Hello, everyone!
So, as of Friday night I am engaged... kinda. I know every girl is supposed to wait for that special romantic proposal where the guy gets on one knee and whips out a gigantic diamond ring, yada yada -- but as Harry says in
When Harry Met Sally "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
Friday night, as my boyfriend was making dinner for us and my visiting family and I was enjoying the odd kind of clarity that comes from a little too much red wine, I realized I couldn't imagine not spending the rest of my life with him. I can't imagine finding anyone else who not only appreciates my quirks and shortcomings but adores me for them. We've been together for 3.5 years, known each other for 4.5 and I feel like he's my crazy matching puzzle piece. So, when everyone else was distracted with the OSU basketball team's atrocious performance, I pulled him into our bedroom and asked him to marry me.
And he said yes. And I asked "For real?" (Remember: tipsy) And he said yes again. In the morning, we woke up together and I knew when I looked at him that it was for real. Eiiik.
So, because this was spur of the moment we've decided to keep it a secret. We've talked marriage before, of course, and he was actually thinking of proposing to me after his college graduation in May. But I'm bad with surprises, so this works best - that way, we can plan things together and I don't freak out. We looked at rings on Saturday then again on Monday and found the one after only three stores (albeit a billion google searches on my part). This is it:
http://www.zales.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4480013&kpc=1It's technically a birthstone ring, but it looks amazing on my finger and it's ridiculously cheap (yay!) so we can actually afford it right now. I've never been big on diamonds (or gemstones in general), but I love pearls and wear them constantly so it makes sense. I also love how small it is because I realllly don't like big rings and can't stand the feeling of anything heavy on my hands/wrists (I barely wear my class ring b/c of this).
Now the big thing is telling people. As much as I love how untraditional we are, the little girl part of me who was raised in fairytale wedding culture still wants a romantic proposal of sorts. I think I'm gonna get it 2 weeks from now when we take a day trip to Niagara Falls which is very yay. The question is, should that not happen... when do we tell everyone?
I know that it's real because we've decided it is, but I feel like nobody else will buy it until I have a ring on my finger. We originally discussed waiting until mid-May when his and my families come to town for his college graduation, but I honestly don't think I can wait that long - I'm terrible with secrets, especially big exciting ones. We've told two close friends, but that's it.
Mostly, I just don't want to get overboard because I know it's going to be a LONG engagement. And I don't want to get stuck with the stigma of being engaged - that is, I don't want that to be the focal point of every conversation. The earliest it'll happen is late 2012, but I'm honestly seeing 2013 as a more reasonable timeframe (and I set my date on here to August 2014 lol). We could wait, of course, but I just want to make it real that we've made this huge decision and commitment... but at the same time, I know a ton of people right now who are planning weddings in the next year, and I don't want to steal their thunder or anything by announcing my engagement now.
So... advice on how to go about this?