Ring Selfies
If cupid works really hard in your favour this Valentine’s Day, you could be approaching one of the happiest moments of your life, and if that rock does land on your finger you’ll naturally want to announce the news to your loved ones. Have you thought about how? Whilst we’re not always the biggest fans of ring selfies, we must admit we can’t help but gush at the more tasteful ones we see, some of which we’re sharing with you today.
But whether your life looks like the above-left or the above-right image depends entirely on circumstances and timing, so if Saint Valentine fails to delivers any Cartier diamonds this year, we're also offering some advice on staying positive until your moment arrives.
Destination Selfies
If you get engaged on holiday, make the setting a core part of your announcement. We love these four images (New Zealand, New York, Italy and San Francisco respectively) because rather than being highly staged for maximum impact, they appear to simply be snapshots of the bride-to-be’s location when the big moment came.
Domestic Selfies
Equally, if your partner opts for a stay-at-home proposal, then consider sharing a genuine image of the moment to show your nearest and dearest how intimate and special it was. We are also big advocates of capturing real emotion, and we believe some of the best ring selfies are taken soon after the question is popped.
Goofy Selfies
The more natural, the better. Your friends and family love you for your personalities and for how you interact as a couple, so have some fun and give them even more reasons to smile when they receive the news.
Of course, on Valentine’s Day there will also be those of us who suspect we are about to receive a marriage proposal, and instead receive a beautiful pair of diamond earrings in a deceiving little box.
For the women who fit into this category, we have much empathy. We know you’ve been waiting patiently, and your secret Pinterest board is brimming with wonderful ideas, but we urge you not to lose hope. Every bride gets her time to shine eventually, and in the meantime we offer you our top three tips for staying positive and patient over Valentine’s and beyond.
1. Learn a new language
Begin indoors with Rosetta Stone, under the warmth of a cashmere throw, sipping hot tea; by spring you’ll be swapping the cashmere for a picnic blanket and conquering your foreign adverbs in the park with an iced latte. Just think how much your dream honeymoon will be enhanced with some knowledge of the local language.
2. Pamper yourself
When the time finally comes for you to take that ring selfie, you’ll want your hands and nails looking their best. Since you can’t predict when the proposal might happen, this gives you the perfect excuse to make those trips to your nearest luxury salon a regular thing. Frequent spa trips are another way to keep calm, and maintain a healthy glow.
3. Enjoy unmarried bliss
Depending on what marriage means to you personally, it’s reasonably likely that at some stage your life as a Mrs will look somewhat different than your life as a Miss. So take this time to do things that married life (and certainly family life) may make harder in the future. Be it a spontaneous road trip with friends, dancing in your kitchen until 2am on a Wednesday night, taking up rock climbing on Sundays or pursuing a promotion at work, it’s important that you define how unmarried bliss looks to you and then throw yourself into simply enjoying it. As the saying goes, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans” so celebrate what you have in the present moment and rest assured that one day, in the midst of wedding planning, you’ll look back and feel satisfied knowing that you appreciated every step of the journey.
