There's something I'm wondering: what is the length that people stay engaged for. I know it varies, but I'm still curious! :)

I've been engaged for 7 months. I have my days where it's fine, but other days, I just want to get married already. My fiance and I are unable to get married for a long while though... we're paying off debts and we need to move out of my parents' house first. XD

I'm not engaged, but my friend and her man were engaged for about five or six years before getting married in May this year. :P

One year and one day for my husband and I. Some sort of old Norwegian tradition that he was keen on at the time. I thought it was really sweet.

- Wow, that's a really long engagement. Any particular reason why the length?

- That's interesting. Yeah, it is sweet that he wanted to follow a tradition that you both agreed on.

It totally depends. My mom was engaged to this guy for like 6 years? Idk really lol! I have friends engaged for 1-4 years. Usually time is about 6 months-1 year from what I hear/understand.

I actually read a lot of statistics about engagements/weddings/marriage back when I was planning my wedding last year.

Apparently the average engagement length is between a year to a year and a half; and, statistically speaking, the longer the engagement, the less likely the marriage will take place. That's not to say it'll be the case for every long engagement, but it certainly did prove true for me. I was previously engaged; we were together for six years, engaged for five of 'em - but we never did end up getting married. Then, with my husband, we dated for a year and a half, then were engaged for another year and a half before the wedding took place. Now, that all being said, my sister and her wife had a longer engagement (three years), and they were married just this past October - so it's by no means a "rule".

Another fun little statistic I came across: Couples who spend less on their weddings tend to have happier marriages. Personally, I never did understand starting your lives together by putting yourselves monstrously in debt just for one celebration - but to each their own. =)

Three months. I wish it had been longer but oh well. We wanted to get married in May so we did haha.

They were quite young when they got engaged, so they didn't want to get married too soon... especially since they both had trouble finding work and they weren't even living together at the time. But now they've lived under the same roof for years and it just got to the point where marriage didn't seem as necessary anymore. This spring they kinda just decided to get it over with. XD

My fiance and I got engaged last may and have set our date for April 2017. Everyone we've talked to was like "wow! That's a long engagement! Why so far out?" to which I then had to explain that if we wanted my parents help that we'd have to wait because of my little sister's unexpected medical expenses.

- Yeah, I understand the struggle to find work. It feels like it's nearly impossible to find someone who wants to hire you. And it would be extremely awkward to be married and not live together.

- At the rate things are happening, our length is going to be at least 2 years. But, it makes me feel better knowing all of these varying lengths.

We don't plan to spend too much on our wedding. I do think it's ridiculous to have a huge, super expensive party no matter what. So yay for being a happier couple. XD

- Oh wow, I hope your sister is okay.

That's a good reason to wait. I'm kind of surprised you even have a set date. We don't have a set date. That's how uncertain we are when we'll have the funds to do any sort of little celebration.

Honestly, I think it's way crazy to be married in less than a year from engagement. Why rush? For us, we've already been together long enough that another 2 years was not going to be that long. And if you really have faith in your relationship, then you should have faith that the person will still be there 2+ years from now, despite the legalities. Maybe take a nice vacation and elope if it feels right hahaha.

My husband and I were supposed to be engaged for two and a half years, which is a bit longer than "normal" engagements because we are paying for our own small wedding ourselves, but in reality, we secretly eloped a year into it because we couldn't wait any longer. xD We only told our parents and wedding party. No one else knows. We plan to surprise everyone and announce it at the "wedding", which is really a reception now, read our vows, and party up a storm. Honestly though, we've done the premarital counseling, read the research, and statistics, and more often than not, the longer the engagement, the less likely it is for a marriage to happen. That news didn't have any effect on us, I've been impatient since the day I met him but I highly recommend that you wait before getting engaged if you can't set a day a year and a half out. Waiting any longer than that just puts too much strain and stress on the engagement. The excitement and glimmer just start to wear after a while for you and everyone around you and that's not what it's supposed to be like. It's supposed to be an exciting fun whirlwind of fun to distract you from the stress of nailing decisions and everyone around you trying to make it about them. I guess my point is, definitely don't treat engagement like the "next step in a relationship". It's not the next step. Marriage is. Engagement is just the oil slick into marriage. lol