It’s every guy’s worst nightmare. He gets on bended knee, pops the question, presents the ring… and she says no! Unfortunately, for these Reddit gentlemen, this became reality and we’ve shared some of the reasons why!

“The ring wasn’t big enough. I had saved for months and we had talked about it. I had set up a date night and went to one of the more expensive restaurants. Suit and tie kinda place. When I got down on one knee I could see her eyes light up but when I said my piece and opened the box her whole demeanour changed then she asked if we could ‘do this somewhere else’. Most embarrassing moment of my life. We broke up shortly after.” – Imfamous-

I turned someone down. To be fair, it wasn’t a romantic “I’m so in love with you” down on one knee proposal. It was more of a “next week let’s go to the court house” thing. He needed health insurance, he knew I wouldn’t live with anyone if I wasn’t married so I think it all seemed very practical to him. He really, truly thought I would be stoked. I was not. Needless to say, there wasn’t much of a relationship after I told him that yes, I did want to get married– just not to him.” – missallis

I had an ex “propose” as a joke when really drunk. He was just doing it to be a dick. I think he found amusement in the idea of being the first to propose to me so that when someone did it for real it would sullied in some way?” – beccaonice

My dad had to propose multiple times to my mum before she said yes. Something about them being too young when he first asked. They’ve been married for over 25 years now though :)” – gallifreyfields

My wife’s grandfather proposed to her grandmother 4 times. The first three times was that same answer, “You’re not going to marry me, go to war, die, and leave me a widow. Come back from the war and we’ll get married.” This was during WWII” – urchant

“My ex proposed to me one new years eve, and I said no. Well, kind of. I didn’t let him get it out, just stopped him half way through. We’d been together for six years, but there were a few reasons for saying no -1. He was incredibly drunk. 2. I’m a pretty private person, and he asked me in the middle of a crowd of people (while watching fireworks). Luckily for both of us no one was paying attention. 3. He had asked my father for permission first, something I found incredibly disrespectful to me (and he was aware that this would be the case). and 4. But the main reason was that we had previously discussed marriage, and I had told him that I don’t wish to get married at all. He acted like this was fine, and like he agreed. But turns out he was just hoping I’d change my mind. We did stay together after that, but broke up three years later for unrelated reasons.” – Pondglow