The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ah, the holidays. Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s always conjure up images of family, friends, warm fires, eggnog, and… engagements. Yes, you heard right, engagements – and not the type that signify a set meeting, the type that result in a sparkling diamond placed on the left ring finger. With all the other engagements – office parties, family parties, ski trips and holiday shopping – it’s a wonder that people have any time to think about getting engaged during the holidays. Yet, December is by far the most popular month of the year for couples to get engaged. If you are considering popping the question this holiday season, here are some great ideas on how to make it the most wonderful time of her year:

1. The At-Home Sneak Attack

This proposal involves showing up during the holidays unannounced (though previously coordinated with her roommate, relatives or parents – wherever she will be staying) and dropping to one knee in a sweeping romantic gesture to express your love and ask her to marry you.

Why It Works: This proposal has a fantastic element of surprise, so she will love it if she enjoys surprises. Also, the parents or relatives will enjoy being in on the plan with you, and will love that you included them in the engagement.

Potential Drawbacks: Keeping this proposal a secret requires a lot of careful planning and coordination, as well as stealthy accomplices (don’t try this with relatives that can’t keep a secret!).

2. The Faux Holiday Party

Plan a holiday party and invite all of your friends and local family. However, do not tell your girlfriend that it is your party. Instead, pretend that you have to attend an office cocktail party and ask her to accompany you as your date. Make dinner reservations at her favorite nice restaurant beforehand, and either propose during dinner or take her somewhere special and propose just after the meal (a beautiful park or other meaningful place for the two of you is a good choice). Once she says yes, take her to the “office holiday party” and surprise her with a big gathering of all your favorite people to celebrate the happy news with.

Why It Works: It combines both the element of an intimate, romantic proposal with a big celebration of friends and family.

Potential Drawbacks: If the first method required a few stealthy accomplices, this one involves even more people who have to keep your secret.

3. The Holiday Scavenger Hunt

Send your future wife on a trip down memory lane through the city you live in. This works best when presented as a regular gift: wrap up the first clue in a small box tied with a bow, and present it to her as if it’s her holiday present. When she unwraps the first clue, explain that you have created a series of clues that will lead her to her gift.

Enlist the help of one of her friends or a sister who is clued into the real reason behind the scavenger hunt to lead her along her way and help with the clues. Have the friend hand her a new one of your clues once she arrives at the correct location. On the clue, write a romantic reason why you chose that particular place as a stop in her scavenger hunt. Choose places like your favorite coffee spot, first date restaurant, best dessert place, and favorite stores. Wait for her at the final clue location with another box that holds the engagement ring inside, and make her dreams come true. This is one gift she will definitely never forget.

Why It Works: She will adore all of the thought and hard work put into picking locations and writing clues.

Potential Drawbacks: With such an elaborate plan, she might figure out that this is much more than a regular holiday gift before you pull out the ring.

If you’re still looking for that perfect engagement ring, check out our stylish selection of diamond rings. Already have the perfect diamond picked out? Peruse an extensive collection of wedding bands and pick the perfect pair that reflects your love for each other. The prices are just as beautiful as the rings, and the wide variety offers stellar options for every taste.

Time to Say Yes: The History of Engagement Rings

Every woman dreams her engagement proposal mirrors a fairy tale. There are hundreds of thousands of couples who get married every year and each has a unique engagement proposal story to tell. But in each scenario, there is one fixture that makes and seals the deal: the engagement ring.

Chosen to represent the promise of eternal love, the engagement ring is a valuable tie that binds the couple together. But how did the tradition start? At what point in history did it become a practice? Which society started the trend?

In days past, a woman’s engagement to a man was called a betrothal- a practical arrangement that had more to do with wealth and social status than feelings and compatibility. When a man offered marriage, he was obliged to give a dowry to the woman’s family as payment for the years she was brought up; and compensation for the loss to the family. Dowries came in the form of money, goods, and estate. Literally and figuratively, he who has the gold brings home a wife.

But later on, the dowry was simplified into the form of a ring usually made of iron, leather, plants, grass, and many other materials and was regularly replaced when torn or broken. The use of stronger materials such as gold and precious metals came much later in history, in the mid-15^th century.

The year was 1477 and Archduke Maximilian of Austria just proposed marriage to Mary of Burgundy- in style. And at this point in recorded history, the diamond engagement ring became a tradition. The problem was this stone was a true rarity in those times, so rare that only the nobility and the very wealthy could afford to own it.

But all that changed when four hundred years later, large quantities of diamond deposits were discovered in Africa.  Supply now surpassed demand and diamond engagement rings became accessible even to the working class.  A average groom-to-be had to save just three months worth of salary to afford the most inexpensive cut. But all this added to the mystery and glamor of engagement rings and at the end of the day, made it more desirable both to the giver and receiver alike.

In modern times, the significance of diamond rings as an engagement ring were said to have been influenced by a post war advertising campaign, DeBeers who coined the phrase: “A diamond is forever”.  It spoke of the ring’s eternity symbol–the ideal promise that marriage should last forever.  Fortunately, the phrase stuck and our present-day engagement memories have been sealed ever since.