You’re engaged! And if you’re anything like the majority of the population in the world, you want to take to social media immediately to alert everyone to the coming nuptials. Not only are you ecstatic that you are engaged to marry the love of your life, you also can’t wait to see your notifications skyrocket across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and whatever other social media platform the kids are using these days.
And that’s understandable. Social media is how we communicate in today’s world. Not only does it keep us close to our dearest friends, it also connects us to family and friends we might not otherwise have as strong of a connection to as we wish. Everyone has a grandparent or high school friend that moved to Florida or North Carolina somewhere along the way and if not for social media, keeping them in your life would be exceedingly difficult.
So what happens when your significant other asks for your hand in marriage? What is the social media etiquette to announcing the engagement? Let’s find out!
Take A Breath, Pick Up The Phone
Yes, pick up the smartphone—but not to post on Facebook right away. Instead, call or message your closest friends or siblings or parents. A personal message to those closest to you will reinforce how much you care about them, even above “likes,” “favorites,” and “hearts.” After all, there are some people in your life that deserve to know about your updated “engaged” status before those you’ve randomly friended or followed over the years. This could also be done in reverence to those older family members that might not use social media, but would be overjoyed to hear the news directly from you.
Design Your Message
We use social media to announce everything from what we’re eating for brunch to what we’re binging on Netflix. But your engagement should get more attention than how many mimosas you’re having or how many times you’ve rewatched The Office. Be sure to set the scene of your engagement announcement with a romantic backdrop—something that properly marks the gravity of the situation. This could be location specific like the beach or some a touch more subtle like your hand in your partner’s hand. Not only does this help to elevate your announcement, it also gives you a visual remembrance of your engagement day.
Be Unique With Your Caption
It doesn’t take a degree in English or the talents of a wordsmith to come up with a better engagement photo caption than “boom,” “boo-yaa” or “[insert random face emoji],” but it does take just a little bit of thought. When making an engagement announcement, you want to deliver the message in a way that is poetic and meaningful—with words that convey the love you feel for you partner and the excitement brewing for the coming wedding day. The caption can also be a window into you and your partner’s personalities, be that serious, comical or dripping with pop culture references.
Return The Love You Get
The dopamine hit your brain receives from the constant influx of congratulatory notifications on your smartphone is definitely pleasurable byproduct of getting engaged. But don’t leave your friends and family hanging—be sure to reciprocate and personally thank each and every one with a return message. It might sound arduous, but you might as well get used to writing out thank-you notes, as that will take up much of your time immediately following the wedding. What’s more, people are much more likely to follow you on your wedding journey if they know that you are just as engaged with them online as you are to your soon-to-be partner in real life.
Quality, Not Quantity
Mainly, you want one meaningful social media message to carry the weight of the pending nuptials. What you don’t want to do is flood your friends’ social media feeds with endless and repetitive posts about the engagement. This is a special moment and deserves special attention, but it doesn’t need to be watered down with your stream-of-consciousness thoughts on marriage, how bling your ring is, your hunt for the perfect dress or how much your mother-in-law to be is driving you crazy (in fact, it’s probably best to leave that last one out entirely). You want this event to be a celebration of love—and the best way to make a celebration special is to make it exclusive.