Have you thought about celebrating your proposal ? We've been giving you yours all week, because a couple of days ago a good friend called us to tell us, all excited, that she had gotten engaged !
We spent an hour on the phone explaining all the details of how the events had happened minute by minute. The occasion deserved it and we wanted details and clues about how the event had occurred.
We wanted to know if there was a rock or not, if the aforementioned had knelt on the ground, how many tears she had shed and the size of each one... Anyway, you can imagine the conversation until it reached the point of: "And what?" When is the wedding going to be?”
At that moment, she specified that the wedding would be in a few months, that she was already taking decoration ideas, wedding invitations that were original and somewhat different from the usual, that she wanted the entire wedding image and each element to match. . And (here comes the quiz of the question) that he was very excited to celebrate "the marriage proposal" .
Our first thought was: " But isn't that older than the itch? " Well no. By perishing we are totally wrong.
What is a marriage proposal?
Traditionally, the request for the bride's hand has been the marriage proposal made by the groom to the bride's father or her family. In this act, the father gives his blessing to the engagement and the couple can now organize the wedding.
The fact is that today, many couples celebrate their proposal or wedding commitment . You could say that it is a step prior to the marriage and, obviously, it no longer has anything to do with that custom of when the groom went (almost for the first time) to the bride's house, appeared before the father and said: "Will you grant me the hand of your daughter?" and, then, he gave the father a jamacuco .
Currently, a marriage proposal is understood as a meeting between the families of the groom and the bride and helping the parents get to know each other a little better . It is celebrated about a month or two before the wedding and is used to talk about details of the big day in general. It is also tradition that gifts are exchanged.
Let's analyze each part in more detail.
How to organize a marriage proposal
Who is invited to the Proposal?
It is usually a family and intimate celebration . The bride and groom are usually present with their parents; you can also expand the circle and invite, for example, the couple's siblings, grandparents or closest friends. It is usually celebrated at the bride's house and it is the groom's relatives who travel there.
The protocol for sitting around the table is:
Proposal, formal or informal style?
The style of a proposal depends on the personality of each couple. If it is informal , then almost the part in which permission is requested to celebrate the wedding can be skipped and go directly to the celebration . In both cases, it ends with a lunch, snack or dinner, where the menu will be simple but of quality.
If it is decided to be a formal marriage proposal, it has several parts:
- Tradition dictates that the groom must send a bouquet of flowers to his bride (usually white, as a sign of purity) and another to his future mother-in-law. Although the latter is optional, it doesn't hurt to win over the in-laws.
- Once the families meet, it is the bride and groom who make the introductions
- The father of the groom , on behalf of his son, is the person in charge of asking his future in-laws for the bride's hand .
- The bride announces the wedding date . If tradition is followed to the letter, no more than a year and a half should pass from the proposal to the marriage.
Engagement gifts between future spouses
In marriage proposals, there are a series of obligatory gifts:
- The bride usually gives her future husband a watch or cufflinks or a tie pin . And the normal thing is that he releases them on the wedding day
- If he has not already given it to her, the groom gives him the engagement ring . Usually brilliant or with diamonds. It can be exchanged for a bracelet (if it has precious stones, the better). It is also tradition that the bride keeps it until the wedding day.
These are traditional gifts, but it is not something that has to be strictly followed. Everyone knows what their future husband can be most excited about . It must be taken into account that they are gifts that must last over time beyond the wedding and the time of organization of the event. Let's be honest, and recognize that we love seeing a stone of engagement hanging from our ring finger, don't we, dear?
According to protocol, in a traditional marriage proposal the exchange of gifts takes place before the meal is served , but it is increasingly common for it to take place before dessert . After the gifts, the bride's father should make a toast to the couple's happiness.
The day of the proposal is a good time to start thinking about some details of the wedding, but we must be careful about giving in to certain things before the parents at this moment and that later they may not seem so appropriate to us. So the best thing is to consider the moment as a gathering of ideas , without taking anything for granted, to avoid later disappointments.
After reading this post, what do you think? Is it fashionable to celebrate the Proposal or has it become somewhat outdated? Are you thinking about celebrating your proposal?
