How not to propose

Some men feel great pressure to come up with the perfect proposal- romantic moonlight dinners, on top of the Eiffel Tower, or on some far-flung beach.

A Londoner thought he had come up with the most romantic idea ever to ask his girlfriend to marry him: he put the diamond ring, worth 12,000 dollars, into a helium balloon which she could pop with a pin.

Unfortunately, helium balloons float.

A gust of wind blew the balloon out of his hand as he left the florist, and the baloon sailed off into the sky. After chasing the balloon for over two hours, he had to give it up for lost.

"I couldn't believe it," he told The Sun newspaper.

"I just watched as it went further and further into the air.

"I felt like such a plonker. It cost a fortune and I knew my girlfriend would kill me."

He immediately knew his girlfriend was going to be very angry at him when he told her what happened to her engagement ring, and he was right. She has reportedly stopped talking to him until he replaces her ring and finds another way of giving her the ultimate proposal.

The florist said "I thought he was taking a risk. I said, ‘I hope you hold on to it.'"