"The closer a courtship is to the magic figure of two years and four months in duration, the more successful the union".

[Tinker]

Article here

Discuss?

Of course, only relevant if you see marriage as the objective of your courtship.

We got engaged after a month, and married 3.5 months later (20 weeks from first date to wedding). We celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary later this month.

Cherry Sunshine??

My parents got married 8 weeks after they met and that was 42 years ago

Interesting but suspect chance association not cause and effect.

We got married 8 years into our relationship. But moved in with each other withing a year. Been married 8 years so total relationship 16 years and I haven't thrown him out yet...

DD1 was one by that point. No plans to waltz her darling papa up the aisle yet, though

we got married 8 years and 2 children after we met. No plans for divorce yet.

Message withdrawn

6 1/2 years !!!

we got engaged 6 weeks after meeting for the very first time, married the 12 months after that (would have been 4 months but my parents asked us to have it in December instead of April so they had chance to book their plane tickets ).

We'll have been married 6 months in December.

My parents got engaged after a 6 months (long distance) courtship - after the inital 1 week of meeting for the first time and getting along dad went back to sea. They got married about 1 1/2yrs after that (I think). And have just had their 33rd wedding anniversary - actual 'courtship' time was probably about 2-3 months.

Actually I cannot think of my DP in terms of courtship. Nice bloke and all, but not the word I'd choose.

The study in that article is only counting couples who didn't cohabit before marrying - which is a minority these days). So it's not really surprising that the "courtship" period has changed over 25 years, so have cohabitation and pre-marital sex habits. I find it a bit strange that this article totally ignores this point

QoQ - if you've only known DH for 18 months, who is the father of your boys? If that isn't too nosey a question?

oh who didnt cohabit

well dh gave me the key to his flat two days after our first date

he says he always wondered whether he was going t o get back from work and find the place cleaned out

We didn't co-habit. My flatmate didn't move out until 2 days before the wedding.

ladymuck - I'd knew him for just over one year when we married (6 weeks to engagement, 12 months to marriage) DS1 was born 9 months after the wedding

oh - just seen what you mean - 6yrs it should be

Oooh, I like the word 'courtship,' there's not enough of it these days, I think I could have done with a lot more woo-ing in my life rather than all the cutting to the chase I seem to have done.

Been with dp five years, nearly 6, one 8yo (step for him) ds and our 2yo dd later and we're very happy but unmarried, so far.

I keep going back to this thing of I want to be with dp for life but the main reasons for getting married are a) so I can say husband instead of the cumbersome 'partner' and b) so he gets to switch off the life support if I have an accident. At 2yrs 4 months we had certainly agreed to marry and we just haven't got around to it.

Got together. Stopped. Got together with other people. Lost touch. Got together again. Got together more. Had baby. Still together but not married. All over the course of 13 years. Hard to say where the courting started, stopped or indeed came in at all.

Just worked out that I was pregnant at 2 years 2 months so... Never discussed marriage though, except to say, in unison, "No" when my eldest asks if we are going to.

DH and I were married um 26 months after meeting. So 2y 2m. Pretty close. We've been married for 2y 2m, too .

We were together nearly ten years before we got married

Been married four years at the end of this month, one 18mo DS, one due in January and still very happy - I love my family!

Met Christmas 93, Living together by summer 94, engaged Feb 96, married Nov 96, dd born June 98, ds born December 03. 12 years together in total