How long was your (family, friends, whoever) engagement

[sam_gordon]

For those who have been/are married, or know people who are... how long was the engagement, and for that matter, how long did you date before engagement?

The reason I ask is DS informed us last night that he's going to propose to his GF at some point this year. They started dating freshman year of HS and are currently in their sophomore year of college. He said they will wait until getting out of school before getting married (so at least 2 1/2 years).

I proposed on our 1 year anniversary (at WDW ), and we got married 15 months later.

One of DW's church friends were engaged for 7 years before finally getting married.

 

[easyas123]

Got engaged over the Christmas holidays, immediately told my folks we "weren't going to get married right away".... ended up being married 7 or 8 months later at ages 20 & 21.
Going on 31 years this summer, so it worked out okay for us.

 

[Disneylover99]

We were together almost 3 years when he proposed.
And we were married, just over a year after the engagement.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

My engagement was about a year and a half.

 

[mjkacmom]

Knew each other since 12, dated for 5 years, engaged for 8 months, married almost 28. Ds5 has been dating his gf for 3+ years, dd23 4+ years with her bf, I see no engagements coming up. Ds’s gf just graduated college, dd and her boyfriend have 1 1/2 years left in grad school (MA/FL).

 

[RuntheMouse]

Dated for 6 months, got engaged then married 8 months later. Going on 22 years!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Married the ex six months after we met.

Became formally engaged to the man in the late ‘90s and remained in a perpetual state of engagement until he died.

 

[soccerdad72]

Met my wife when we were sophomores in college, engaged about 2 years after we graduated and married almost exactly 6 years after our first date (a little over 3 years from when we graduated). Married for 26 years now.

 

[bakerworld]

Back in the 70's the average engagement was a year to 18 months based on acquiring a reception venue. I don't think that is true anymore. Still lots of engaged couples have been engaged for years. The engagement is just a way of establishing a relationship without the legality of a marriage - or, at least, that is what it seems like to us.

 

[ronandannette]

We courted for a year and got married almost exactly one year after we got engaged. DH's younger daughter was also engaged for about a year (but weirdly only told us about 5 months before, when they set the actual wedding date so we could make all the arrangements). His older daughter lived with her now-husband for years and they had 8 kids between them; they never did have an actual engagement period. They also informed us of the wedding date but with a little bit more advance notice for the planning.

 

[LoveDaisy]

We were together for 5 years, engaged for 2 years and have been married for 5 years.

 

[TippyThomas]

Engagements usually lasted less than a year where I grew up. I don't say this to be funny, but we had a specific time of year (the wedding season) where marriages generally took place. It was during the off season where other tasks could be ignored so that all of the potential couples could get married. It was normally a group event with several couples participating at a time. Once they were engaged they almost always got married during the next wedding season.

I'll say the norm was about 6 months or so. I believe my mom and dad were only engaged for 2 months prior to marriage but had known each other their entire lives.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Date from April Fools Day (lol!) until Thanksgiving. Engaged at Thanksgiving. Married the following Memorial Day weekend.

So about 14 months from start to finish. (or start to beginning?). Will be married 34 years this Memorial Day.

That said, most of our dating was long distance.

• April - mid May 1989 - in person
• mid May - November 1989 - I was in Indiana, he was in Virginia
• December 1989 - February 1990 - in person (Virginia)
• February 1990 - May 1990 - I was in NJ, he was in Virginia

Then we were together the summer of 1990 -- he went back to VA in August, I stayed in IN to finish college.

This was before cellphones and emails. Lots of cards, letters, care packages, late night phone calls (when the rates were lower...).

 

[disneychrista]

I have a friend who got “engaged” in 1996 and in 2022 was still not married when he passed after a long health battle.

 

[1420Elexismc]

Started dating in 2010...got engaged in 2015(in front of the castle!)...got married in 2017

 

[CGB]

Hmm... we dated for about six months (Feb-Jul) before our engagement. Our wedding was about three months later (Oct). In full disclosure, there were some military factors that accelerated the situation. We'll celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary this year.

 

[Chirple]

Met my husband in the early '90s. We were good friends and moved into a romantic relationship four years later We got engaged 10.5 years after that. Moved in together 3 months later, and got married 8 months after living together.

 

[CynBeth]

We met in college my freshman year (he is a few years older than me) and dated for a year and a half when he proposed and had a year and a half engagement and got married the summer after I graduated.

 

[tvguy]

Worked together for 2 years before we started dating. Started dating because we both got tired of co-workers trying to fix us up with OTHER people at work.
Dated for a year before we got engaged.
Got married 8 months after we got engaged.
That was almost 42 years ago.

My mom thought we were too young to get married. We were both 24, but turned 25 shortly after getting married. My mom was 27 and my dad 40 when they got married
My MIL thought my wife was an old maid! She was 20 and my FIL 25 when they got married. They got divorced 12 years later. And MIL had a couple other husbands after that.
In our case, my wife wanted to get married in May, but we both worked in TV and May is a ratings period and in those days NO vacations were allowed in May, so we got married in June.

 

[Southernmiss]

Started dating Feb 1987 ( in our 1st year of college) engaged in August 1987. Married in May 1990 after dh graduated college. Will be 37 years married in May.

Dh's mom tells me he called her right after we started dating and said he had met the girl he would marry.

Our son started dating his wife their 1st year of college. Engaged in spring of senior year of college. Married the next year in August after they both did a year long grad school. Will be married 7 years this year.