Posts Tagged ‘engagement’

Shhhh….we’re engaged…

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Maybe I’m spoiled.  I spend a good amount of time online sharing my personal whims, wishes, and general business to all who choose to read it.  Maybe I’m just trying to keep up with the internet Jones’.  Maybe I just like to talk.

Where am I going with all this?  Recently a friend of mine told me he was getting engaged.  Well this isn’t entirely true. A bystander asked him if he was married and he let slip, “Funny you should ask, – I’m actually going to propose tomorrow.”

He said this as though he was ordering a burger, hold the cheese with extra fries.  It didn’t seem like a big deal when he said it and to be honest, my perception was that it wasn’t a big deal to him.  I can understand maybe he didn’t want to make it seem like too much of a big deal because he was nervous or excited or thought she might say no, but as a good friend of his and of this soon to be engaged couple, I would have expected a bit more, shall we say, enthusiasm?

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised then when she, the new fiancé didn’t even call the next day to announce the good news! I got a text message.  And only after I probed a bit to learn more.

Are we not as good a friends as I once thought? Were they not entirely enamored by one another and happy to share the news? Are they just taking this moment as one to share between the two of them?  Albeit annoyed, I respect their privacy, even though I wanted to celebrate for them by showering them with champagne and well-wishes, it made me think. How do most couples share their engagement news?

My hubby proposed at 2:00 a.m.m after a late flight home from a business trip.  We called everyone we knew who would answer their phone to shout out our excitement.  But maybe we’re different – to each their own, I always say.

So spill it – how’d you spread the news to your friends and family? Email? Text? Phone call?

set aside some non wedding planning time!

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Since I’ve started this gig as blogger for NCE I’ve been toting around my blackberry like an extra appendage. Don’t get me wrong, I love being connected, the world wide web at my manicured fingertips and all that jazz. But there was a time the other night, in the middle of my favorite TV show, that my hubby, lovingly though it may have been, put his hand on my pecking thumbs and said, “Ok, put it down. We need some non-blackberry time.”

Wide-eyed and embarrased, like I’d been caught stealing cookies, I said, “What? I didn’t hear you.”. Uh oh.

So, this whole scenario took me right back to wedding planning days when I was, well, you could say I was obsessed with planning our nuptials. These were pre-blackberry days, thankfully, and I was more obsesseed with spreadsheets, to do lists and the like than I was about my new fiance. I quickly learned, however, how important the “engagement” period is to your new lives together. Planning your wedding is an amazing experience that helps you grow closer with friends and family involved. But it can also be incredibly stressful and all consuming if you let it.

That said, my advice to all you blushing brides out there is this: set aside some precious time with your fiance where wedding talk is prohibited. Allow yourself some time to enjoy being engaged without the stress of linens, colors, flowers and invitations. You’ll miss these days when you’re an old married woman like me.

I’m kidding. I’m not old-yet. But I am married.