What would you do if your partner proposed to you in a public setting, followed it up with an instant wedding ceremony so you could spend together forever right then and there, and then sprung it on you that the whole thing was fake while laughing at you?
Would you think the relationship could be repaired, or would you kick them to the curb over choosing to humiliate you like that?
This 25-year-old woman has been with her 26-year-old boyfriend for just less than a year, and overall, everything has been amazing in their relationship.
They do live with one another, they have a pet cat, and they have spent time with one another’s families. They have also been discussing marriage and the future in a pragmatic, sensible way.
So far, she and her boyfriend have been on the same page about wanting to get married and doing this the right way when it does come up for them.
She never pushes or badgers her boyfriend about marriage, but she’s been thrilled about getting to walk down the aisle one day and tie the knot with him.
Anyway, over the weekend, her boyfriend planned a fun date for them. They went out to have dinner and afterwards, visited an interactive museum in Los Angeles.
“Toward the end of the museum tour, a staff member told us to meet him down the hall in about 10 minutes. I asked my boyfriend what it was for, and he wouldn’t tell me,” she explained.
“When we got there, the staff member was dressed like an officiant and asked if we wanted to get married right now. I was completely shocked.”
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“My boyfriend got down on one knee, gave me a ring, and told me I was, without a doubt, the person he wanted to be with. He said he had even spoken to my dad and gotten his permission.”
She questioned her boyfriend several times about whether he truly meant it, and he reassured her that he was serious. She did believe that he was being honest with her, because she didn’t have a reason to think otherwise.
Inside the museum, they did the whole marriage ceremony after he proposed. They said their vows, including the whole ‘I do’ part. There was an officiant present, who provided them with the paperwork.
Her boyfriend mentioned that they would need to drop the papers off at their local courthouse on Monday when they got off from work.
When they were all finished, she once more wanted to know if that was real, and her boyfriend laughed in her face and called her naive.
She burst into tears and proceeded to cry the whole way home in the car. She was deeply humiliated, and she felt like a fool for thinking her boyfriend was serious.
Apparently, the museum offers that marriage package as an adorable add-on to your visit, but why on earth her boyfriend thought this was a funny joke is beyond her.
“I know to some people this situation might sound obviously fake or kitschy, but to me it didn’t feel that way in the moment. I trusted my partner, and he reassured me repeatedly that it was real,” she said.
“I told him how embarrassed and hurt I felt. He says he feels bad, but also says it was ‘real to him,’ which honestly just confuses and hurts me more.”
“I can’t stop crying when I think about it, and now I’m scared that if he ever actually proposes, I won’t be able to trust that it’s real. I don’t know if I’m overreacting, but this feels like something you shouldn’t joke about.”
If this were my life, I would dump this guy so fast it wouldn’t even be funny. There is nothing hilarious or light-hearted about a man faking a proposal and a wedding ceremony in a public setting. In fact, it’s diabolically cruel.
This is psychotic-level behavior in my opinion. I would rather be alone than be with a guy like this!
What advice do you have for her? Can a relationship truly recover from a prank that targets the most vulnerable part of a woman’s heart?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
