Leelee, good question. Well it takes waiting on the Lord while being active in serving Him. You see, there will come a time in a Christian's life where he will meet a lady who he might have an interest in getting to know. The situation would be the guy approaching the lady to introduce himself. When he introduces himself to her. The first step is for him to get to know her through friendship. Now this process of him getting to know her may take several months, or it may take a couple of years. But once the fella knows the lady pretty well. Then if he can see himself spending the rest of his life with her, from that point, he will then approach this same lady who is his friend, and he will offer a proposal to her for betrothment. And the rest is history. It is up to her whether or not she will accept his offer of betrothal. If she turns it down, well at least he understands that concerning this dear lady that future marriage will not happen. But they may choose to remain friends.
Now on the contrary, if she says yes to his offer of betrothal, then that will officially start the process of betrothment between him and her. Where they both will understand that they made a promise and a vow to wed eachother and that there is no turning back on this vow. In fact, this promise is so strong that it could be considered just as binding as a covenant. And so they start this betrothal process for the main goal of getting married to each other. And until they are married, all intimacy will have to wait.
I really hope this answered your question Leelee. Please let me know if there something that I said that you would like me to clarify for you.
Also understand that every situation will be different. But that's where trust in the Lord comes in.