This guy spent $45,000 on a marriage proposal

It's enough to make the average $28,427 wedding bill appear anemic.

Josh Ogle, who runs an advertising company called Fresh Spin Ads, wrote on Reddit that he recently spent $45,000 in popping the question to girlfriend Nataliya Lavryshyn, including a $21,000 custom-made ring and a $13,000 "engagement honeymoon" to Greece and France.

His reason? "I really wanted her to be wowed and to have a story to tell, something that starts off our official time together and to be able to tell our kids," Ogle told the New York Post.

Ogle also hired a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, spent $3,500 on a "proposal planner" and paid for a professional story writer, according to the Post. (His girlfriend said yes, by the way.)

While Ogle is an extreme example of the trend, more men are spending big bucks while on bended knee, not content any longer for a simple dinner-and-a-questio​n proposal. 

Sarah Pease at Brilliant Event Planning, who planned Ogle's proposal, told the Post she now spends more time planning proposals than weddings. Men "usually have a budget of about $5,000 all the way up to $50,000," she said. 

It's also de rigueur these days to videotape your proposal, especially if it involves elaborate choreography, with some posted to video sites and going viral. 

Not everyone thinks the money is well spent, however. Ogle said he wrote the "ask me anything" entry on Reddit in an effort to defend himself. "Largely because of the tone of the articles/interview, the vitriol in the comments on their websites is astounding," Ogle wrote on Reddit. "If I spent that much on a proposal it must mean that my penis is very small, I'm a 'trust fund' kid, I lack any semblance of frugality, or that I'm 'stupid.'"

He said none of those charges are true. But if Ogle was hoping for a pat on the back from Reddit readers, he was likely disappointed. 

"It is not that people are upset with you, it has to do with the large number of people unemployed that see $45,000 dollars as a game changer for them," one reader wrote. 

Another pointed out: "I have no sympathy for you, you don't need any. The media is not particularly misrepresenting you. There's a lot of folks who have real media troubles. You aren't one."

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