Hi ladies!! I guess what I am asking is can I tell people that I am getting married or not? We have picked out the ring, and he is paying on it now. I'm not exactly sure the date he is getting it for me, but I do know that it will be before Christmas. Presumably around Thanksgiving. We talk about everything so I pretty much know these things to a certain extent. He gave me the ok to start planning as we want our wedding to be in Sept of 2011.
So can I tell people we're engaged and actually start the wedding process so I can have the extra time to plan? Or do I wait on the actual ring, and just hope I can plan it in a little less than a year?
Re: NEY or... Am I??
Whether you tell people and start planning is really up to your fiance and yourself. Whatever you feel comfortable with.
Most guys prefer to propose before they consider themselves engaged. Not all, but most, and it doesn't sound like your guy actually has yet. So don't tell anyone anything until you have asked him.
On another note, weddings can be planned in less than a year very easily. There are women on here that have planned beautiful weddings in 8 months or less.The idea that it MUST take longer is due to wedding industry hype so that you'll buy more.
[QUOTE]thanks ladie!!
Posted by coastiegrl25[/QUOTE]
Wow... one who actually listens, AND thanks us? Impressive!
Basically if you're both on the same page about getting married some day, even in the somewhat near future, and even start talking about general ideas, then that's a serious relationship. There's no need to start calling it something it isn't. Most people don't just suddenly get proposed to out of the blue and THEN start talking about getting married - now a days, it's common for the couple to discuss marriage and weddings at length, and even look at rings together, before actually getting engaged.
Now, if you BOTH decide you're actually ready to plan the wedding and actually ready to get married in the not-too-distant future, then talk to him about it. Ask him if he wants to get engaged at some point soon, and discuss how you both see it - if he wants to propose, if you want a ring, how long of an engagement you want before getting married, hypothetically what time of year you might want to get married. If he wants to propose, then you're not engaged yet. But if you both decide you want to go ahead with making firm plans, putting down deposits, and plan on getting married in the not-too-distant future, then decide together if you just want to be engaged without a ring or proposal.
(Oh, and btw, by "not-too-distant-future", I mean not an open ended, "we'll plan it in 3 years when we graduate college" kind of way, because in that case you should probably just wait to get engaged - engagement is the process of planning to get married - if a couple just want to show their commitment at that young age, get a promise ring instead).
Congrats either way! It sounds like you've got a man who you'll probably end up marrying, and engaged or not, that's a pretty awesome thing!
<img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-laughing.gif" border="0" alt="Laughing" title="Laughing" />
For what it's worth, I'm not opposed to arranged marriages. I think it's great that you ultimately do get the last word (if I understand it correctly?) and get to date to make sure it's right for you. I've known several couples in arranged marriages who are very happy - I started to look at it simply as parents (instead of Match.com) being the matchmaker, not some forced situation as it often is perceived to be. It has a rather bad reputation in the US, but as long as you're happy about it, congratulations!
But I do think that's a totally different situation than the average American wedding - for you, it's more okay to start seriously planning a wedding in my opinion. For everyone else, putting any money down or starting to actually try on dresses or check out venues is too far.
Anyway, that sounds really interesting. I'd like to hear more about your marriage and stuff when you guys are engaged. I've never "met" anyone who was set up in an arranged marriage.