On New Year’s Day, my newsfeed nearly exploded with engagement announcements. I’m fairly certain many of my acquaintances were competing as to who could come up with the most obnoxious way to announce the news. Among my favorites:

“He went to Jared!!!”

“I’m going to marry my best friend!!!!”

“I’m going to be Mrs. ______!!!”

Don’t mind me, I just really hate exclamation points. I also think holiday proposals are usually lame – but it could be worse – it could have been a holiday scavenger hunt proposal. Hey, to each his own.

So my initial reaction to these posts is an eye roll (why can’t you just say “we’re engaged!” – with a reasonable number of exclamation points?). When the irritation subsides, happiness sets in. I love love. There should always be more of it. Hooray for the happy couple!

Then suddenly, another thought sets in: DON’T TAKE OUR DATE

We don’t have a venue booked and we’re more than a year and a half out from our desired date – we can’t exactly send out save-the-dates. How do we “call” late September 2014? The people who matter most to us already know of this tentative date – but with so many engagements already, and surely more to come, is there a way to let people know that we’re serious about September? I have a few friends who have announced their dates on Facebook when they book the venue. Which means.. we should probably pick a venue soon, before Mrs. _____ and her best friend book it first.