Planning the perfect proposal takes work and creativity, and guys don’t always get enough credit for pulling them off. The most important thing to do is make it memorable, which some guys do by making the moment special and romantic, and others do by setting up examples never to be tried again.

Martina James is a wedding planner in Minneapolis, and one of her favorite parts of the job is to hear the proposal stories. Through 20 years in the business, she has heard countless lovey-dovey, sweet stories, but also remembers a few memorable mishaps.

Don’t eat it up

“If I know a guy that’s about to propose, I always tell him, never put it in anything edible,” James said.

She said she has heard a few stories where girls have not noticed or accidentally thrown away a ring because their boyfriends hid it somewhere in their food or drink. She also recalled the proposal story of Reed Harris and Kaitlin Whipple, who were featured on NBC’s Today Show after Whipple accidentally swallowed her ring, which was hidden in a Wendy’s Frosty^TM milkshake. She remembers Reed saying how instead of dropping to one knee and popping the question, he had to pull Whipple away and explain that she had swallowed her own engagement ring.

 

Lost and found

One of her past clients told her that he had hid his bride’s ring in a champagne glass at her office Christmas party. His girlfriend set down her glass during the party without noticing the ring and forgot to pick it up again when they went to their seats. James said the couple had to spend the rest of the night searching for the right glass that had the ring in it.

“You definitely don’t want the first thing to do as an engaged couple to be trying to figure out how to get the ring back,” James said.

 

Avoid heights

“Girls have a tendency to jump around and freak out when getting proposed to, so it’s best to avoid proposing from some sort of ledge or tall area,” James said.

 

She recalled an example of a couple that lost the ring after he proposed in a tree house they both enjoyed as children. James said the bride threw her hands up, knocking the ring out of the groom’s hands and the ring fell to the grass below. After hours of searching, they finally found it and he re-proposed from the ground.

“Another groom I worked with proposed at the top of a Ferris wheel and he was so nervous that he dropped the ring and it fell to the cart below them,” James said. “He had to wait until the wheel stopped spinning and the couple got off to find the right cart to retrieve the ring.”

 

When considering all the different elements that can go wrong, James admits the proposal can seem even more intimidating to guys.

“If guys have a good idea that they love, they should of course go with it,” James said. “It’s just important to think the event out and be prepared for anything, which is good preparation for marriage anyway.”