The Constitution was ratified between December 7th 1787 (Delaware) and May 29th 1790 (Rhode Island) but only 9 out of 13 ratifications were needed so the Congress of the Confederation certified the ratification on September 13th 1788 and the Constitution was in effect following March 4th 1789.

What became known as the Bill of Rights was proposed as twelve amendments under the rules of the new Constitution by the new Congress which didn't exist, when the Constitution was adopted and they didn't become part of the Constitution until December of 1791. But only articles 3 to 12 of the proposed articles were ratified at this point and became the first 10 amendments (usually named the Bill of Rights), article 2 wasn't ratified until 1992 when it became the 27th amendment and the first article has not been ratified yet by enough states.

So for one and a half years the Constitution was in power without the Bill of Rights and they were approved by different organizations and processes, the latter of which are only defined in the Constitution itself.