Excerpted from "For the Bride"

• In 1215 Pope Innocent III declared that there should be an official waiting period before a couple married. This was the beginning of the engagement tradition we know today.

• The first recorded engagement ring was given by Maximilian I, King of Germany, to Mary of Burgundy in 1477.

• The longest recorded engagement was between Octavio Guillan and Adrian Martinez, who became engaged in 1902. They were finally married 67 years later in June, 1969 in Mexico City.