What Is The Best Age To Get Married?

Dear Rich,

I’m 24 years old and it seems as though all of my girlfriends are getting engaged and married to their partners. I have been with my boyfriend for three years now and things are going really well. The other night my boyfriend asked me what my thoughts were on marriage and when I could see myself getting hitched. I was a bit stunned at the question as he’d never brought anything up like this before and if I’m honest, I didn’t really know how I felt so I just brushed over the subject. But now I’m wondering if I should be considering marriage at my age as my friends are or if I should wait. I just wanted to know what you thought the best age to get married is?

Thanks,

Hollie, Surrey UK

Dear Hollie,

It’s funny you should ask this question as we did a ‘One Minute Matter’ video on this subject not so long ago (see below). The subject of marriage seems to bring up a real mix of feelings from people which makes it even more difficult to decide a ‘best age’. There are a lot of factors to consider when getting married and although important, age is only one of them. When tying the knot there are absolutely no guarantees from either party that this arrangement is going to be forever – so much can happen over time. My parents got married when they were 20 and they were divorced nine years later, but my great-grandparents got married at 19 and are still going strong today! So this just goes to show the unpredictability of getting ‘hitched’ as your boyfriend called it.

Marriage is a life-long commitment between two people in my view, and the decision to get married shouldn’t be taken lightly. An awful lot of people get married for the wrong reasons: their friends are doing it, they want the ‘Big White Wedding’, or they think it will secure or guarantee their relationship with their man but these are not good reasons to have a wedding. Ok, so after all that rambling I’ll give you the honest answer you wanted – I think the best age to get married is around 30 and once you’ve been with your partner for approximately 5 years. I think by this point you’ll have a really good idea whether your partner is ‘the one’ and you’ll be old enough to be over the dramas that come with being ’20 something’!

I hope this helps you in some way.

With Love, Rich

PS: Take a look at what the women on the High Street think…