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?

He was a family friend, then made his intentions know to me. I'm bit old fashioned and wouldn't bother talking to someone if marriage were not in the cards. He randomly told me he is thinking of marriage and would like to get to know each other better first. So I handed him my number and after almost a year got married. It would have been sooner but I wanted to think/ discuss more things first. Marriage is a contract after all. Also I was getting bored with still being a virgin so I agreed quickly just to tick that box.

We'd been together 12 years before having the marriage talk. We were in a solid relationship and didn't see any real need to be married.

Then the biological clock started ticking and we both thought it'd be better to be married before children as I 'm living in a country that s not my own, it's DH's.

One child later, 9 years married, 21 years together this year! weirdly it seems like half the time.

We were engaged at 5 years. Married at 10. Suited us both, but there are some weird attitudes surrounding marriage sometimes. More than one person suggested that I (not DH) had been sitting around waiting for a ring for a decade, whereas during that period my priorities were finishing a PhD and establishing a career. Marriage wasn't exactly front and centre of my 'things to do' list.

People's priorities are different. For some people marriage is a lot more important than it ever was for me (and I've never cared about the 'big day'; we eloped to escape all that brouhaha). But I guess it's a major issue when one person desperately wants marriage and the other isn't interested. For me that wouldn't be a deal-breaker, but I understand why others might feel differently.

The only frustrating issue is that constant assumption that marriage should be the sole objective of a woman's life, and that everything else is of secondary importance. Yeah, thanks for that idea, Lord Byron, I don't think...

Engaged after 4
Married at 5

Engaged after 5 year when we bought our first house together, married another 2 years later.

Had our first child 13 years after we met, the second 16 years after meeting.

But we were 20 and at uni when we got together so still seemed quite young to get engaged.

If we'd met at 30 I suspect things would have moved more quickly.

We have been together 7 years. Both crazy for one another and neither of us want to get married. It’s never interested me. Perfectly happy as we are

We had been together for 7 years when we got engaged & got married a year after that. I was still at uni when we started going out & DH had only just graduated so marriage was definitely not on the cards in those early years. Then we moved overseas together etc. I didn’t feel like I was hanging round waiting for it to happen - most of my friends who met their partners round the same time as me didn’t get engaged until they’d been together 7/8/9+ years.

It was 19 months and 11 days from the night I met DH to the day we were married, 6th anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks.

4 years for me. He proposed to me on my 30th birthday

We were together 10 months when dh proposed but I knew he was going to do it when he did as we had discussed marriage very early on in relationship

Got married a year after engagement

We got engaged at 5 years. Married at 11.
We got together at 17 though.
Propose if you want to get married.

We got engaged after 8 years together (on my 30th birthday). I just felt my early 20s was too early to get engaged and start wedding planning!

Yes, both times.
Think exH was about 7 years and late-DH was 5 ish.
Although with late-DH we didn't really get engaged, we just decided to get married and organised it for a few months later.

Oh, late-DH asked lots of times, I just always said no. When I finally decided I wanted to, I asked him.

We did, but we did everything so backwards. Got pregnant after 3 months, in our final year of uni. Too young to have a child and be engaged, but we didn’t want to terminate and so we had our first son.

Our focus then was on growing up, getting careers etc. Had our second son, got engaged on our 5 year anniversary, bought our house, got pregnant with our third son, got married in March and our final son in August will complete our family!

We met in the April in a cheesy nightclub
Got married in July the same year
Everyone said we were crazy and it wouldn’t last
We are celebrating 20 years in a few months
DH was with his ex for over 10 years and had two kids but he didn’t want to get married
He had been single for about 6 months when we met

Met in 2006
Engaged in 2013
Married 2015
DC 2018
We don't rush things!

We got engaged after 6 years but we were only 15 when we met! We got engaged on my 21st birthday. Approaching 50 and still together.

We were 6 years before getting engaged ( but married with the year). I knew early on and thought it was a long time but he is several years younger. I would much rather it that way around than getting engaged with a year or 2 but then not actually getting married for 5 or 6 years.

Engaged at 7 years, married at 9. It was lovely being so sure of eachother and being able to have our wedding be a celebration of all the love we had already shared so far.

Friends of mine recently got married after 20+ years together and might be biased, but I think there's something really special about couples who've already been through better or worse still feeling in love enough to tie the knot decades in.