Long term engagements?

There is a thread for 2016 brides, I think there are nearly 100 of us! We got engaged in February this year, and we're getting married in August 2016, so we will have been engaged for 2 and a half years - way longer than I would have liked, but there are lots of sensible reasons for waiting so long.

We've booked some key stuff (venue, caterer, photographer) but the rest has taken a backseat for a little while.

I'm also a 2016 bride, we got engaged in October last year and are getting married in July 2016 (so think our engagement will work out over 2 1/2 years). As Arpee said, there are a number of reasons for ours being then, money is one of them and the other is that 2016 is a milestone year for us, we will have been together 10 years by that point, so it felt right.

Majority of our stuff is booked and sorted, just the little things we can't do anything about until closer to the time, but I will say, I can't believe how quick this year alone has gone by, it will be here before we know it.

I got engaged November 2012 and we're getting married July 2016. So yes, a long time! We didn't do much planning for a while, we viewed a couple of venues last year but we've done the most of it this year. So it's been pretty much 2/2.5 years planning, and I'm enjoying it so far It's nice to not have to rush, I'm hoping to avoid as much stress as possible this way.

Also agreeing with jen, this last year has gone so fast! I'm sure it will fly by

We got engaged in Summer 2013 and aren't getting married until Autumn 2015 - so by the time we get married it will be just over 2 years that we have been engaged!

In honesty I didn't want such a long engagement but for financial reasons (we bought our first house 6 months before he proposed) we had to wait so that we could save the money.

I have planned everything apart from rings, cake and bridesmaid dresses. I feel that having had all this time, has given me the opportunity to explore everything thus making sure we get the best prices for things as we have had the time to compare various suppliers.

It has also given me time to make all our stationery too!

There are days where I think the wedding will never get here, but then I don't want to be wishing my life away either.

The 2 years for me, is a long time, but I am now half way through, and looking back, it does seem to have gone pretty quickly! Despite the fact i thought it wouldnt!

And at least I get to enjoy every single moment of the engagement without feeling rushed or like i missed out on anything! x

We'll have been engaged 3 years by the time we get married whcih I don't think is very long. Originally we were planning a 2017 wedding.

Your thread has reminded me of a lovely wedding I photographed a couple of years ago. The bride wanted to make a speech. I remember the line "My something old is my engagement ring"

They had been engaged 8 years and she was fed up of waiting to get married!

I got engaged summer 2013, but not getting married until summer 2017.

Its that long because I wanted to get married on our 10 year anniversary & we still need to move in together.

We got engaged in February and are marrying at the end of December so have only had 10 months to plan x

I got engaged in August 2009 and will be getting married May 2015, so getting on for 6 years! Good old finances kept is from getting married any sooner, but I feel like now is the right time, as both our children will be able to enjoy it. We only had one when we got engaged and it would seem odd now to have one there and not the other! I didn't start any planning until this year though. With over 7 months to go I still feel like it's too soon to do anything so having too long to plan wouldn't have worked for me. I'd have gone mad! It will fly by for all of you though. Good luck! X

We got engaged in March 2012 and didn't even think about doing any planning for a year, we started looking for venues in 2013 and booked ours for August 2015.

So our engagement will be 3 1/2 years, we weren't able to marry within a year as we'd bought a house shortly after our engagement so that had to take priority.

I'm glad we waited as it's meant we've been able to save up steadily and been able to get all the main suppliers we want on our date!

We got engaged in December 2013 and just got married 5 September 2014 so engaged for about 9 months, but we had been planning the wedding hypothetically for a while before we officially got engaged.

I'm a 2016 bride but have to say we're really just scoping out ideas and costs at the moment for budgeting purposes. Our engagement will have been 25 months by the time we get married.

We were at our venue this weekend (the only thing we have booked) and asked the Co-ordinator there whether we were unusual in starting to plan 18 months ahead. Apparently not. In the not too distant past the majority of people would plan 18-24 months ahead however the Co-ordinator did say that although that's still the case for a significant number of Brides/Grooms, there are now more who are planning 6-12 months beforehand however they do tend to be the ones who panic more about costs and affording everything within the short timescales they've given themselves to plan!

We got engaged in May 2013 so it will be 20 months for us. We always had the idea to get married on my 40th birthday so that was the main thing that dictated the length of time. We didn't do any planning for the first 8 months of being engaged and I was quite happy with that.

Haha, we got engaged on the 20th January 2014, planned to get married June 2015, but then brought it forward to the 27th September 2014, so 8 months to plan! Thankfully I'd already saved up for it, but it has been mental!

Due to circumstances my friend planned her wedding in 3 months! She has two kids and a very stressful job too. I couldn't do it, but it was a wonderful day.

That is such a beautiful reason to wait.

There's stories are all so lovely and it's wonderful to read about everyone's excitement.

I'm a bit old fashioned, and so when we got engaged, we both expected to set a date straight away. We have got 15 months (ish) between proposal and wedding.

If we hadn't got the money and needed to wait another year, that would have been fine too, but I would still have wanted a date booked, or to work to! After all, one gets "engaged to be married" with the question "will you marry me" being asked.....rather than "wear this ring and one day we will think about it".

My ex husband is engaged to his new model, and has been for the last 2 years, but with no idea of whether they will ever get married. To me, that's not an engagement. But like I say, I am a bit old fashioned where things like this are concerned, so know I don't see things the way many others do/will!

Nothing wrong with a long engagement at all, there are many reasons why people have them. I'm lucky - 15 months has been the perfect amount of time for us!

We got engaged March 2011 and are getting married July 2015! So 4 year engagement! We have been together 6 years and have brought our own house and had our first child together in that time. So started actively planning our wedding the beginning of this year x

We got engaged April 18th (2014), we're planning for April 2018 but haven't booked anything yet. But we have agreed that this is the plan.

Getting married hopefully in september 2017, been looking at wedding stuff since 2010 so 7 years although we are not 'offically' engaged yet lol

We're getting married in March 2015 and got engaged on my 21st birthday Oct 2012. My OH is 18 months younger than me and he wanted to be at least 21 before we married. It has also given us the chance to save up money to allow us to have the day we want as well as still live our lives instead of having to scrimp and save or cut back on things.

I got engaged june 2007 and just our date for 30th april 2016 so its only took us 9 years lol but with 2kids and the ups and downs of life we have decided to do it!!!(finally) and now im like bridezilla lol

I'm really admiring everyone's patience and devotion.

I can totally understand wanting to save up so it's "just right." xx

We got engaged in April 2013 and are getting married in August 2015 so 2 years and 4 months for us. It came as a total surprise so I hadn't been saving for the big day so it all came down to finances for us. We want the dream wedding and honeymoon so need time to save for it! It seemed like such a long time away but time is flying

We got engaged in december & getting married auguat 2015. So a 20 month engagment. I wanted to have a year engagment but stretched it out so we could save more money x

Coming from a bride who has done it in almost exactly a year to the date of the engagment - i really wish i had of waited a little while, i am too of an opinion you get engaged you book a wedding, but honestly, i wish it was perhaps next spring. I've never felt so skint in my life!! It will be worth it though, as bad as this is - I have decided to not worry about money I have next year to pay it off my year two of wedding planning!! so yes, on hindsight perhaps a slightly longer engagment would be better. However I have had a few big suprises financially over th elast couple of months that havent helped!

My sig says it all..

We did kind of plan getting married when we first got engaged, but we had kids, got a mortgage and had a good few holidays so wedding plans got pushed to the back of our minds.

After a few years of being together, we got to where we thought 'what's the point of getting married?' but after much persuasion from our daughter and h2b's mom, we thought 'sod it, lets do it'.

So here we are planning our wedding for our 25th (being together) anniversary..

We got engaged on 4th June 2012 and got married last week. We'd been engaged for 2.5 years - we'd only been going out for 18 months before getting engaged.

Loved having the time to plan, and the time absolutely flew by.

sarah1976 that is beautiful! what a romantic idea. i hope the day goes really well for you all. x

We will have been engaged 4 years this Christmas. Getting married July 2015.

I wasnt in any rush to start planning a wedding we have been together 8 years and to me we were already committed to each other. Then we had babies so any kind of plan got put on hold!

Finally we have set a date now though - 307 days to go!

I actually can't remember how long I been engaged... sometime in 2011. People have started forgetting we are engaged and no one seems to be motivated to book a wedding. In fact some people just refer to my 'husband' now....... Mind you it doesn't help that wedding planning bores everyone in my family stupid.