How long were you together before getting Engaged?

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

Got engaged 9 months into our relationship, got married 2 years into our relationship, will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary next month, and are still just as happy together as we were on our wedding day (if not happier).

It's what feels right for you and your partner that matters (and as Dilfred has pointed out, communication is the key )

ljbnotts

Been together 7 years and 3 months, lived together for 3 years and he just proposed now!

Pee

I was engaged about a year after we got together, when he asked for the third or fourth time. I'd always thought I didn't want to get married, but since he certainly did, I said "Yes". I didn't know him well enough. We were very happy for that first year and we were happy for a couple of years more. There were some problems, it wasn't perfect and we never actually got married. We chose the church, we discussed the wedding but I kept saying that there wasn't enough money.

We didn't get married. We had some very rough times and we tried to ride it out together, but we failed and we split up and went our separate ways, we sort of stayed friends, and then we became real friends and then he died.

Now I still say that I will never get married, but I do sometimes think, unless my current boyfriend really wanted to - fortunately I think he understands and doesn't want to. On the one hand, I think I know him well enough, on the other hand I think I know human nature well enough to know that people change. Is it luck that some couples change together? Is it something they know, perhaps communication and work on? Why do things that you once liked about someone become the reasons that you no longer want to be together?

lostinrates

DH proposed on the anniversary of the day we met, and married exactly one year later. Moved in together....er..parent-scaringly quickly, after two weeks. been married about 4 and a half years now, and more in love every day

lea

Hiya

Am really interested in the different opinions on this post.

I got together with my ex when I was 16, married to him when I was 24 and now I'm 27 and have just received my Decree Nisi!!.... I knew/probably still do know my ex inside out and had no doubts whatsoever about getting married, after all we had been together 8 years..... But it didnt work out. My ex and I had soooo much in common, best friends as well as partners, we just clicked. But maybe with hindsight we were too like friends rather than partners? I really don't know.

My new partner and I, who I have been with for 7 months now, have a lot less in common (he is very sporty and athletic, I prefer a takeaway and wine!) yet so far things are just amazing between us....but I guess it is very early days.

So I guess I'm trying to say that you can be with someone for x amount of years but it still doesnt guarantee that its going to work out....

Will carry on reading with interest!

Lea
x

evenasus

I met my husband when I was 16 and he was 17.
We went out (courted) for three years before getting engaged.
We were engaged for three years and during this time we saved like mad for a 10% deposit for our first home and for basic furniture etc.
We married when we were 22 and 23, not having lived together as our parents would have been mortified at the suggestion. Well it was back in the 60's.
We are now 64 and 65 and still married!
When do I get a medal?

ironman1

Met in March 2007, moved in together August 2008, engaged (hopefully) sometime late 2009

Kaz2904

I met my DH on 1/11/07. I was 19, he was 20 (nearly 21). He came home with my flatmate on our first night in our new flat. He came into our front room and we sat up chatting until about 5.30am. Eventually he said he ought to go to her room and did (she was soundo!).
I spent the next couple of weeks avoiding him because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I confided in my best friend who also lived with us. She came back and said that J wasn't interested in him AT ALL and I should go for it. We went out on the Saturday night and were looking for him the whole night. Eventually we saw him and I said to my BF to go and get drinks while I went to the loo. I went to tart up while she was to collar him.
I came back and he was there. We clicked and spent the evening together. Later he went off and I met with a load of my friends from DofE. They all came back to our flat. About 4am someone knocked on our door. It was him and his mate. He didn't know our phone no and his friend thought he remembered where we lived, they'd spent an hour looking (lol!). They refused coffee, we exchanged phone nos and he went home.
I dithered around the next day and then phoned a few times. Our first date was 10/12/97.
I said to my BF that he was the man I was going to marry after that date. He said to his mate a week later that he was going to marry that girl (me)!
We left our flat 30/4/98 (right after my 20th) and I moved back to my Aunties. I was at his more than I was there. 6 months after we got together he lost his job. I moved in with him and helped clear the debt and pay the bills.
We got our own (rented but free rent for 1 year if he did it up) place in the October and moved in in February. We went to a friends engagement party in December 1999. We'd talked about it endlessly and we knew it was going to happen but he hadn't proposed. That night I said we have to get married, why won't you propose? He said OK go and get your ring tomorrow (he was working). So I got the ring. We went to tell his Mum and she wasn't happy because she said we should have done it together (well yeah!). Then we told my Auntie and Uncle and asked my Uncle to give me away.
We were married 18 months later. I found out that I was pregnant 6 weeks before we married. And he was given his letter of notice about 3 days after we found out I was pregnant. We were going to cancel everything and just lose the deposits but his boss found a way to keep him on.
We've just celebrated our 8th anniversary.
We're happier now than we ever were. We still squabble, we've had hum dinger arguments but we love each other. We won't give up on each other because we know what we are capable of. We saw the match within weeks of meeting.
By God it would have been easier living a single life at times but silence doesn't make me belly laugh or so mad I could scream!

username456

I've been with my bloke 9 1/2 years, we decided to get married about 6 months ago and will be tying the knot 10 years, a month and a day after we met. So I feel like we've waited ages compared to most people on here.

We just didn't feel the need to get married. We're hoping to start a family soon and it was important to me to be married before we did - that and it's better financially too.

Primrose

My OH proposed on our third date and I accepted, although we didn't officially get engaged until two years later so we had plenty of time to discover whether our gut reactions were right. They were. Forty years later we're still married.:T