Engagement season is in full swing and if you’ve been on Facebook at all since the holidays you may have seen an influx of friends who’ve accepted proposals. While social media helps couples announce their news to the world, we still love the more traditional paper announcements and creative photo shoots which double as save-the-date ideas. Check these out and get inspired to do more than change your Facebook status!

Did you get engaged over the holidays? How did you announce it to friends and family? Tell us below!

> A Custom Video Game Save-The-Date
> Social Media Rules of Wed-iquette

No matter how long you and your fiance dated or how many times you’ve been a bridesmaid in your friends’ weddings, there are some truths you just don’t find out about until you get engaged.

1. You’ll have a big zit on your chin the day he proposes.

One proposal trend we’re seeing everywhere is hiring a photographer to catch the big moment. Call them proposal paparazzi photographers if you will — either way, they make for seriously tear-jerking photos.

> Our favorite movie proposals

> Best places to propose at Disney!

>50 ways for your man to propose

In honor of December (the most popular month to get engaged all year!), we rounded up a few of our favorite big-screen proposal moments! Did we forget your dream movie proposal? Let us know below!

> 50 romantic ways to propose 

> Greatest wedding movie moments of all time 

It’s about to be proposal season (that time between the four big holidays — Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day) when the majority of couples in the U.S. get engaged. To some women, there’s nothing more romantic and magical than the idea of a Disney proposal. Here are our favorite Disneyland and Walt Disney World proposal spots!

> Check out information on Walt Disney Weddings from The Knot

>This real wedding happened at Disneyland!

> Hurricane Sandy didn’t ruin these Disney Wedding Plans

I’ll be the first to admit that I ogle over every marriage proposal that crosses my desk (see evidence here). And I fully accept that not every proposal is going to be the most over-the-top and unique. So, here’s our version of the top 10 most cliche marriage proposals. Calm down folks, we know they’re cliche for a reason: Because everyone does them and they’re tried and true!

Didn’t see your proposal story here? How did your fiancé propose?

> See some of our favorite proposals

> 50 romantic ways to pop the question

It all started on Thursday when I was at work my boss came into my office and told me he had a crazy idea for one of our donor functions (I am a fundraiser and we are always thinking of creative things we can do for our donors).

He told me that he had set up an appointment for me the following afternoon at The Swag. Now for those of you who don’t know, it’s an incredible, beautiful, exclusive resort located in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I was thrilled at this idea because I had always wanted to go to The Swag, but you can’t even get on the property without an appointment.

The next morning my Mom and Sister helped me pick out a nice outfit for my meeting. I left the office around 3:00 and made my way up the curvy two and half mile road that led straight to the top of a mountain where The Swag is located.

The whole way up it was pouring  rain and I was not excited about being drenched for my meeting. When I finally got to the top the clouds opened up and there was nothing but beautiful sunshine (definitely a God thing:)). I entered the main lodge and greeted the woman who was supposedly going to be talking business with.

She proceeded to show me the various facilities and different options for hosting events at The Swag. After that she told me she wanted to take me to their famous view. I was thrilled but couldn’t imagine a view more beautiful that what I had already seen. We hopped in the resort’s old Land Rover and headed up to Gooseberry Knob. When I got out of the truck I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was the most beautiful pristine view of the great Smokey Mountains. You could see miles and miles of beautiful mountain backdrop; it was truly breathtaking. After taking it all in, the woman I was meeting with told me there was a small overlook she wanted to bring me to.

I then proceeded to walk up this small wooden bridge not knowing the surprise that awaited me around the corner. When I turned the corner I couldn’t believe my eyes, Ben (the man of my dreams!!!) was sitting in a chair amongst one of the most beautiful views in the whole world. I knew this was the moment I had been waiting for for so long. He rushed over and enveloped me in a huge hug. I honestly can’t remember exactly what he said to me (still in complete shock) but I know it was beautiful and perfect. He then got down on his knee and pulled out the most incredible ring, my DREAM ring and asked me to marry him. I didn’t even wait one second before I screamed “Of course I will marry you.”

At that moment, I was the happiest girl in the whole entire world. The day just got more perfect when I saw my precious sister hiding out in the woods snapping pictures and memories of this special time. We then spent the next couple ours reveling in our happiness and enjoying each other’s company. Afterwards we had a party at my house celebrating this happy time with our family.

I couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect proposal. To this day, I am still in shock that he pulled the whole thing off without me having a clue. Just another one of the many reasons i’m lucky to be marrying the man of my dreams.

A few days after we’d told everyone we were engaged, we learned we hadn’t actually told everyone we were engaged. One of Evin’s cousins and two of my oldest friends found out via Facebook which left us scrambling. Ugh! This transgression necessitated several crow-eating phone calls, a lot of apologies, and a wee bit of lying.

They were insulted. People hate us! Yay! We’re getting married!

In less acrimonious news, Evin adored her ring and wanted to wear it everywhere except at work where the nature of her job made doing so difficult. But almost anywhere we went: to drop off our laundry,  a quick trip for take-out, even late one night to the bodega to get ice cream — front door locked, halfway down the stairs — Evin would say, “I want to go back and get the ring.”

“For the 300 foot walk to the corner?” I asked her.

“The Bodega Guy doesn’t care we’re engaged.”

But Evin did.

And I loved that she loved to show it off.

And I learned quickly how an engagement ring would elicit wildly enthusiastic responses from her female friends. Running errands around our neighborhood, we’d inevitably run into someone she had worked with, they’d notice the ring, scream, and I’d be prompted on cue to tell the comical proposal story. The sun was shining everyday; it was perpetually 76 degrees, with not a cloud in sight.  This was the Honeymoon Period of Our Engagement.  And it was overflowing with good times, laughing and with wedding plans far, far off in the distance.  Or so I thought.

Every 1.473 days, and with no provocation whatsoever, Evin would just look at me and ask: “so, no DJ?”

“Huh?”

“No DJ at the wedding.  We want a band, right?” 

The wedding plans were making a cameo appearance in our everyday lives.  It was bound to happen.  With engagements come wedding plans and with wedding plans come — well, I guess we’re going to find out.  And when Evin would say something remotely wedding plan-nerly — I’d take her hand, pull her to close to me, whisper in her ear that I loved her and how happy I was that we were getting married, and kiss her. And talk of wedding plans would be postponed for yet another day. But I knew I was only buying time.

At some point, someone would ask innocently, have you set a date yet?

Two weeks and five days ago my girlfriend Evin and I got engaged.

We both knew this would happen even though getting engaged had become of late, the elephant-in-the-relationship — infrequently discussed, occasionally joked about.  By the time I was fairly sure she was just insane enough to accept, I went out and did the prudent thing. I had Evin’s best friend take her to a jewelry store under the guise of looking for earrings, trick her into heading to the back of the store to look at engagement rings, find out exactly what she wanted, then report back to me.

The following week I went to 47^th St (NYC’s diamond district) to buy a ring. When I found what I wanted, it sat buried in a bag  in the back of our closet while I waited for the exact right moment.

Late in the afternoon the following Saturday, I sat Evin down at our kitchen table — the one we built from scraps left on the curb of our neighbor (the actress) Keri Russell’s house.

Me: “So, if we went engagement ring shopping, what would you like?”

Her: “Should we even be having this discussion?  Shouldn’t you just go out and buy one?”

Me: “Do you know what you want?

Her:  “Yes, am I supposed to just tell you?”

Me: “Should we go to Zales?” (a joke) “What are you thinking, ¼ carat,  1/2 a carat?  Color V, clarity QW9?” (all jokes)

This went on for 10 or 25 minutes until I pulled the ring out and said, “should it look like this?”

I expected tears or shock or a combination of the two.  Instead, she casually waved me off, stood up from “The Keri Russell Table” and walked out of the room saying dismissively, “that’s from a gumball machine!”  I tried to convince her but she wasn’t having any of it.  “Let me see that,” she said looking at it closely, “it’s not even a good gumball machine fake diamond ring.”  So I went to the bedroom and brought out the laminated certificate.  Only then did it register on her face that I was serious and the ring was real.  “This is where you say ‘yes,’” I instructed.  And she did.

A flurry of text messages and phone calls to family and friends followed before a walk two blocks away to celebrate at our favorite neighborhood restaurant.  Looking over our menus we made a pact — “let’s enjoy being engaged for one week and NOT talk wedding plans.”  We hardly made it to dessert.

Over the next week we sat at our computers looking at web sites that supposedly helped couples plan their wedding. “How To Buy That Dress,”  “Picking The Right Bouquet,” “Who Will Be Your Maid of Honor.”  Hey!  What about me? And so I thought:  maybe I should blog about the wedding experience from the male POV.  And that’s that.

So until Evin and I get married early next summer, I will be blogging on a weekly basis how this undertaking is going for me. A Groom With A View will be an honest account of the most illogical of processes — getting married.

Here at The Knot we’re big fans of epic wedding proposals! This one especially caught our eye. Maybe it’s because of Bruno Mars’s “Marry You,” or maybe it’s just because the idea is so cute — the groom, Isaac Lamb, convinced countless family members and friends to pitch in and help act out the song and lip-sync the lyrics as the bride, Amy Frankel, watched from a moving car!

Did your fiance propose in a unique way? Tell us how!

> See our favorite proposal videos of all time

> Over-the-top proposal ideas