living together before marriage: opinions?

[1908Revelations]

I'm too lazy to go back and find who said this but I would rather be engaged and wedding plans underway before I live with someone. Also, there must be discussion of what is expected and when. But that is a road that I will have to cross when I get there and it seems no where in sight.

[PrettyBoy]

I'm not for it at all. Wait until you get married.

[VandalSquirrel]

I live with the guy, but we have separate bedrooms. We are people who recognize that we need our own space, plus our sleep habits and closets are not compatible to sharing a bedroom. Of course we didn't need to live together to figure out that, but we were tired of crap roommates and we're making it work.

[ZTAngel]

I lived with my husband before we got married for about 2 years - 1 year of that we were engaged. He moved up to Atlanta for grad school and I followed a year later. It didn't make sense for me to move into my own place in a city where I hardly knew anyone. Plus, the whole reason I was moving up there was for him. I did lay out my expectations before I moved in with him after seeing my best friend move in with her boyfriend and not having her expectations met (marriage). In fact, they've been living together for almost 5 years now AND he somehow conned her into moving in with his parents and becoming the caretaker for his mother with MS but yet still no ring. I let my husband (boyfriend at the time) know that I wouldn't stick around if we felt after a year that it still wasn't time for marriage. We were engaged within a year and after another year of stressful wedding planning (mostly due to my mother...but that's a story in itself) we are officially married. Had we both stayed in Florida instead of moving to Atlanta, I don't think we would have lived together before we got married but our living situation was more out of convenience and necessity than a trial run. I'm glad that we did it though. I got to see all his quirks before we got married so that I could decide whether it was something I wanted to deal with for the rest of my life.
Studies show that our chance for a successful marriage is now greatly reduced. Time will tell what will happen to us but for now I'm very happy and I'm glad that I had made the decision to move in with him.

[Velocity_14]

Originally Posted by 1908Revelations

I'm too lazy to go back and find who said this but I would rather be engaged and wedding plans underway before I live with someone. Also, there must be discussion of what is expected and when.

^^^^that's what I'm saying....forshizzel!! Otherwise...Just Say No!