Curious about proposal length

[Anonymous]

My FI and I set a date for a little over a year (15 months) from our engagement date because it''s an ideal time for us, but I''m curious about what other people''s engagement lengths are and their reasons for it.

For us, it''s waiting for good weather and kids to be out of school, plus time to save money and allow family to get their plane tickets, etc. (or we''d probably do it this year even though it''d be a flurry of preparations). We also want to have a family vacation with the kids (2 girls from my previous marriage) and spend the 4th of July there.

Anyone else care to share?

 

[Miya03]

We have 9 months, but our planning had to do with school and graduation (we wanted to get married before everyone scattered!) I think it''s more than enough time to plan a wedding, but obviously everyone''s schedule and timeline is different.

 

[Amanda.Rx]

Our engagement was 14 months and it was perfect. We''re 2 weeks away from the wedding and I''m not hardly stressed at all! Everything''s pretty much done- just fun details left.

 

[Haven]

Our engagement was about 10 months long. I''m a teacher, so we wanted to get married during my summer vacation.

It was a nice amount of time--long enough to plan everything but not so long that I started to obsess over anything.

 

[caribqueen]

Our engagement will be about 13 1/2 months. I initially wanted a fall wedding, but since my FI proposed during the Spring season, it was either get married in 6 months or wait 18 months. At the time, my FI was also teaching at University level so we decided to stick to summer months. Also, because of how the economy was last year, we were able to negotiate for just about everything despite the fact that we''re having a June wedding. I''m happy with our decision.

 

[PumpkinPie]

our engagement was 6 weeks long.. but it was all fairly spontaneous

 

[SAPHIRINA]

Our engagement is 9 months, we set the date for October 28, 2010. We wanted to get married this year, but both didn''t want a summer wedding. Also, we wanted to come back from our honeymoon before Thanksgiving. So, October seemed perfect, as it gave us plenty of time to plan the wedding and get married before major holidays.

 

[sonnyjane]

From when we decided to get married, it was about nine months, but from the time I actually had a ring on my finger, it was only two months. We're a military family, so we decided we wanted to get married soon (were already living together), he deployed for 7 months, he gave me the ring when he got home, and then we got married two months later, but the wedding was already completely planned before I had a ring, so it was a bit unconventional.

 

[ladypirate]

Our engagement will end up being 13 and a half months. Certainly plenty of time to plan, but not so long we started to get antsy.

 

[Treasure43]

Our engagement will be exactly 14 months And 28 months from the day he asked me to be his girlfriend (he proposed on our 14 month anniversary). For us, we wanted enough time to plan and save up money. Plus we also wanted it to be in September when it''s not to cool or too warm.

It seemed like it would be forever but I''m glad I''ve had enough time to plan and not feel stressed!

 

[FrekeChild]

One year and twenty one days.

I wanted to have graduated (did so 21 days before the wedding--hah! On the one year anniversary of our engagement!) and I wanted a fall or winter wedding. Partially because I didn't want a spring or summer wedding (too typical) and partially because my husband is in academia, so it was either summer, spring break, or winter break. Fall break could have been in the running if it was longer than three days...

 

[Iowa Lizzy]

We''ll get married on July 3rd. Exactly one year and one day after we got engaged. I always told FI I wanted to get married around the 4th of July because it''s my favorite holiday and I always wanted a year long engagement. He took it all very literal.

 

[Prana]

13.5 months. We planned to get married around late May/June so that we could go to Alaska for our honeymoon. But now, we are not going on a honeymoon because FI will be in police academy! We will do our honeymoon on our year anniversary. Nothing like hanging on the the wedding excitement for another year!

 

[missy]

Our proposal length was 10 months mainly because I needed time to get used to the idea though my dh wanted to get married the week after the proposal LOL
Another reason though I chose 10 months was because that would make it (almost) exactly the 5 year anniversary of our first date! Nov 12th 1999 was our first date and we planned the wedding to be Saturday night Nov 13th 2004

Turns out we planned the big wedding (it was no problem at all) but ended up eloping 3 months before the big wedding at city hall because I was ready already

We still had the big wedding 3 months later and love that we got married twice

(though my parents and sister were not happy that we eloped 3 months before the planned wedding date)

 

[monkeyprincess]

Just over seven months for us. We''ll be married in early August. And it can''t come soon enough! We almost chose a date in June because we''re so ready to be married and live together, but August is what we chose because my current job will end at the end of July, and I''ll have a month off before I start my new job.

 

[ArtistJess]

ours was 15 months

we got engaged last february 14th and we''re getting married this may 15th. can''t believe there is only a little over a month left!

 

[nicoleanne]

We are having a six month long engagement. I didn''t want to get married during the school year (I''m a teacher) and a year out would have put us in Lent (which is a time the Church discourages weddings). Plus, we wanted to be married sooner. Our date lets me have a month off of school to prepare wedding details, have a week honeymoon after, and still have a couple weeks to gear up for the new school year.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Ours will be 9 months. I got engaged during Christmas and I wanted to get married in wine country. I wanted some time to plan, but didn''t also didn''t want to get married in winter (there are no leaves on the grapevines than). I like the 9 month time. Enough time to plan, but not so far away that I put things off.

 

[Cupcake*Muffin]

Ours is 14 months since we got engaged pretty quickly, about 5 months in. And also we are paying for everything so we had to have enough time to save. Lastly, FI works in education and he is also going to school for his Masters so we had to find a date between when the high school ends and when the graduate school starts.

 

[sba771]

We will be hitting the 2 year mark in 3 weeks and it will be 2 years and 9 months when we get married. I am very patient. We got engaged and then 4 months later had to move to Europe for 2 years. We thought we would be here until September 2010 so our wedding is January 2011. It turns out I get to go home July 1st so we could have gotten married sooner, but it is too late now and now we have the summer to do other stuff.

 

[Deelight]

One year and 10 months I origingally wanted a 2 yr engagement however the date we picked suited the weather and everything better for us - I thought I would have more time to plan as it has happened I am leaving everything to the last minute LOL but I have enjoyed haveing that just engaged time which is great

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We were engaged for 7 months. He proposed in February and I wanted a fall wedding, but didn''t want to wait until the following fall. Seven months was a bit long for me--I wasn''t planning anything big or fancy. The only I did in the first few months is have DH choose and book a venue, then I got my dress. Everything else waited until a few months beforehand and I didn''t feel any stress at all.

 

[MagsyMay]

About 15 months for us. Proposal at end of May last year, wedding in early September. I wanted a September wedding, and we moved out of state and had some job changes and other things going on that didn''t allow us to book a venue immediately after the engagement.

 

[turboflgrl]

Ours will be 13.5 months by the time we are married next March. We chose to do that because I''ve always wanted to enjoy being engaged - I''ve wanted a year long engagement for as long as I remember. Just a personal choice I guess. Other than that, I''ve planned to DIY a lot of decor as well as the paper goods and I wanted enough time to be able to do it right and not rush through things. More time has really equated to much less stress for me.

 

[princessplease]

Our engagement will be 16 months when all said and done. IMO, it''s been WAY too long. I originally wanted to get married this past March, but weather here in the Northeast is still iffy, and I didn''t want to marry while in school. April is me and FI''s birthday month, May, we have 4 family birthdays and SIL''s wedding anniversary month, June, weather can be iffy, so we kind of stumbled on July, lol.

 

[AustenNut]

It will be 9 months for us. We're both teachers so the school calendar definitely affected us. It was either summer, Thanksgiving, or Christmas (we didn't have the same spring break this year). But my fiance's lease runs out in October, so it was pretty pointless to marry before then. So we're getting married the weekend before Thanksgiving so we'll have some time off and will be able to see family, and then are going on our "real" honeymoon a month later over the Christmas holidays.

I had told him that I would need at least 6 months to plan, but always thought that I would need 1 year to plan based on wedding magazines and other things I had read pre-engagement. But now I think it can totally be done in significantly less time. I could be getting married in 2 months (for a 4 month total engagement) and still be ready. But like NEL, I'm not having a complicated wedding. Of course, we'll see if I'm still saying this when our actual wedding day gets closer.

 

[elrohwen]

DH and I knew we wanted to get married in the fall, around September, and I told him I needed at least a full year to plan. Not that planning is that hard, but we live near NYC and I figured venues and things would start filling up quickly. I was probably only actively planning for about 4 months of that time, so I had long breaks. But that was good for me - I hated wedding planning and I think having to do it all at once would've been overwhelming. It was nice to do some of it, then take a break for 5 months, then do some more. I had plenty of time to procrastinate and still get things done.

We got the stone in November of 2007 - it was an heirloom and his mom gave it to us in its current setting. We waited to have it set until maybe April or May of 2008 and he proposed in June 2008. So our engagement was more around 15.5 months than 12, but it didn't really matter. I ended up with more than a full year to plan, but I don't think that made us antsy or anything. At leats not any more antsy than we would've been if we had a 6 month engagement or something.

 

[Mrs.SE]

Originally we discussed we were both good with a longer engagement as we wanted a fall wedding - so we were thinking Oct 2011 which would''ve been 19 month engagement. He proposed March 22nd and it''s been almost 2 weeks now. Well I just came home one night out of no where and realized I didn''t want to wait almost 2 years to marry him. It took him by surprise, but when I looked at him and said we''ve spent 12 years apart and we have all these things we want to do with our lives together (ie 2nd marriage for both of us, blended family of his 2 kids, my 1, Our 2 houses/households we''re going to have to combine, we want a child together, a reverse vasectomy first, all of these things that each take a step before the next can be done), why do we need 2 years to get started when we can do it this fall? After a moment, he said - call the venue tomorrow and check for dates. We made an apt. last Thursday and fell in love with the charming vintage chapel that had a Saturday open of November 6th - now I'' have 7 months to plan the rest

 

[purselover]

We had originally planned an 11 month engagement but after the first weeks of trying to plan a wedding I was so fed up with dealing with DH's family we moved it up. We ended up with a 6 month engagement.

ETA: I'll explain a bit more, DH is in school so we already had limited options - Christmas, spring break, end of May - the weather's still iffy in March so we wanted to do outdoors in May but his family hated that idea incase it interfered with his cousin's first communion. (which didn't even have a date picked!) After some heated debate I threw my hands in the air and said fine "we won't get married in May, let's do it in December -but it has to be this December because I can't deal with this for the next year and a half."

 

[sunnyd]

Ours was 11 months, and it was perfect for us!