[imagesource: Proposal Boutique]

The marriage industrial complex puts a lot of pressure on would-be grooms to pull out all the stops when asking their partner to marry them.

The tradition has evolved over the centuries, and back in the days of old, ancient Greeks would toss apples to women that they wanted to marry.

The engagement ring originated in ancient Rome, was made of iron, and worn on the left middle finger.

For much of human history, marriage proposals as we know them now hardly ever happened. That’s because marriage was more of a legal and financial arrangement than a romantic partnering.

Perhaps accounts for why we now feel like we have to fork out an extreme amount of money for a ring before hiring 300 doves, a hot air balloon and a skywriter to pop the question.

The alternative is trapping your girlfriend in the middle of a bit of tarmac while cars and motorcycles hurtle towards and around her at breakneck speeds. Yes, that happened in Durban.

Moving on to today’s proposal which went horribly wrong, when a man left roughly 20 candles unattended.

Heres Sky News:

A man accidentally set fire to his flat after a romantic gesture he had planned to accompany his proposal to his girlfriend went wrong. Three fire engines were sent to the home above a newsagents in Sheffield on Monday night.

Image: South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue/ Twitter

The man had intended to pop the question to his partner in a room “filled with hundreds of tea lights”, balloons and a bottle of wine, according to South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

Not his best work, then.

I’ll give you a tip for free if you’re planning to propose soon – try not to burn down the house and all of your combined possessions. It’s not a great way to start the next chapter of your lives together.

The man apparently left the candles burning while he went off to fetch his girlfriend from work. When they returned to the apartment it was on fire.

He and his girlfriend managed to escape the blaze unharmed – before he instead asked for her hand in marriage outside his smouldering flat.

The fire service described the events in a series of tweets, poking fun at the ill-advised proposal.

THREAD: Look closely. What do you see? That’s right, hundreds of tea light candles! 🕯️

Want to know what happened here? We thought you did. It involves a romantic proposal that didn’t quite go to plan, and includes an important lesson around candle use.

Lets go! ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/p8aU6pQAUF

— South Yorkshire Fire (@SYFR) August 4, 2020

Oh, and I’m sure you’re all wondering how the actual proposal went.

She said ‘yes’.

At least in that sense, all’s well that ends well.

[source:skynews]