Which part of this sentence sounds craziest to you: A California couple recently got engaged while skydiving from a height of 12,500 feet, only to have disaster strike when the groom-to-be dropped the ring… or did he? Initially, I was going to go with “all of it” — the exact words running through my head were “Why? Why would anyone think it would be a good idea to pretend to drop the ring while you’re proposing to your future wife WHILE YOU’RE FREEFALLING THROUGH THE AIR?” — but after sitting with the story for a few minutes, I’m actually most baffled by the “or did he?” bit.
According to Metro, firefighter Brandon Strohbehn popped the question to his girlfriend of a year and a half, Nicole, while they were freefalling through the air in a tandem skydive. As Strohbehn pulled out the ring, however, he fumbled the box, sending it sailing to the ground, never to be seen again. It’s a good thing it wasn’t the actual ring, wasn’t it? Strohbehn had apparently instructed the couples’ friends and family to meet them on the ground in San Diego, at which point he retrieved the real ring from his brother, dropped to one knee, and made the actual proposal. There’s a video, of course, so here — have a watch:
Okay, so I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy being proposed to while in the middle of a dive, but it makes perfect sense for this particular couple; they’re skydiving veterans, with a whopping 224 airborne adventures between them. That’s kind of cool, and it makes the proposal very uniquely them. I do have to say, though, that I don’t really understand marriage proposals that incorporate pranks unless the couple has a tradition of pranking each other. Sure, it’s possible that these two both like to skydive and play tricks on each other — but Strohbehn isn’t the only person to have played a prank on his or her would-be spouse while asking her to marry him.
Among them, there’s this guy, who pretended to drop his great-grandmother’s ring in the water:
And this guy, who pretended to fall off a building:
I just… don’t understand the point of it. Yes, a well-executed prank will likely make the occasion incredibly memorable… but do you really want the most notable thing about your proposal being the fact that you almost gave your fiancé(e) a heart attack while popping the question?
Ah well. Maybe I’m just being a big ol’ stick in the mud. In any event, congratulations to the happy couple; may you have many more skydives together in the future.
Image: Barcroft TV/YouTube
