do it for him.
I didn’t leave him when I found out, stayed for about two months trying to force myself to forgive him but during that time but I couldn’t. He’d spent a majority of our relationship being abusive, also murdered my dog and hid it from me, so this was the icing of the shit cake.
I left him and stayed over at a friends, the next morning he shows up with my journal, he’d written some long winded 3 page apology in it. The last line was “so will you marry me?”
I laughed, a lot, and said something like “are you f—ing kidding me? I’d never marry you.” And went back into my friends house. Source
Awkward…
I dated my high school sweetheart through the first year of college. All through our relationship, he went on and on about how he didn’t believe in marriage and would never get married. Whatever. We were teenagers.
We broke up at the end of Freshman year, but we tried to stay “friends” because I was too young to realize he was just trying to get me back. He brings up marriage and says “I would have married you, you know?” I just said “Okay.” He gets irritated and says “Well?” expectantly. I replied with “Clearly, since I broke up with you, I would not have married you.” It wasn’t until later that I realized, but I’m pretty sure he was asking in some crazy attempt to get back together. He stalked me for another year before I exploded at him. Definitely awkward.Source