Here in North Alabama, a few get married right out of high school, but just a handful. Most wait for a few years. Used to be right after college (which is how we did it), but I see more waiting a few years to establish themselves in careers, or finish graduate degrees.
You always hear about how Southerners hardly wait for puberty to get married and reproduce
. I have a great-grandmother way up in the North Carolina mountains who was 16 when she married. We were in mom's hometown one day to do some genealogy research, so I searched and found my GGM. She was the exception....I only found one or two other 16-year-olds getting hitched in the late 1800s. Most were around 20-22-24-26.