I don’t know why people don’t take the “Chashash Kidushin” more seriously. Would you play with a light switch on Shabbos? Of course not. Kiddushin is 1,000,000 times more serious. If you are proposing, stay away from the ring or anything that remotely looks like you are making a real kidushin. Please, don’t mess up, the ramifications could be for generations.
About that story, yes it’s true, it happened MANY years ago, and I think it was Rav Moshe Z”TL who paskened that the boy has to give her a get to remove all Chashoshos.
Boys, if your man enough to get married, then “man up,” and ask the question, “Will you marry me?” You can get videos and get the waiters to do all types of things and spend lots of money, but you’re not a man unless you ask it yourself.