Stressing out about planning the perfect proposal for your girlfriend? I’m gonna let you in on a little secret.. she’s already planned it.

It’s widely known and accepted that women start thinking about and planning their dream wedding since the time that they’re little girls (if your girlfriend dragged you to go see “Bride Wars” with her a few years back, you know what I’m talking about) – but now instead of their ideas only being contained in the back of their minds, they’re on the internet.

One word: Pinterest. Yes, that’s the website your girlfriend spends all her free time on, and now you can use it to your advantage.

Follow, Pin, Repin…

If you don’t understand how Pinterest works, it’s essentially a website (and app) for people to gather inspiration and ideas (these are called “pins”), and store for later reference (on “boards”).

Now you can follow people you know, like your mom, aunt, cousin, best friend, etc., or you can follow companies, magazines, and brands. The people you follow show up in your home page, and you can browse what they have pinned. Or you can search for anyone’s pins of literally anything, if you’re looking for something specific. You would be amazed by how much is out there.

Recon Work…

But for the most part, what you (as a guy planning a proposal) should be concerned about is your girlfriend’s user profile, where all her boards and pins are stored. Odds are, she has a board where she houses all of her ideal wedding and/or proposal inspiration. So this is how you’ll do some research, and stalk her profile for ideas.

• Look for boards named “wedding” or “proposal” (the words “fairytale” and “dream” may be involved) or it may be something like “I’ll say I do” or “The Vow” – either way you’ll know it when you see it because it will be filled with a plethora of photos of engagement rings, wedding dresses, bouquets, cute proposal shots, etc.
• On these boards you may find something like, a couple kissing in the rain, which tells you that she is a romantic at heart and isn’t into all the bells and whistles of a proposal site but more interested in the moment she experiences with you. If you see many pins of photography of the proposal you know she wants you to hire a proposal photographer to capture the big moment, there is a post we wrote up just for this here.

All you have to do is locate the right board and browse through what she’s pinned – she has basically already done all the hard work for you. Women are very in tune with what they want and like, you just have to make it happen. So fellas, good luck and happy pinning!

Take a look at our Pinterest Page for more ideas of what she will be pinning.