Mine proposed because he was hopeful that having a lovely wife at home would persuade the judge to give him probation instead of sending him to the pokey. I accepted because all of my sorority sisters were getting married and I'd be an outcast if I didn't have a husband by the time I turned 19.

LOL.... you guys are way too much!

I met my husband when I was 19 and he was 21. He didn't propose to me until I was 24-yes, almost 41/2 years after we started dating. I was getting impatient towards the end ( about to graduate school, he lived in another state, where do I get a job/take boards?), but am glad we waited. When I think about what a dumbass I was at 19, I think there's a great chance we wouldn't have stayed married. We both grew up alot in that time.

We started dating May of 1998 & he proposed November of 2004 so we took our time. We started dating young & he finished college last year & I finish in 2 months.

It all depends on the couple. Some people commit right away, others take their time. There is no right or wrong answer.

Mr. 1228 and I corresponded actively for about 2 months. We met face to face on 11/20/97.

I moved out west (from DC) on 8/1/98

We got engaged on 2/20/2000
Got married 12/11/01

Pretty much 4 years time, but there was a kid involved (his) and giving lots of time for the ink to dry on his divorce decree :D

Decided to get married first and then do his immigration stuff.

That's funny. We'd known each other most of our lives.

But, we started dating in July, were engaged that next February, and married that December.

Officially BF/GF: January 1992

Lavaliered by him: October 1992

Pinned by him: January 1993

I proposed: January 1996

Married: July 1998

I went straight from undergrad to grad, and graduated in 1997; otherwise we probably would've gotten married sooner.

The guy I am with right now is my best friend and has been for a long time. We always had that "if we're not married by the time we're 40" backup plan with each other, and then one day he realized he was in love with me....about three weeks later (I still didn't know about him) I realized I was in love with him. Two weeks later, we both actually did something about it.

Although we haven't been dating that long we talk about marriage stuff all the time. Houses, kids, rings, jobs, even his proposal ideas (he has connections with the Falcons and thought about proposing during halftime with my parents in the stands).

In fact, just last night he told me that two years from TODAY he sees himself going through a "treeing" - something his fraternity does when a brother lavalieres someone or getting engaged. We talked about lavaliering and he told me that he'd probably just skip straight to the ring. So I guess we will see what happens two years from now....lol.

Honestly, we'd probably be engaged within six months if situations were a little different or if the timing was better. I dated one of his brothers, so it gets kind of complicated there. There are a lot of people who still don't know that we are together). Plus we are both still in college (he just got into nursing school) and I want to wait until I graduate to get married (possible date - September 27, 2008).

I guess we'll see where we are two years from now!

took me 10 years to get engaged and we are getting married this april.

all i keep hearing is "it's about damn time" what, like 10 years is long or something ;)

I have one of the longest periods between 1st date and proposal: 6 years and 29 days.

We had our 1st date August 1st, 1998 and got engaged August 30th, 2004. We will be married August 12th, 2005.

My parents, on the other hand, were engaged after 2 months. They were engaged for two years - they will be celebrating their 35th Wedding anniversary this June.

We met almost 3 years and 10 months before he gave me a ring. We didn't date that entire time though. We have not set a date yet.

OMG that's my birthday!

No. I'm not engaged yet. I've only been with my guy for 4 months. So I guess I'm kind of out of place in this thread. But I just wanted to "drive-by post" and point that out.

Continue... :)

Met: September 16, 2001

Official BF & GF : September 20, 2001

Pinned: July 6, 2002

Proposed: March 20, 2005

Married: Have no idea!!

congratulations :)

Thank God I'm not alone out here in the perpetual girlfriend scene! My boyfriend and I met late July 2001 and did the long distance thing for 3 years when I moved to be closer to him and my family. However, if we get to 4 years and he still has made no move toward a proposal then I'm kickin' him to the curb! :(

Thirteen months and three days.

Trust me, you are not alone in the perpetual girlfriend scene!

My bf and I just hit our 4 year mark, and we're not engaged yet. I feel like I'm the perpetual gf, but I know I have to wait for him to raise the money for a ring and to live on. I'm trying to be patient. :p

After re-reading (most of) this thread, it looks like most proposals happened after a couple of years, some in less than that amount of time but they had already been friends for a few years before that too.

While I know this sort of thing will "vary" depending on the people, what if a couple just met (like for the very first time) and then decided a couple of months later to get married? I know people will say it "just feels right" but how do you really know this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with (well, theoretically anyway, b/c there is such things as divorce) after knowing them for such a small amount of time?

I only ask b/c a friend of mine is in this very situation. She was with a guy for like all 4 years of college.. they had a REALLY bad breakup... she still kinda dated around, but would talk about this guy for YEARS after the breakup... (I'm talking like 3-4 YEARS after). Then she randomly meets a guy through a friend, and BAM! They're engaged.

I'm really happy for her b/c she genuinely seems happy, but for someone who agonized over that one breakup for years... and then randomly get engaged ... I don't know.. it just really seems weird.

The guy she's engaged to seems really nice... I've never met him in person or anything, but it really sounds like they are just in the lovey-dovey stage of the relationship, ya know?

I just can't help but wonder.. but I guess it's possible that the guy helped her turn her life around or something I don't know.

My husband and I had been dating for about ten months when we got engaged. I kind of knew him before we started dating, but I knew him more as a friend-of-a-friend (actually, a friend of one of my sorority sisters). We never hung out, just the two of us, as friends, until we started dating.

We kind of just knew. We had so many of the same interests, hobbies, dreams for our futures, beliefs (religious, moral, philosophical, etc). He calls me a female version of himself. :)

Of course, once we got engaged, it took us over two years to actually get married... that pesky grad school thing :p

So, yes, I definitely believe it's possible to know that a particular person is the right person even if you've only known them a few months.

Mr. PhoenixAzul and I have been together for a little more than 3 years, but we've known each other for 4. We met online through a Pittsburgh music scene website..and it's been true love ever since. I told him he's on the 7 year plan...if we've been together for 7 years and there's no motion towards a ring...i'm moving on! He's got 4 more left!

Well... it can be a long damn time.

I met Kenneth in 6th grade, he was in 8th, we were just friends, but were in the same circle.

When I was in 8th grade, he had my father for AP History, and he jokingly told my daddykins that he was going to marry me, so daddy couldn't fail his future son-in-law. Not that he was going to anyways, Kenneth had the highest average in the class.

My daddy then wrote him a recommendation to the OK School of Science and Math, so I wasn't going to go to high school with Kenneth, and was crushed. However, later on, Ken stopped me from going to OSSM, which I still thank him for.

Then when I was a junior in high school, he was dropping me off from a group Halloween party, and I kissed him on the cheek and ran away.

We flirted off and on through the rest of high school, tried to date a couple of times, actually dated for a bit when I started college (2001, he started in 1999)

I then dated and got engaged to someone else. That ended after a year and a half. Kenneth and I got together, but I got scared and ran away.

He dated and got engaged to a girl, that relationship lasted for about 10 months, when she went insane, partly out of jealousy because I was still his best friend.

We got together again shortly after that ended, and are still together. We have a little house and a puppy, and he's getting me one in summer.

So, we've known each other since Fall of 1994, and have been through all the stages together, starting with puppy love and going on.

We're not engaged. We might be by next time this year, since I've told him that I think it's getting to be time.

Maybe I'm impatient, but I just told him that I was ready, he said he was too, but wanted the timing to be just right, with family and everything. (Not to mention, he's finishing his MBA this spring and starting Law in the fall.) He already knows that I want to get married in the fall of 2008, after he graduates from Law school.

So, I would say that it can be forever, it depends on the couple: what they want and need.

I actually have a sort of similar experience to your friends. I dated this one guy for about four years during school (even lived with him that last summer), until things came apart at the end. For a year afterwards I tried to date other people, but just couldn’t get over my past relationship so just decided to stop dating until I was ready. About two months later I met a friend of my best friend and bam after only a short time I just knew (we have been dating for a little over six months now). It is really weird and hard to explain, and we both feel the same way.

I know personally after that past long relationship I really knew what I was looking for from someone, plus felt like I had everything in my life straight. In my past relationship, I was always wondering about things.. questioning things.. but with this I don't question things or worry about things.

Let's see.....do the math....5 years, 4 months and 17 days. =):D

6 years, 3 months, and one day

6 years and 6 months

it's official!

1 year, 4 months and 22 days!

i love my new ring!!