To be honest hun, it sounds like a great plan and all that but I don't think you should spring on him that the wedding is that year, especially as by that point it'll be in 8 months time. I just think you should at least get an answer first and give it time to settle in and that before talking through plans. It's tougher than it looks to plan a wedding, especially by yourself and you may find it much harder to keep it secret than you plan it to be xxx

You don't have to wait until a leap year to propose, and anyway it's not Valentines you would do it on, but February 29th. Perhaps if you save up quietly for a year, see what you can get together, and if he still hasn't proposed, then you can say "I've got a wedding fund started and this is what is in it so far, imagine what we can yet in another year or two". Then he might think of proposing.

I think it's one thing saving up the money ready, but I would hold off arranging things

1. As he might have his own idea of what he wants/doesn't want and would like to get involved...Im not sure if you're actually talking about booking things before the proposal, but I'm sure he would like to have his input.
2. He might feel pressurised into agreeing if things are already booked etc.
3. Planning a wedding is something that is nice to do together and personally, I think it has bought myself and h2b closer.
4. Practically, can you keep it under wraps? Our venue and a lot of suppliers require both the bride and grooms signature on contracts..also, there are things to consider regarding his family etc.

That said, I think it's a lovely idea to propose to him.

Maybe you could have a chat and explain to him that you appreciate tha you can't get married straight away, but it would be nice to get engaged so you can start the ball rolling? There are plenty of brides on here planning 2016 and beyond weddings, it really isn't at all unusual to have a longer engagement nowadays xx

I think only you know your partner and your relationship well enough to decide if a surprise wedding would be a disaster or a blessing for him. In general I would say against a surprise - Laura Jo makes good points as to why. Apart from his emotions ..also to add with 3 children, I'm sure you will want them involved and they are usually useless at keeping secrets (dress fittings etc). Making anything yourself - my spare room is overtaken with storing wedding things.

If you're fed up waiting for him to propose, start dropping huge hints? Or just general chat how being married is starting to feel important to you etc x

why not ask him NOW

I think a surprise proposal is lovely. however as some of the ladies have said, planning a surprise wedding yourself may put added stress on you and will take away his option to have an opinion or get excited. X

I think it depends on the man you have. my h2b would be very happy to have a surprise wedding as he isn't bothered by any of the detail and planning just the vows and so 8 months notice would be fine for him. However yur man might be different, given the chance he might want to be quite involved inthe planning and build up and feel he has missed out if not given the chance. You know him best. May be you should just propose and go from there.

My h2b proposed on my 20th birthday (im now 25), however just over a year ago he broke the engagement off due to stress and everything that was going on. well things got better between us and i had been wearing his engagement ring due to it meaning something to me even if it meant nothing to him.... i fell and the ring flew off my finger and snapped clean in half, a mutual friend (mainly h2b's friend) put an idea in my head, he said "do you nt think it broke because it was on the wrong person?" well see this comment made me think, i went out, replaced the ring, cooked a 3course meal & proposed to him this valentines, well he said yes.

We already had my dress & our rings had already been made and paid and delivered. I had already made the invites.

I suggested putting away £30 per month (him alone) stating i too will put money away. Well so far i have planned most of the wedding, the finances are still being gathered but we now have BM's outfits, guestbooks & pen/holder, centre pieces, flowers, OOS's, favours etc. the only things left are ceremony room, reception room, food, cake, his suit, our kids suits, & college photographer. He has not put any money away yet! & I have only been saving since end of feb!

I have not mentioned to h2b about his lack of saving for the wedding as as far as im concerned it will be his fault if we dont have a honeymoon the same year as our wedding! lol I know that come the wedding day i will have paid for the entire wedding and am only asking him to save £1000 in the next 2years. which SHOULD be simple!

Personally I would propose to him on any day! Leap year is nothing special, the idea of women proposing on leap year was back when its the mans "duty" to do all of that, however, times have changed, more is expected of women these days, if we have to go out and work like men, we are expected to put bread on the table as they do, then why the h3ll cant we propose when we want to?!

Propose to him, then start saving, ask him what he feels he could put away each month, work out what you can put away each month, then sort your date out. At the end of the day a date is not important. If you start saving then realise that your car blows up and you need a new one pretty pronto in order to get to work, but you have your heart set on a particular date..... what are you going to do? forego the date to use your savings to buy a car to get to work each day? or get sacked because you cant get to work due to no car and end up having to forego your date anyway because you have no job to fund the wedding?

I have recently done something similar (yesterday in fact!) I wanted a garden funiture set, spent £85, logged into online banking this morning and realised that i cant pay the bills cos i spent too much money yesterday! so my wedding savings will be paying for that now, which means for the next few months i will have to put away slightly more than expected to cover the loss i made yesterday!