Waiting...

The first time I heard the term "waiting" was when my engaged best friend referred to me as a "waiting girl" in an email. My fiance read it, and cracked up, laughing hysterically and saying, ”Only girls would have something like this.” And he’s right! Maybe we are crazy, but there does come a point when you know the ring is imminent, but it’s still not here. Waiting is one of the most exciting, but also agonizing, times, and it's nice to have a community of girls to share that with (Weddingbee, I'm looking at you). You’re dying to get engaged, you’ve allowed yourself to start looking at blogs, maybe sneaking a magazine or two, and you feel like it’s coming, yet it’s not here yet and you don’t know when it will be. My waiting period was maybe four months, only two of which really felt agonizingly long:

July

My best friend and her fiancé get engaged, which I think starts to subconsciously put the wheels in motion (Thanks Matt!)

August

For my 24^th birthday, he gave me a David Yurman diamond ring, and promised to propose within the year. He then took me ring shopping to try on the Tacori I’d been drooling over.  And it was as awesome in person as it looked in the magazines! But it still didn’t feel that real- I don’t think that he told his parents we had done that, and I knew that even if we were looking, an actual engagement was still very far off. Although I did take this month as an opportunity to present him with a businesslike bulleted 5 point plan on why he should propose by Christmas (it was funny, I swear!)

Always thought promise rings were corny till I got one...haha (Source)

September

Well, now his parents know. He tells me that they had some family friends over for dinner, who asked when he was moving to the city where he works. He told them he was going to wait until I moved out so he could move with me. His mother reminded him that she knew I didn’t want to live together before we were married. So he took that opportunity to say, “Well maybe we will be married soon.”

Soon after that, his mother starts saying little things about things we’ll need when we live together, and starts more sentences with, “When you two are married…”

October

Drunken confessions begin!! It takes little more than two Coronas for the words to slip out. First I hear he’s discussing diamonds with his coworkers. Then I hear he’s asked my best friend’s fiancé for jeweler information.

Only took two of these bad boys to get some choice info! Source

November

At this point, I am told it will be before Christmas. Unfortunately, I’m told this much too early (Christmas is still 8 weeks away, is my proposal 2 weeks away or 8 weeks?!) and I cannot stop bothering him. Since I know it’s coming, I’m not afraid of scaring him off, and I (annoyingly) press him for information. Constantly. Whoops. I kept thinking everything was a sign that it was about to happen- he left work early one random Wednesday? Well obviously  he was proposing (he wasn't). He had to "run errands" with his dad? Yeah right, he was obviously going to pick up my ring (again, wrong. Really just running errands). There may have been a temper tantrum or two. I’m not proud of it, but I’m aiming to be honest here. It sucks, and it’s hard to wait, especially when it feels so close.

December

The proposal! December 10, 2010! One of the most exciting days of my life, with a story to come soon!