How much time did you wait to get married?

Question

How long did you knew each other?

It was a long or short engagement?

What is the ideal amount of time you should know a person before getting engaged?

Answer 1

I have read that you should date for at least two years before getting married.  The odds of divorce nearly double if you get married in less time than that.  We were together for eight years before getting married because I was finishing school, and we wouldn't have been financially stable before then.

Answer 2

at least two years of dating. a year for engagement.

Answer 3

My fiance' and I are high school sweethearts ( started dating the end of my senior year)

When we get married we will be 23 and will have dated almost SIX years.

Our engagement will be a year & a half.

Answer 4

well i knew him for 13 years and we dated for four years and he just proposed on monday and we are getting married 8/09..you should know every thing about him and know his family  

Answer 5

We'd been together about a year when he popped the question. I now have 12 weeks to go until our big day and we've been engaged for 2 years. I don't think there is an ideal time period.

Answer 6

We knew one another a year, then dated for two before we got married (I was 28). We were engaged eight months, just long enough to plan the wedding - small city.

I really think mature couples need at least a year and a half - to be SURE before you get engaged.

Answer 7

We dated almost a year and a half. Was engaged for 5 and a half months. Been married 3 months now. You should date a person at least 1 year. If you spend a quality amount of time together, you should know each other well enough to know whether you want to spend the rest of  your lives together. Your engagement just depends on how long it might take you to get wedding plans together. The more time means you get to know each other some more, have more time to plan and more time to save money. The less time equals all the above but less time to do all those. It just depends on you.

Answer 8

We were boyfriend and girlfriend for a total of about 8.5 years.. besides two 6 month periods where we briefly split up.. engagement is going to be about 18 months.. we are getting married in June 09!!! I don't think that there is a set time you should know someone.. You should be able to be satisfied that you completely know them inside and out.. and are willing to trust them with everything you've got.  

Answer 9

The ideal amount of time really depends upon the couple.  I know many people who knew each other for a few months, got engaged and married all in that amount of time and have been happily together for years.  I know people who took their time, got to know each other and had a long engagement.  

Personally, I have been with my BF for 3 years.  We will be married next summer probably with no '"official" engagement unless he surprises me in the meantime.  My opinion has always been that a long period of dating would allow for a shorter engagement and vice versa.  But if someone is planning a huge, extravagant wedding, they would probably want more engagement time.  My wedding will be near minimum.

Answer 10

2 years of dating, 1 year engagement

Answer 11

my fiance and i were together a year and 1/2 when he proposed. i was so upset on our 1yr anniversay that he didnt, but the more i think about it now I'm glad he waited (even though it was only 6 months more!) a plus for us is that we already live together, so i think we have a stronger relationship because we already know what its like to deal with eachother on a daily basis! also we've just bought a house together, joined finances etc etc...all those things can be very stressful on a relationship and the fact that we made it through big life decisions (buying our first house) and didnt kill eachother, made us much stronger as a couple and ready for the next step. we are getting married in 5months (so that makes it a 6month engagement total--thats really short!) but we both knew we were ready, so why wait around another year going over plans & plans when we can jsut get it done in a few months! good luck

Answer 12

I don't know about ideal timing, but I feel my fiance and I are in a very secure and trusting relationship that hasn't been rushed.  We met after our first year of university and started dating casually. He graduated a year before me and moved to a different city (about an hour away) to start his PhD.  That was just over 3 years into our relationship, and the long distance thing was easy at first, but then as we got closer to the end of the 8 months apart it got harder because we were both so busy with school.  But we made it!

My fiance proposed on the day I moved in with him, to signify the commitment to our future, that it was NOT "just" living together, which was what I really wanted, but I never explicitly stated that to him.  

We had been together for 3 years and 10 months when he proposed.  I had been waiting since around Christmas for the proposal.  I kind of new it was coming because the timing was right, but he didn't want to propose until I was finished my undergrad degree, so Christmas (3.5 years together) was not an option for him.

Our wedding date is November 21, 2009, so that is an 19 month engagement. We didn't really plan the length of the engagement, but we wanted at least a full year to plan the wedding, and he proposed at the end of April and we both did not want a typical Spring/Summer wedding, so November 2009 just came from that.

I feel we waited a perfect amount of time.  We were both done school and we have been together long enough to know each other through and through, but not so long that he was dragging his feet or anything.  I think "how long" is a hard question to answer for every couple because it really depends on what stage of life they are in. In high school a 4 year relationship is not the same as a 4 year relationship in your early 20s and definitely not the same as a 4 year relationship in your 30s.

People in university getting engaged after 1 or 2 years is kind of rushing, but in your late 20s or early 30s people know themselves better and are more secure in life and a 1-2 year relationship is great timing before marriage.

Answer 13

I think that you should get married when you feel that you really want to be with each other regardless of anything that may happen in your life and regardless of how long you have been together, 3 months, 10 years, it doesnt matter. Time shouldn't really determine anything. My husband and I were only boyfriend and girlfriend for a few months then got married. After a few years, we are still happy together than a lot of people who waited 3, 5, 8 years to get married. I notice that the people who got married after a short period of time of being together and those who got married after a long time of being together go through the same process after they get married. So I don't think it makes much of a difference, it really depends on the couple if they are committed to each other and if they are patient.

Answer 14

My future husband and I are highschool sweethearts, we dated for a little over two years when we got engaged,(although we knew we were the ones for eachother after a year) and are waiting two years for our wedding. (2010) We wanted to wait only one year, but will both be first year college students, and the stress of that AND planning a wedding would be too much.

Answer 15

we were in our 30s when we met.  We wrote online for a while.. met (in person)  July 2002 and married August 2003.

I think if the couple is older (not teenagers/early 20s) and know what they want, particularly if they chose to delay intimacy until marriage (wait till the wedding night... then you KNOW it's not about lust) the relationship can last.

But it depends on the couple. The couples I know who had been together the longest seem to have the shakiest relationships.  

Answer 16

I dated him for two years, but our engagement was only four months

Answer 17

I believe if you are not sure if to marry after six months it not the right one, but i am not saying you get married then, i think it depends on your age alot as well because as you get older you  have more life exsperience to make faster judgements,I have friends who married after six month still together twenty odd years later, and others who took five years and just as happy,so it time to search your own heart and go with your own judgement,all the best  

Answer 18

I have been engaged for almost 2 years and with her for 6 years. She doesn't even have a date set.

Answer 19

We knew each other for 19 months before getting engaged and our engagement will be 10 months.  I think these are reasonable.  Long enough that I am getting antsy a bit.  But it is good that we are getting to know each other and not rushing in.  Not so long that we are procrastinating at all.

I think it is good to start deciding this is the person for you and talking about wanting to be together around 8 months and putting off getting engaged until you really are ready to plan the wedding in the next year or year and a half and are ready to be married.