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Original poster

How long from meeting to marriage?

88 replies

BerriesNutsConkers · 22/10/2023 11:00

Met dh in Jan 2004, married in August 2004.
50 guests, church wedding, reception for 50 at a local country house with 3 course meal and wine. Evening disco and buffet with additional guests.
Cost us £5000
I made my dress and my one bridesmaids, mum made the cake, we used family cars, a friend was photographer (free), family did the flowers, no charges from church or organist as family links.
I couldn't imagine spending years planning a wedding!

Interested to hear others stories.

OP posts:
TheSweetEndOfTheLollipop · 22/10/2023 12:15

Met DH in June 2008, engaged September, married May 2009, so 11 months.
We ended up having two weddings as our venue choice we couldn't legally marry. So first in May was only 12 of us, beautiful day, casual clothes, DH cooked a wedding feast, we all played records and danced the night away. Larger wedding in June, a month later, 100 of us. Still low key, spent the money on great food and wine for everyone, and live jazz bands. Wedding dress was £120 white skirt suit I had tailored. Simple flowers, and very expensive shoes!

liscine · 22/10/2023 12:26

4 years from meeting to engagement, then another year until marriage. Neither of us were desperate for to be married quickly or cared about biological clock (married at 33) and we had no financial or visa/legal issues that meant it needed to happen quickly (DH emigrated here on a highly skilled visa, and was able to meet all visa requirements without needing to marry a UK citizen).

Wedding dress was from a Chinese online site and we skipped a lot of extras - no flowers, music, DJ/band, hen do, stag do, hired cars or cake. The food was extravagant though and we had a long guest list (extended family is huge).

LividGas · 22/10/2023 12:31

Six months from meeting to marriage.

(Divorced by our fourth anniversary. It's been a tough few years.)

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Weddings
Nochoiceleft · 22/10/2023 12:40

Over 25 years and counting 😆 wedding is booked for next year.

2chocolateoranges · 22/10/2023 12:42

Started dating Dec 1995(I was 19)
Engaged Dec 1999
Married the next May!

975zyx · 22/10/2023 12:43

Twenty years, neither of us were particularly bothered!

Shraree · 22/10/2023 12:44

Met in 2011, married in 2013. First baby 2015.
Very big wedding. If I could do it again, I'd have a much smaller wedding.

Daydreamer123456 · 22/10/2023 12:44

15 years
No guest registry office wedding for about £200 - neither of us were interested in having a wedding

mindutopia · 22/10/2023 12:44

We got married almost 3 years to the day after we started dating. For the ages we were (early to late 20s), I think any sooner would have seemed to soon. Even though we knew we wanted to be together forever from about 6 months of dating, there were a lot of raised eyebrows that we were still too young. We’ve been together 15 years now and have a happy marriage so obviously was exactly the right decision.

But I do joke that dh can’t ever divorce me because I’ve never ever planning another wedding. One was enough of a PITA and we only did 6 months of planning and it was all pretty low key. But truly could not be arsed to do any of that shit again.

margotrose · 22/10/2023 12:45

Met in May 2016, married September 2018.

Registry office wedding with just our parents - cost less than £600 including outfits and afternoon tea afterwards.

PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister · 22/10/2023 12:46

Met sept 2006
married oct 2010

AngryBirdsNoMore · 22/10/2023 12:49

Met at university, started going out 9 months later, engaged 2y 3m later, married 1y 3m after that.

Any quicker would have been very quick I think, given we met at university and were young.

We were the first of our friends to get married, bar three very religious couples (two evangelical Christian couples, one orthodox Jewish couple).

Big expensive wedding with 120 guests, over half of whom were family - I have a lot of family… Church that we both attended followed by stately home. It’s a cliche but it was glorious. However I’m not in touch with probably 20 of the friends we invited any more. That saddens me. One actually made a move on me at the wedding!

AgaMM · 22/10/2023 12:50

Engaged after 2.5 years, married 1.5 years later.

Been married for 3 years now.

We had planned a big wedding and had a very decent budget for it, but then covid forced us to cancel and we went from a wedding for 200 people, with a spend of £50-60k, to a wedding for 15 people spending £5k! (As our wedding plans massively changed, we went all out for our micro wedding in terms of flowers, decor, champagne, etc).

Kim82 · 22/10/2023 12:50

Met in February 2006, pregnant November 2006, engaged December 2006, married May 2009.

YouDoIDo · 22/10/2023 12:50

One month 😁Met March 2007 and eloped April 2007. Still happily married.

PinkRoses1245 · 22/10/2023 12:52

We got married almost 10 years to day after first date! I was still at uni when we met, I didn’t feel ready until then

x2boys · 22/10/2023 12:54

BerriesNutsConkers · 22/10/2023 11:00

Met dh in Jan 2004, married in August 2004.
50 guests, church wedding, reception for 50 at a local country house with 3 course meal and wine. Evening disco and buffet with additional guests.
Cost us £5000
I made my dress and my one bridesmaids, mum made the cake, we used family cars, a friend was photographer (free), family did the flowers, no charges from church or organist as family links.
I couldn't imagine spending years planning a wedding!

Interested to hear others stories.

Very siimilar to you met in febuary 05 got married august 05
Had my dress and cake made for me by a family friend ,we recently celebrated our 18 th wedding,anniversary.

aintnospringchicken · 22/10/2023 12:56

Got engaged 11 months after we first met ,then married 12 months after we got engaged.

hedgehoglurker · 22/10/2023 12:57

4 months. Happily married nearly 15 years now.

x2boys · 22/10/2023 12:59

YouDoIDo · 22/10/2023 12:50

One month 😁Met March 2007 and eloped April 2007. Still happily married.

Wow and i thought six months was quick 🤣

Gnomegnomegnome · 22/10/2023 13:01

Met 25 years ago
started dating 12 years ago
married 5 years ago
Eloped because we couldn’t be bothered with family politics!

ArtyNellie · 22/10/2023 13:03

Met April 1st’1995 engaged August’95 Married 1st November ‘95! Married 28 years next month, 3 of them happy but not consecutively!! ( joke!)

TheBlueandtheGrey · 22/10/2023 13:26

Dating to marriage 18 months, married 25 years.
Made my own cake, photographer friend did photos for £100, no cars, buffet in a village hall, friend made 2 Bridesmaids dresses, evening disco. Cost 1.5k in 1999 our honeymoon cost 1.5k for a safari, it was half price on teletext.

Loafbeginsat60 · 22/10/2023 13:31

Met October 2020, engaged 9 days after. Covid put paid to the wedding so it was July 2021 by the time we could do it.

30 people with a few more at night. Went to a 5 star hotel and splurged on food and wine and it was totally stress free. I made the cake and did the flowers (that was not stress free, I don't know why I thought I could make bouquets)

user9156 · 22/10/2023 13:32

8 years and still waiting..