To ask how many of you got engaged after 5+ years?

[StrawberriesAndVanilla]

Was chatting with a friend the other day about her upcoming wedding anniversary, and ended up talking about how her and her DH got engaged after just over 5 years of being together.

It got me wondering how common waiting 5 years (or more) is for an engagement?
I remember when I was a kid, I used to think couples become engaged, married, bought a house and had a kid on the way all within 5 years!

I see some old friends on my Facebook getting engaged within 18 months - 2 years of being with their partners, and question whether they're jumping the gun, or if 2 years is a more appropriate time to wait as opposed to 5?

I've been with DP coming up to 5 years this year, and we're blissfully happy, talk about a wedding and marriage on an almost weekly basis (not always instigated by me, I might add), but no sign of a proposal yet. I half feel like it's going to be happening soon, half wonder if it's ever going to happen!

So, how long did your DH's/DP's take to drop one on knee?

It definitely seems to depend on age/stage of life.

I don't know, I met DH when I was 29 but we didn't marry until I was 39. I wouldn't have called us engaged either, there was no ring and we married 5 months after he proposed (because we had a specific date we wanted to be married on, otherwise it would have been sooner).

Got engaged after 7 years, now been married 35 years plus.

Everyone will be different but, I had to be certain and wouldn’t have dreamed of legally binding within 5 years

We were together 12yrs before we married, but we did get together at 17...

Got together December 2000, bought a house mid 2004, first baby Dec 2007, second baby March 2010, engaged Christmas 2010, married August 2011, third baby Dec 2012.

So 10 year ago before a proposal, but we were kinda busy with babies and houses in between!

Met DH when I was 22 and he was 20. Moved in together after 10 months. Engaged 9 months after than and married 9 months after that. First DC two years after marriage and bought house a year after that. Admittedly a bit unusual among my friends but not unusual among DH's friends (Evangelical Christian background)

We got married after 9 years and a year after our daughter was born. It was the right time for us. Everyone's different.

We've been together 6 years and are not engaged yet. We've said we'll probably wait until 8 or 9 years and then get engaged but not set in stone.

We had been together 14 years when we got married, already had two kids, house etc. We didn't really get engaged at all, just decided to get married.

Surely it depends on your age.

DH and I met in our early 20s. We had been together for nearly 5 years when we got engaged and then got married less than a year later. TTC a few years after that.

But if you meet someone a bit later in life and want marriage and children (in that order), you don't have the luxury of time.

If I didn't want children or already had them from a previous relationship, I wouldn't be in a rush to marry at all - might not even bother.

Getting engaged doesn't really mean anything other than a public declaration that you intend to marry. It has no legal meaning.
We lived together after 8 years and got married after 20 years. We didn't tell anyone and just got married. Been together 42 years now.

5 months for us. We just knew it was right. Married two years later.

We decided if we were still together and happy and strong after 5 years together we would get engaged. We had both been in relationships before that were not nice.

Actually what happened was three years in there was an unexpected death of one of our parents and we got engaged while they were fighting in the icu.

We have been happily together 16 years, engaged for 13 of those and still haven't married yet!

We aren't married but are as happy together strong than almost any other relationship or marriage Iv seen. Unless something unexpected happens I think we will be together until one of us pops our clogs.

Seven years here. Although we'd bought a house together first.

DH and I were engaged after just over a year and a half, married two years after that.

Been together 20 years, married for 7, engaged after a year so a veryyyyy long engagement.

Hindsight neither of use were bothered about marriage and saw it as a piece of paper, until a sudden death of a close family member and the legal position his long term partner found herself in, we booked registry office two month later and just did it.

OH & I had been together almost 7 years when we started talking seriously about getting married. We had broached the topic before around 5 years but he didn’t go further because I had a set of hang ups he didn’t want to violate. We finally decided together late last year just before our 7th anniversary and we got married a month ago. About 8 months turnaround time from us agreeing to getting married.

I think 5 to 7 years is pretty common, but maybe that’s within my circle of friends though. Most of the couples I know tend to live together for a bit and go through hell together (deaths, illnesses, economic downturns, etc), then make it official. :)

Got engaged after 7 1/2 years, got married after 10 years together. But we met young

7 1/2 years here, will be 9 years when we get married next year. We just had other things that we wanted to do first.

5 years exactly here. We were young though!

Moved in together after 7 months
Mortgage after 2 years
Baby #1 after 3.5 years
Engaged on 5 year anniversary
Baby #2 after 5.5 years
Married on 10 year anniversary
Baby #3 after 13 years

Just about to celebreate our 15 year relationship/5 year married anniversary.

I think it's age-dependent. DH and I talked about getting married within a week! We were married within two years. But we were in our 30s.

Got engaged after 5 years together and were married a couple of years later. We met at university so we both felt there was a certain amount of settling into careers etc before we got married. Been together over 30 years now, though, and still haven't got the career thing pinned down. Never mind. One step at a time.

We didn't "get engaged" in that way. We decided to get married one evening after talking together on the couch and drove to the registry office 5 weeks later. There was no engagement ring, no bending the knee, even the wedding rings hadn't arrived yet. I don't think that we are very romantic people tbh, but we did want to officially commit to each other. We were together for 4 years and a few months when we got married.

I think the actual 'getting engaged' process is something that's important to both of us tbh. I love anything romantic and can't wait for the moment it happens, sounds sad but it's something I've always looked forward to since I was a little girl. Although I did joke a few months back about proposing to DP and he said he absolutely wants to be the one to do it and he apparently knows how he wants to do it too, so I guess that's something!

I don't think we could ever be one of those couples that just decide there then like 'ok we're engaged now' then take ourselves off to a registry office. While of course, it's the marriage itself that matters, we both want a nice wedding day to remember, and I'm not ashamed of saying that!

A few people have mentioned their age being a big determining factor... I'm 26 soon, so I guess I'm still young in the grand scheme of things, but would ultimately love to be a bride soon

He didn't go down on one knee, but we were engaged after six months. It must have been right as we will have been married for 33 years this year, and together for 34 next month.