There’s something about this festive period that gets people in a romantic mood. Over Christmas and New Year, the number of engagement announcements suddenly shoots up as men (and women) up and down the country start to pop the question. So is it your turn this year?

Well you’ll just have to wait and see. But if you do find him down on one knee, then just make the most of the moment. This will only happen once(hopefully) so you need to make the most of it. Don’t dash off to update your Facebook status or get your phone out to start Tweeting; just enjoy the engagement – there’s plenty of time to flash your sparkler at a later date.

Seriously, what’s the rush? Everyone knows when you get engaged you heart plummets your head hits the roof and you stay there with your head in the clouds throughout their entire engagement until you reach that almighty I do. Some many people almost rush right out of the restaurant to put down deposits without thinking anything trough including the logistics of what goes into planning the perfect day. It’s best that a couple wait a few weeks after getting engaged before they start the preparations to allow it all to sink in. Throughout this time you have a lot to think about, and most importantly talk through. You need to take the time to imagine how you want your day to go, and how you imagine your day to be, envision the perfect day, outdoors, indoors, beach, abroad, and once you have that worked out start working inwards from this point on, for example once you know it’s a church wedding you can choose your colour theme your flowers the food. Once you have all these little things mapped out and planned and organised together you can start thinking about how you’re going to make all this work, and now you can begin booking and putting down deposits.

You’ve decide that the time is upon you and your ready for a life time commitment. You have the ring all ready and burning a hole in your sock drawer, and now the nerve provoking issue has dawned on you, the proposal.

Now this is the beginning of a lifetime of memories, and one that will always come rushing back to you and your partner in those moments of nostalgia. So, this proposal needs to be a memory that will lighten the heart , a proposal that will evoke the love and feelings you share with your partner and if successful make their eyes brighten, a laugh flatter their face and maybe even a small tear or two.

Now to decide how to do it, where to do it and when to do it, are the questions that are bound to have occurred to you and unfortunately, terrifying as it is this is all down to you, the answers to these questions will be personal to you. Is your partner the traditionalist that would want the table lit dinner at a posh restaurant, or would she want something even more personal. Its a good idea for these to think about some of the most significant times of your relationship, your first date, first kiss, life time aspirations and plans you made together maybe to go watch the sun set on the beach on the anniversary of your first date or even a night tickets to see the artist of ‘your song’. Whatever it is it needs to scream “I love you, I need you and I want ‘this’, ‘us’ forever”.

Secrecy is always the best policy, it’s inevitable that the more people you tell, no matter how excited you are its bound to get out, and this could put a downer on things before it’s even began, besides who needs that extra pressure, especially if you need time to gather some socks for those cold feet. But there’s one person that could possibly need to know, have you considered asking for the fathers hand in marriage? These little things add up to big brownie points!

Britains biggest high street jewellers H.Samuel are the first to have launched diamond engagement rings solely for men.

The titanium and diamond embedded pre-marital band, called the Tioro can be purchased at H.Samuel online for just £79.99, much less than the average cost of ladies engagement ring - £1,350.

The new M-engagement ring will be launched in the 400 H. Samuel stores in the UK at a later date.

Men’s engagement rings are worn by betrothed men in parts of Spain and Scandinavia but in the UK such rings are usually only fashioned by designers. It is rare to see men with any sort of engagement ring, yet alone diamond engagement rings.

Natasha Gregory, the head buyer at H. Samuels commented:-

“UK women are no longer waiting until the man pops the question. We are equals in the workplace and in relationships and we make our own decisions.

Now this ring is a clear message to everyone that a man is to be married.”

Unlike a woman, a man doesn’t wear both his engagement and wedding rings on the same finger. A M-engagement ring is worn on the ring ginger on the left hand until he is married when it is worn on the fourth finger of the right hand.

Wedding bands are worn on the left hand since ancient times when it was believed that the vein of love or Vena amoris ran directly from the fourth finger of the left hand to the heart.

If you have recently become engaged, then a massive congratulations to you from all the team at Bridal News.

You will shortly take part in two of the most incredible life adventures - the first being part of a married couple, and the second - the thrilling but sometimes exhausting rollercoaster ride that is planning your wedding!

Your wedding is likely to be the most important and detailed event that you or your husband to be will have ever had to plan.

Although it can sometimes be incredibly overwhelming there are two things that you can do as a bride to be to make sure that the initial process goes as smoothly as possible.

First things first, you both need to tell your parents, siblings and other close family and friends the good news. Take time out to revel in their delight and congratulations and enjoy being the centre of attention, it probably won’t happen again until the actual day of your wedding!

And secondly, set the date for your big day as soon as you can, after all it will likely be the first question that you are asked once you announce your engagement.

Deciding on a date will also help you plan a timeline for planning you wedding, see our section on choosing a date for your big day at

Being a bride-to-be can be a stressful time in a woman’s life as can being a Mother-to-be can be, but being both at the same time, whilst exciting is surely enough to frazzle enough the steadiest of nerves.

But walking down the aisle sporting a bay bump needn’t take any of the enjoyment away from your wedding day.

In today’s market, maternity wedding gowns for pregnant brides are not the sack like wedding dresses for pregnant brides of yesteryear; in fact many of them are as elegant and as pretty as standard wedding gowns.

There are now a multitude of styles available to the expectant bride, including off the shoulder and strapless styles to suit any size of bump and skirts vary from empire line, to full skirted and even fitted.

Well-designed and stylish wedding dresses of georgette and lace are being crested with the pregnant bride in mind. A quick scour of the internet reveals well cut feather woven maternity bridal gowns and floor length cocktail style maternity dresses.

If you discover that you are expecting a baby after you have purchased your wedding gown, or indeed have a growth spurt before your big day, remember it is possible to have extra panels sewn into your gown by an experienced seamstress.

After your engagement has been announced, friends and family will no doubt begin to ask you when the big day is.

Some couples will have already decided before they announce their engagement, but the majority will not yet have a date in mind.

There are many options, and simply looking at a calendar will offer many prospective dates, many of equal attraction, but how exactly do you narrow them down?

The first thing to consider is the venue; even the most flexible of brides can be unwilling to compromise in certain areas. If you have your heart set on a particular church or wedding venue, checking out the availability can narrow down the dates naturally.

If you haven’t already decided on a venue or church, there are other way to narrow down prospective dates for your big day, for example if your minds eye sees you being married amidst falling snow, the month of June probably isn’t going be on your short-list, and if you picture a garden wedding under a blue sky, December probably isn’t the month for you!

Another consideration might be the honeymoon. If you have a certain destination in mind, the chances are that some dates will be perfect to travel, but others may see hurricanes risks or seasonal rains, again this can often help you to exclude dates from your calendar.

Your own important ‘life dates’ will perhaps also offer you more guidance than you might first consider. Can you and your husband to be both have the same dates off work? Another thing to consider is the availability of your guests, for example at certain times during the summer months, many of the them may be away on holiday.

If all else fails, try to pick a date that is meaningful to you both as a couple, it might be the date that you met, the date of your first kiss or the date that you became engaged.

America singer, songwriter and actress Stacey Ferguson known to her fans as Fergie has recently revealed her plans to wed her fiancé actor Josh Duhamel, in a fairytale styled wedding next summer.

The 33 year old Black Eyed Peas star is reported to spending in the region of $1.5million on the nuptials scheduled for June 2009.

It is believed that Fergie is designing her own wedding gown with the help of world renowned fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

A close friend of the pair is reported to have commented to a US magazine about Fergie and wedding planners:-

“Fergie has just started interviewing wedding planners. She’s also working with Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld on getting her fantasy gown. They are taking their time to get everything right. They only plan on getting married once,”

Fergie met 35 year old daytime award winning TV actor Josh in September 2004 when she the Black Eyed Peas appeared on Josh’s NBC TV series Las Vegas and the couple have shared a home in Brentwood, California since 2007. They announced their engagement last Christmas.

It has also been reported that the couple decided against rushing preparations for their wedding because they wanted every tiny detail of the day to be just right.

Today’s brides seem to be faced with a stream of continuous planning and preparing in the run up to their all important big day.

From discussions with the wedding vendors to numerous visits to the bridal salon for dress fittings, it’s very easy to subconsciously allow your wedding to take over the rest of your life.

For some brides the build up to the wedding can seem like being in the middle of an all consuming hurricane from which there appears to be no immediate means of escape.

It is common to hear of pre-nuptial brides becoming completely consumed by the planning and preparations for their wedding day, which can often lead to unnecessary amounts of stress and strain being put on both the bride to be and those around her, and often her entire life will become eclipsed by all things wedding. A good way of reducing the load of some of the big days arrangements is to used pre-made wedding activity bags. They help to organise a range of fun things for any children at a wedding.

A persistently demanding timetable will often lead to stress, which isn’t good for the health, particularly for someone preparing to be married. In order to stay calm and relaxed and appear radiant and happy on her wedding day a bride should begin to consider her emotional wellbeing long before her wedding is to take place, and ridiculously demanding schedules should be re-evaluated as early on into the wedding preparations as possible.

It is important during this pre-wedding period to make time to spend with your fiancé and make sure that your agenda does not consist entirely of wedding talk, if you need time out from wedding planning; it’s likely he will too!

A healthy marriage stems from a healthy relationship which in turn begins way ahead of the walk down the aisle, so quality time spent with your husband to be is vital in the run up to the wedding.

Hollywood starlet Scarlet Johansson has married her lover and fellow Hollywood star 31 year old Ryan Reynolds in a private ceremony in the grooms native Canada. The wedding is the first marriage for both bride and groom.

A spokesperson for 23 year old Johansson revealed that the exclusive service was carried out in an isolated backwoods resort on the outskirts of Vancouver in British Columbia.

The pair began their relationship early in 2007 shortly after the break down of Reynolds 4 year relationship singer Alanis Morissette to whom he was engaged at the time. .

Johansson and Reynolds publicly confirmed their engagement on 5th May when the world renowned actress sported a 3 carat diamond ring thought to be valued at somewhere in the region of £16,500.

They couple are said to have advised their family and friends of their engagement by text message

Earlier this month the bride announced her determination to control the privacy of her forthcoming nuptials and revealed that her wedding pictures would absolutely not appear as part of any celebrity magazine contract.

News of the secret wedding has been met with surprise by many as it had been reported in the media that Johansson meant to postpone her wedding until the impending United States presidential election at the beginning of November, were over