When did you get engaged?

[semicharmedkindalife]

Me and DP have been together for 4 weeks. We have known each other for 10 years and I have loved him since the first time I ever saw him. We are both in our twenties and have been talking about marriage which I know people might think is ridiculous after only being in an "offical" relationship for a month.
Just curious as to how long people were with their DPs before they got engaged?

ExH and I got engaged after 1.5yrs together, we’d been friends for a year prior to becoming a couple.

DH and I got engaged after two weeks of meeting each other (was more just a decision to get married and have kids than a big fanfare engagement) and we married about 7mths in. Coming up to our second anniversary soon.

There’s no magical formula that dictates if you date for X amount of years then you should be engaged by X time to predict a successful marriage.

Blimey some people get there quick 😳
We got together in October 2010 and he proposed May 2017, we get married in 7 weeks 😁😬

Engaged just under 4 years after we met then married 2 years later. I get if you know why wait but also what's the big rush, enjoy just being together for a bit before adding the stress of a wedding etc

5 years. We knew each other for eight when we started dating, moved in together after two, married after six (bought house/started ttc pretty much immediately after marriage, wouldn't have done either beforehand and we weren't in a position to do either beforehand for other reasons)

I genuinely think that the reason we're so well suited and never argue now is we gave ourselves space at the start- initially, the run up had been so long, and the 'I'm in love with my best friend' endorphins we're so strong, I probably would have rushed in and got engaged after six months, but then all these cracks would have emerged. Thankfully DH was a bit more up front about needing time!

Instead, we just had fun, worked out the areas we were likely to have slightly different views- money, housework, future children- and negotiated those without external pressure. Four weeks in is literally nothing, you don't know him as a boyfriend, never mind a partner. It can be weird when you know someone so well to accept it's a different kind of 'knowing' but I'm only just hitting a point where DH and I have known each other for longer as a couple than as friends and it's a v different thing. Don't rush it, you'll regret it in the long run.

On our 5th anniversary.

I'd been in a relationship with him before though for a couple of years, it was just short of 10 years since we first went out. I went to the same schools as him too so I've vaguely known him since primary school, we only met properly at uni at the other end of the country strangely.

First time: after 7 years and following the birth of our son. I think he felt a sort of obligation that he should propose to me, he produced the most beautiful diamond ring which, a few days later I found out cost £5000 and was on finance via our joint back account...how romantic.

If I'm honest I'd gone past wanting to get married after 7 years with him and I made no effort to move onto the wedding planning phase. That relationship ended after 10 years together.

Second time: 6 months, I got whisked away to New York, which was amazing by itself but while stood on top of a very windy Empire State Building I turned to see my boyfriend holding a ring in a box, he said it was just temporary because he didn't know my size etc that moment felt totally different to the first, it was how I imagined it would feel. I came home and starting planning straight away and we got married a year later. 5 years on we have 2 children and we're very happy.

When you know, you know.

I'm so interested in reading this thread.. I've been with my boyfriend for a year and am sure he is the one. We have been talking about getting married and know it's gonna happen in the future. I know then he proposal happen will be his decision but I'm hoping it's not too far away. We would love to have a baby. I don't think I will be patient enough to wait til we get married for a baby but she think I'd like to wait until we get engaged

Three months but DH said he wanted to propose sooner but thought I'd think he was mad. We were talking about where we should live on the second date. Married nearly 18 years.

2 months,,

We had been together five years before we got engaged. Got married after 7 years when I was 28.

orchiddaisy At risk of sounding like your mother/gran (when in reality we're probably similar in age ) - get married before you have the baby. It's so easy to put it off and put it off when you have other priorities, and you really have no protections as an unmarried mother. My DH had a really serious and sudden health scare in December - if it had happened a year earlier, I would have been standing around the hospital like a lemon waiting for MIL to arrive for Doctors to speak to about his care while he was unconscious, and it never occurred to me that should anything scary happen during childbirth, he wouldn't have been able to make decisions on my behalf. Engagement doesn't have any legal standing.

@AlfredDaButtler hats a very good point actually- I hadn't really thought of it from that perspective! Just that a baby is the ultimate commitment over marriage but that's definitely something else to think about x

6 years I'd even proposed to him twice in that time (on 2 leap years) but he was having none of it. Only after our DD was on the scene did he finally decide it was a prudent move.

We’ve been married over 10 year s now and we were engaged 3 months after meeting and one mi tv after actually getting together. Married less than a year after we met.
AND I had two kids- the security aspect was actually even more important to me due to having them.
I knew we would be together for life and marriage means a lot to me. (Despite being divorced!(

2 years long distance (cross continents), six months living together (overseas), engaged for less than 3 months before getting married (also overseas). Celebrated tenth anniversary last year and now back in the UK.

Started going out at 20 engaged at 23 and wed at 24. Didn't live together before we got married and we are still together 22 years later.

Didn't get engaged as such. Together 3 years...living together 18 months...get married in July.