This will be a time of heightened emotion and likely come with chaos that surrounds you both. By thinking about this in advance, you may be able to be more present in the moment when the proposal takes place.
Let’s hit the pause button and zoom in on a milestone moment that often gets overlooked: the minutes that follow your engagement. With a little planning, your proposal will be more meaningful and memorable! Here are things to do right after a proposal.
Things to Do After Your Proposal
1. Take a candid photo right after the proposal.
Whether it’s an intimate selfie in the living room with a glass of champagne or a professional photoshoot that your spouse-to-be surprised you with at a beautiful Dallas outdoor location, make sure to capture the moments right after the engagement.
Your enthusiasm will be at an all-time high and it will be an authentic photographic memory to capture in your relationship.
Don't feel like these have to be perfectly posed. Instead, aim to capture the genuine emotions. While photos of getting the engagement ring are incredibly special, it’s often the giddy smiles afterwards that become the priceless frame-worthy photo.
2. Take a deep breath with your fiance.
The next thing to do right after a proposal is to breathe! In the flurry of the surprise and details of the surrounding environment, be intentional about spending a moment with just the two of you.
Since emotions will be scattered right now, focusing on being present will help solidify these memories in your heart and mind.
If your now-fiancé shared romantic words when the question was popped, take some time to reciprocate and share your feelings, too. Talk about the details that surround you to share how the proposal experience feels and what it means to you. Take this time to also show your gratitude, especially since they likely went through some effort to make this special, invested in an engagement ring, and are now choosing to commit to you.
This is a relationship milestone: your role is changing from a girlfriend or boyfriend to a fiancé and spouse-to-be. Depending on the length of your engagement, you may not hold on to these titles for very long.
Don’t let this transition slip away just because you are frantic about spreading the word---let it sink in and allow it to help lead to a deeper connection between you two. At the end of the day, that’s what an engagement is all about.
3. Take time to share your engagement announcement.
After you’ve taken a moment to let things settle down, talk to your fiancé(!) about who you're going to tell and in what order BEFORE it goes on to social media! It’s key to decide who needs to know and if there are any people that you’d prioritize.
For example, if you have an aunt that you want to tell personally but they are the kind of person who would post the news to their own Facebook page, then put them last on the list before you go ‘public’! (And when you think that you’re ready to share the news on social media, go over the list of people who you have told one more time to make sure you didn’t miss anyone!)
You will be so excited that you likely want to tell the world but taking a few extra minutes to come up with a plan together is important.
Take as much time as you both need and make sure you’re both comfortable with what you decide. There is no reason to rush this step and it's one of the most important things to do right after a proposal.
Just get ready: after you share the news, don't be surprised that many will respond with very specific questions! Things that you've had zero time to think about, like "When is the wedding date?" or "Where are you getting married?" or "Who is in your bridal party?"
The truth is that an engagement is an entire season of your courtship so there’s no need for you to rush to find answers to these questions.
It's important to treat your engagement as a new stage in your relationship---not just a period of time that you skip right past before walking down the aisle. And like with any new season, starting it off right is key.
Take the selfie, exhale, tell the people that would most appreciate hearing from you directly and then shout it from the rooftops.
Once you’ve done this, you can enjoy being a fiancé and then get to the best part…planning your big day and all the fun that comes along with that!
[Photoshoot in the spotlight: A + M in Dallas, Texas captured by Jillian.]
Choose Joy,
The Joy Team