I have reached the period in my life where engagement has started to spread like the swine flu.  I am not engaged and have never been married, so the idea that all of my friends happen to be receiving proposals of marriage from their boyfriends at the same time is a little bit of a mystery to me.  Some of the couples getting engaged have been dating since the beginning of college, and some have barely been dating for a year, but yet here they are now suddenly at the same stage in their relationship.  What changes occur in our …read more

There is definitely a period of time in your late 20’s and early 30’s when you start to watch everyone around you get engaged and married.  I’ve heard from older friends that this happens, and I am realizing that I have actually reached that exact point in my life where it is happening to me.  Only a few years ago no one was even thinking about marriage, and now the singles are dropping out of the market at a fast pace.
There were definitely the couples who got married right out of college…but those were outliers.  They had been dating since …read more

Maria Bello, 41, recently announced her engagement to Bryn Mooser, 28. The first mention I found of the engagement came under the heading, “Maria Bello Joins the Cougar Club – AOL News.” Hhmm, interesting, but I always find Maria Bello interesting. She’s smart, beautiful, talented, and chooses unique film roles. The fact that she’s now considered a Cougar, also interesting. Cougars, in case you are not familiar with the term, are women of a certain age, who prefer to date younger men. Women have been doing this since the beginning of time, …read more

Normally, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in manner that will induce butterflies in the stomach, romantic notions, or elation because it’s the one day in the year when everyone is given license to be as cheesy as they can possibly be. It’s the day of hearts. It’s like a day when you can think that anything can happen in your love life.
So, how did you spend it?
I can think of possible things that you guys might have done. Spend a gazillion amounts of money on roses (we can all agree that they’re more expensive around that period of time), romantic …read more

So, okay. You’ve scored a date with Miss She’s-My-Future-Wife. Or perhaps you’re planning to pop the question. Or celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary. What do you do next? Of course, you’d want to sweep her off her feet by concoting something romantic, something special, something — grand.
Grand being the operative word, might I suggest the following restaurants then?
Blogger note: You have got to have dough more than the average joe. Teehee.
Top 10 of the World’s Most Expensive Restaurants

Aragawa in Tokyo, Japan
Arpege in Paris, France
Eigensinn Farm in Toronto, Canada
Sketch – The Lecture Room and Library in London, England
Petermann’s Kunststuben in …read more

Happy Dave of London, shares his good fortune in his post about finding Princess Valium of Colorado, who is now his fiance. Yes. He recently popped the question that garnered him a “Yes” from her. Who would’ve thought that Flickr can bring these two people together? It’s such a sweet story.
Flickr is a digital photo sharing website and web services suite, and an online community platform, which is generally considered an example of a Web 2.0 application. [Wikipedia]
In his post, he narrated the relevant events in their relationship like how and where they met online, how, when and where …read more

In my country, having Spanish roots, we’ve established several traditions in the area of Courtship. Our culture is quite conservative especially in the olden days and it has been passed on over the years. There may be some alterations due to the introduction of pop culture and technology into the society but a large percentage of men and women in my country still uphold the same mentality despite of.
I can’t say that the following are still currently being practiced by all, but I reckon some still do.

There will come a time in a relationship that you and your partner will face the “next-level” predicament. But I’m curious. What exactly are the levels in a relationship?
I’ll state the obvious: Acquaintance, Friends, Dating, Exclusivity, Moving In, Engagement and then, lastly, Marriage. These are the levels that partners generally go through. I hope I didn’t miss anything. Anyway, some levels are skipped and they even have ’sub-levels’ like in terms of intimacy, physical and what not. Though, I can’t help but wonder, how important levels are to individuals in the dating scene?
For individuals who consider it important, several questions …read more

A reader would like to know – “How long should a couple date before getting engaged?”
Over the years I’ve had several relationships. Some resulted in engagements – yes, there have been a few.
For me, an engagement wasn’t so much a marriage proposal, but more of a promise to explore an exclusive relationship with one man. That ring on my finger was more a symbol to the world that I was dedicated to one relationship. If the relationship survived a period of exclusivity, I would then consider marriage. However, I found that within the first year …read more