living together before marriage: opinions?

[sageofages]

I lived with Mr Sageofages for many years before I agreed to finally "jump the broom, become handfasted, put the ring through his nose"...aka....get married.

It worked for us, why mess with it? I think we used it as a way to work the kinks out of the relationship before we did the legal paperwork.

I am happy with how we started down our path, and thrilled to be finishing it up with him.

Our oldest daughter (28.5 years)...got married and left her husband after only 2.5 months!!! I finally paid for the divorce 3.5 years later!!! She has lived with two other men since then, and I consider both choices to be a complete mess.

Our youngest daughter married her husband the day before she graduated from HS. Heck family was coming into town anyway, why not? She was 18, not like I could stop her or anything. They "lived together" for a couple months from the time she turned 18, until their wedding 3 months later. They have been married 3.5 years now, and it has its ups and downs, but it seems to be working for them so far.