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DH has a coworker friend (who is not a nice person) who says she doesn't believe in marriage. She dated some guy for 9 years, bought a house with him, etc. but they never married. She ended up cheating on him and throwing him out of their house.

I don't think, even though she's ~30 years old, that she is mature enough for marriage.

@septemberlove: what? He let her have the house?!

I know a couple who dated 12 years? Before they got married. I think it's been 5 years(?) now, with 2 kids.

I know one couple who've been together forever. They have no plans to get married or have kids. That want like that years ago. Not sure what happened. She just says they don't feel the need to get married.

My inlaws were together for 15 years before they got married. But, they moved in together and had a baby (dh's little brother) years before they got married. DH was 3 when his mom moved in with his step dad. They only got married to make my MIL's father happy and cause he was paying for the wedding.

@tequiero21: yeah. Not sure of all the details but it was him who moved out. She had a party not long after they split and it was at their house.

My cousin also says she has no desire to get married. She and her bf have been together several years and have a 3 year old. She was married before and he has several other kids. I'm not sure why she doesn't want to get married but she says she doesn't. She posts a lot of wedding-type stuff on Facebook though. I think it's probably somewhat related to him having other kids and multiple baby mamas and all the child support issues that go along with a situation like that.

My neighbors have been together for over 10 years. They have a house, two kids and two cars together. They don't have any plans to get married, either!

One of our set of friends have one child and one on the way. They are very committed but don't believe in the institution of marriage.

Many of our gay friends are not married yet because they are waiting until it is legal in the whole country. They own houses together, have babies and hopefully soon will have the same rights as heterosexual couples.

@Mrs. Jacks: Plus it's not like their marriages would be recognized here anyway. so frustrating.

We know a few couples that have been together for what seems like forever, and have no desire to be married. They act and live like they're married, but just aren't! In Texas, if you get married, it's automatic that your spouse legally owns half of whatever you have! Guess they don't want to lose half of their belongings should a divorce arise in the future?

My DH's ex-girlfriend didn't marry until they were together since halfway through college, by that time, it had been 7 years or so. Before DH and I got engaged and married, she was adamant against marriage. Soon after we married, they married within a year and were already pregnant at their wedding. We waited until we had two years of marriage under our belt to try for kids. It's amazing how her timeline changed once DH and I married.

ETA: DH and I dated for 5 years before we married. We got engaged a little after 4 years and married 5 years to the day we had our first date.

I started dating DH in high school and we moved in together pretty soon after we graduated. We got our education, jobs and flipped some houses - marriage wasn't really important to us at the time. We started talking about a forever home, marriage and kids seriously at about 9 years in. Engaged at 10 years, married at 11 and baby at 12. I'm glad we waited, we really became adults together so I'm glad we didn't rush and enjoyed the process.

I do have to say my marriage means so much more to me now than I ever thought it would...considering 'its just a piece of paper'

My cousin was with her (now) husband for 10-11 yrs before getting married.

We have friends who just got married after being together about 12 years... they've owned a house together for about 10 years and have two kids, the youngest of whom is about 4.

I wouldn't have thought it was odd except for the fact that she was constantly making comments about how he wouldn't marry her, or "if he ever decides to marry me..." etc., and not really in a purely joking way. So we kind of got the impression that it was not a joint decision, that she'd have preferred to get married.

DH and I were together for 15 years before tying the knot. We didn't have a special proposal or an engagement ring, I didn't want any of that. We went out and looked at wedding rings, Harry Winston took our order, we decided on our wedding date on the escalators and gave each other high fives. The date wasn't hard, we got married a day before our 16 years anniversary (even though most people thought we got married on the actual day) at city hall.

wow! my friends dated for 9 years before they got married, but they also started dating in HS, so i don't think it's *that* weird.

My dad and girlfriend have been together for more than 10 years now. He always said he'd never get married again after he and my mom divorced. I guess he wasn't kidding!

The only reason I wish they'd get married is so that she'd have some say in my dad's care if anything happened to him. I will feel terrible if he ends up in the hospital and she's not considered family. And I wouldn't mind calling her my stepmom, instead of "my dad's girlfriend." I really like her!

DH and I were together almost 9 years before we got married But we had been together since high school!

My aunt/uncle have been together for almost 25 years and aren't married.. but they are engaged apparently (and have been for most of the 25 years).