Weddingbee boards

I still have never had a proposal, but the wedding is next week.  It was more of an on going joint discussion.

I never really considered myself "waiting" either.  When he proposed, I'd been out of college for less than a year and had just gotten my first "real" job, so though we'd been together for 4 years, we were just starting our adult lives together where we worked the same schedule. 

I feel like our families and friends were waiting for a proposal more than I was with how much they'd ask me about it!

I didn't go through the whole "waiting" thing, either. 

It upsets me sometimes to read the waiting boards because I get the impression that some (not all) of those women have the impression that waiting for years on end is the human condition and that there's no such thing as a marriage-minded man.

We dated for 2 years and 4 months before getting engaged, but it was something we always spoke openly about,  so I never "waited". This isn't to say that we were on the same page from the very beginning, but we were both comfortable having frequent conversations about the future (and we enjoyed these conversations, it wasn't like "honey, we need to talk"). So eventually we synced up our timelines and both knew approximately when the engagement would happen. 

I wasn't ever really waiting either. I knew FI was looking at rings, but he's usually very frugal and takes his time finding the best deal on things and he actually moved very fast. I think I found out he was looking at rings like a month or so before he actually proposed so in my head he hadn't even bought one yet. We also weren't living together (different states) at the time so there wasn't ever any suspicious activity that I would have noticed.

I think that officially, I *was* waiting, but I didn't feel like I was. 

I started reading wedding blogs well before we got engaged, and I was starting to collect stuff for the wedding pre-engagment (primarily blue Ball jars), and I started looking at wedding dresses online. All this started about a year or two before we got engaged (I can't actually remember... I know it was over the summer, and it was either between junior and senior year of college or senior year and first year of grad school.) 

But, either way, I was *technically* waiting. I just didn't feel like i was. I knew that we would get married eventually, and I didn't really feel like I was in a rush. I was more than happy to wait until FI proposed on his own. 

FI actually brought up the idea of me looking at rings, and even surprised me one day by taking me to go look with him. 

I knew then that it was coming, but I didn't really get that anxious about it. I just kept doing what I had been doing- looking at blogs, collecting ideas. 

I think that knowing it's coming helps- there was no question that FI wanted to marry me, so I didn't feel the need to stress about it. 

I wasn't ever waiting. We were in an LDR in college and he was the one who was always bringing up marriage, he also didn't want to get engaged until we lived in the same city. Turns out he proposed the day I flew out to bring him home after he graduated ... the first possible day on his timeline :)

My FI and I were together for eight months and then broke up. In those eight months, I could say I was waiting. I felt like we were very in love and I told him that that's what I wanted, and he said the same.  Just not for a few years, which bugged me.

Our breakup was based on him waffling about us and I with him. When we talk about it now, he honestly says that he was scared to commit because he had been very hurt in the past by his ex-wife.

We did not speak for six months and I did my fair share of dating. I became rather fed up with the whole marriage idea.  Sure, I still watched the shows and believed it would happen, but I became far less aware and wanting.

My FI began a campaign to get back my affections and I was very cautious for the longest time. But he proved himself again and again to be ready for the commitment. He wanted us to be together for a long time. But I was through with mentioning marriage by that point.

I began working with him at his jewelry store. He works with his parents and I was downstairs simply admiring a gorgeous ring in the window that was just so me. His mother was there at the time and she said it was beautiful too. I didn't plan on asking him about it or even bringing it up to him. I just knew that that was the kind of ring I wanted. Whenever we were ready.

Little did I know, FI had heard the whole thing and put it aside. And made it seem like it was sold and gone forever.

A month later he proposed to me with that very ring and I was SHOCKED.I had totally forgot about marriage. I was at this point, not even waiting. In fact, I kept teasing that I DIDN'T want to marry him, no way no how.

I believe that when I stopped waiting and just went with the flow, life became so much easier and more fun. And in time, he came to his own conclusions. And we are very happy :)