Someone ruined the surprise of my hot air balloon proposal, and I can’t stop feeling upset about it

I proposed to my girlfriend early December during a hot air balloon ride. I’d always wondered why she didn’t seem very surprised or extremely happy when I proposed. We’ve been wanting this for a long time. For the most part, things seemed fine, but today, four weeks later, I found out what happened.

While we were waiting for the hot air balloon—ours was private, but there was another group going on a shared balloon—someone in that group made a comment, and my girlfriend overheard them say, “Oh, is that the girl who’s getting proposed to?” Then, apparently, someone from their group actually came up to her and congratulated her before we even got on the balloon.

I didn’t know any of this at the time because I was in the bathroom. She never wanted to tell me, but she finally explained what happened after we were talking about it. I had been worried that maybe she didn’t like the ring or something, but this was the reason.

I feel terrible. It’s like the surprise I worked so hard to plan was taken away from me. I’m so angry that someone would say congratulations to her in that moment—they should have known better. Who does that? We hadn’t even boarded the balloon yet. It feels so thoughtless, maybe even driven by jealousy or some need to interfere. Overhearing a comment is one thing, but actively going up to her and saying congratulations? That just feels so wrong.

Now I’m struggling with how to process this. I planned this moment to be special, and it feels like someone else ruined part of it for us.

————————

————————

Thank you for the kind responses—this has been like therapy for me. I was really spiraling, but I’ve realized I need to change how I view things and take the good with the bad. I was very emotionally charged when I first found out, but things feel clearer now.