Quickie weddings or long engagements?

Met on March 23, 1991 and married on Aug 9th, 1991. Our 21st anniversary is on Thursday!

I met my now fiance when we were 14. (I was in love with him from day dot) We were really good mates, he would come round and cook bbq's with my dad and my family adored him. Then we sort of fell out for about a year or so. Then we started talking again and started dating not long after that. We were together for 2.5 years, then we finished school and everything changed a bit. We ended up breaking up. The 4 years we were broken up, we both moved to different states, started careers, got to know ourselves without the other. We kept in contact 90% of the 4 years, even though we both had other relationships.

Then one day, the stars aligned and it was the right time for both of us and we got back together (we both felt like we would always end up back together....because even though we were young at the start, we both knew it was real love, especially after being in other relationships and comparing them).

We have been back together for 1.5 years now. We are engaged (as of May) and we just bought our first house. We'll be married in November next year. I hope to start trying for a baby some time after that :-)

So by the time we are married we will have known each other for nearly 12 years, engaged for 19 months.

We are having our engagement/house warming party in December. So it would be 7 months between getting engaged and the engagement party....we're a bit slow! haha

Your story is lovely :-)

My fiance and I have been together for almost 4 1/2 years, and have been officially engaged as of last December. We lived together almost instantly, but didn't get on a lease together until late 2009. April 2010 I got pregnant with our now 20 month old son, and we unofficially were engaged (didn't have the money for a ring) when we found out. We don't have a date set because I have some time still to go with my weight loss (1/2 way there!!!!) so we'll go to the courthouse after that happens. I knew he was the one after we went through hell together and came out fighting for each other.

My husband moved in with me after two months of dating. We got engaged about a year after that and then married 6 months later. I wouldn't have minded waiting longer, but we didn't know when he would be shipping to basic training and heard it was a pain for us to get everything done if we waiting to get married until later and I couldn't imagine spending more time than I had to away from him.

So far we've been married a year and together for almost three and I don't regret a single second of it. I just knew that with him it was right

my husband and i dated for almost 5.5 years before getting engaged (lived together for 3)...we were engaged for 5 months and then bought a house and had a baby before our first anniversary...we took pur time then moved a mach speed we've been happily married since april 2011

I married my best friend. We dated for 9 months, got engaged (were engaged November-January), got married a day after year anniversary, January 14th. And life is still very, very good. And he is still just as amazing as a husband as he was as a best friend. :-)

My husband and I were together for 2 years before he proposed and then we were engaged for 10 months after that, but we knew we wanted to get married within a few weeks of being together. I actually bought my wedding dress before he officially proposed.

i had my wedding dress before the proposal too!! i knew it was coming went looking on a whim with my mom and sister and found the perfect one

Well, we met when I was 12 and he was 14, so yeah, we knew each other for a while before we got married

Engagement was 9 months, but we were waiting for me to graduate high school :laugh: Been married for 17 years this month. I agree, sometimes you just know!

By the time we get married on September 22nd (next month!), we'll have been dating for 7 years, 3 months, and two days, with a loooong engagement - he proposed on Boxing Day, 2010.

We took things slow, and I'm happy for it. I'm now 24 and he's 28, and we just weren't ready. Now, we're both financially more stable, he has a career and I have my degree. We're much more prepared and mature than we would have been if we had been married 5 or 6 years ago.

I've been engaged for 11 months now, with no plans to get married until 2014. For me, I WANT to get married, but I know I can't have the wedding I want on my current budget. My fiance and I are happy just enjoying each other and don't want to get weighed down my finances, kids, etc right now.

We moved in together after being together for only 3 months, but then we waited 4 years until he actually proposed, even though we had both decided that this is it for both of us. We were married 8 months later, and that was this past April! :smooched:

We were together 3.5 years before engaged... we will get married after 10mos of being engaged. I say whatever works for you

I didn't really have a chance to date my husband, seeing as he lived in India (we met on eHarmony). We talked for 2 months, then he came and met my parents, took me to New York after Christmas and proposed as we watched the ball drop on New Year. I went back to India with him and we lived together for 6 months (his parents flipped, of course)... came back to the US and had a lovely outdoor wedding. We then went back to India and proceeded to wait a year and a half for his green card and we are now happily living (*with electricity 24/7!) in NC.

*We lived in the "Cyber City" but had power outages lasting for up to 8 hours at a time in 120+ heat. Not fun.

I've been with my boyfriend and best friend for ten months. We've been good friends for almost two years. We've lived together since we started dating and this man is the one I want to spend every waking second with. People went on and on, "It's too early to move in together, it's too early to start thinking about marriage, etc."

We moved in together because we couldn't be away from each other. Ten months later we still can't. We live in our three bedroom country home with our dog and two cats. We talk about marriage openly. It's almost as if we're already engaged and just waiting for the wedding. We talk about our future children. We're like the old married couple.

I would love to get engaged around our one year anniversary, so we'll see what happens. I'd love a gorgeous wedding someday, then maybe a kid.

But right now, we're happy

IMO, as long as you realize there's more to love than the emotions, the engagement length doesn't matter. It's not about the quantity, but the quality of time in your relationship. Too many people get caught up in the infatuation and forget that love is a verb--a commitment and devotion to the betterment of themselves, their spouse, and the relationship. Then they 'fall out of love' when one or both parties fails to keep actively loving each other. Some people can be married right away and have great success, and others have a long engagement and divorce 10 years down the road.

Personally, my boyfriend and I take love and marriage *very* seriously. We've discussed both at great length and have the same ideas about both. I don't know when we'll say we love each other or if we'll ever decide to get married, but I can say that we will definitely take our time and express our devotion to each other on a daily basis until we mutually decide that it's time to share a bank account and a house. Then we'll get engaged and have a simple marriage shortly thereafter.