When you realize that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you simply can’t wait any longer to get started. Some couples wait years before marriage and commitment.
Some people date for years, and then get engaged for a brief time before whirling in the wedded bliss. The real question – one that perplexes many couples is how do you know when it’s the right time to get engaged?
The very idea of getting engaged is enough to bring on the butterflies – who doesn’t love the starry-eyed romance behind a perfectly executed proposal? It’s more than what the romance movies and books show according to relationship expert Susan Winter.
Marriage or even the idea of engagement is a serious commitment… one that requires communication, compromise, and going with your instincts.
Put a diamond engagement ring on her (or his) finger if you check-off the following:
You Have a Shared Sense of Direction
Getting engaged with the love of your life means someday you’d want to marry and live together. Marriage doesn’t simply mean sharing a joint living space! Marriage means planning your lives around each other. Are you planning to spend your lives together or just your days?
How to know your lives are headed together in the same direction? Close your eyes and think: Where do you both see yourselves in five years? What about ten?
It’s time to get engaged if you have a really clear vision of where your life is headed and where you want it to go, together as a team.
You Are Past That Hazy Dopamine Induced Feeling
It is natural to feel unnaturally happy during the first few weeks of dating. This is the dopamine talking, a feel-happy chemical response in your brain. Dopamine makes us feel overly positive, causing people to wrongfully believe a union has long-term legs.
This natural high begins to wear off after six months to a year, the time when you begin to think clearly. That habit you found cute before may suddenly begin grating on your nerves!
Give time to let the early-stage dopamine haze wear off before deciding to pop the question. Still love her quirkiness and ability to sing badly at 1 a.m. in the shower? Marry her!
Deciding to get engaged or married is a big decision that should be given a lot of time. In the end, go with your gut and make sure you know what you’re getting into. Who knows you may just win at this game called love…
Amaze your sweetheart with an engagement ring worthy of her brilliance and beauty. Solitaire Jewelers offers the largest collection of diamond engagement rings for you to choose from!