I’ll admit – Katie and I have a long engagement. We got engaged in May 2012 and we won’t actually host our love party until September 2014. There’s a few simple reasons for this.

1) We are going to spend a good amount of money on this event.

2) We are personalizing the hell out of this love party. Details – at least the good ones – take time.

3) We don’t see any point in rushing it.

It’s that last point that really sticks — and it’s something I didn’t really think about until my newsfeed became swamped with people getting engaged, getting married, having babies, posting 900+ photos of those babies….

There’s nothing wrong with any of it. It’s actually all pretty awesome. In fact, it’s so awesome that I want to take my time and enjoy all of it. I loved dating Katie. I loved the few months I spent planning the proposal. And right now – I’m enjoying being engaged and planning a love party.

I don’t want to rush through this chapter just to get to the next one. Too often I find myself asking, “What’s next?” rather than “What’s now?”

As the wise screenwriters behind Hope Floats once said: “Beginnings are scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most”