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"Once that engagement ring is on your finger you can expect&amp;amp;#133; &amp;amp;#133;all your friends and family to want to see you. As soon as possible. Don&amp;amp;#8217;t get me wrong: It&amp;amp;#8217;s great to feel all that love and excitement. But your schedule gets packed fast when you&amp;amp;#8217;re trying to balance wedding-planning time with showing-off-your-engagement-ring-and-retelling-the-proposal-story time. Sure, you can e-mail the engagement ring photo or relay the proposal tale over the phone. Still, your pals and relatives want face time with you (blame it on that pretty post-engagement glow). I promised myself that when my friends got engaged I&amp;amp;#8217;d wait until they made plans with me, rather than seeing if they could squeeze in time with me and Paul. This was a promise I couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t keep, apparently. My friends John and Kelly got engaged on New Year&amp;amp;#8217;s Eve. Paul and I were having dinner with them on January 9th. And when my buddy Mark called to share his engagement news, I found the words, &amp;amp;#8220;When can we see you guys?&amp;amp;#8221; pouring out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Luckily, Mark and his fiancee Lauren had a brilliant plan: Just five days after they got engaged, they threw a post-work happy hour so they could celebrate with their friends (and some family, too!) all in one place in a low-key way. Of course, this is more successful if the members of your inner circle all live in the same city and you&amp;amp;#8217;re able to give ample notice. But this impromptu engagement party, complete with appetizers and dessert on Lauren&amp;amp;#8217;s generous parents&amp;amp;#8217; bill, was a big hit with the bride and groom&amp;amp;#8217;s New York City people. Would you throw an engagement happy hour? Or would you prefer to squeeze in one-on-one (or two-on-two) time with your favorite people after you get engaged? Or would you rather wait to plan a true engagement party? More About Getting Engaged If You Could Send Anyone Engagement Ring Shopping With Your Guy, Who Would You Send? The Funny Thing That Happens When Your Friends Get Engaged The Pros and Cons of Getting Engaged Young More Ways to Get Glamour Visit ShopGlamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Download Glamour Magazine for your iPad! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter! Add us to your iGoogle homepage. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/save-the-date/2011/04/a-tricky-thing-that-happens-ri>