I love weddings (seriously, one of my childhood dreams was to become a wedding planner!) and you can find me weeping at any wedding because I think they are so beautiful. But I don’t think I would like my own wedding so much. Obviously, I wouldn’t know since I never got married but I just don’t have the urge to tie the knot.
Since it’s not very high on my priority list, I am starting to be a bit done with the question of why I am not married or the implicit message that my relationship means any less just because we’re not married. Yes, I know the order is “First comes love, then comes marriage and then comes the baby in the baby carriage,” so maybe I skipped a step by going straight to the baby carriage. But instead of assuming we skipped a step or that the baby was not planned for or that we will get married later, would it also be possible to think that maybe we just don’t need or want to get married?
Again, I love weddings and I totally respect people that, because of religion or other reasons, believe you must get married before having kids but please also respect our choice to not be married and still have a grown-up relationship.
Because seriously, marriage is not the only way to have a good relationship so just stop implying that I love my boyfriend any less than you love your husband just because we didn’t have formal I do’s. Or that our relationship is any less serious than your marriage because we didn’t speak our vows out loud in front of friends and family. Or that we are less committed to each other just because we don’t have a paper stating that or have rings around our fingers.
Why do we need formal proof of love anyway? If things are good, things are good and a piece of paper or a wedding is not going to change any of that. If I am happy in my relationship do you really think it’s going to change for better just by getting married? I don’t think a single thing will change (OK, maybe apart from that first happy honeymoon period). Besides, a piece of paper, vows or a ring on your finger are no guarantees either that someone will be with you for the rest of your life. None of us has guarantees, so being married or not is not going to change that fact.
We have a son together. Can it get any more serious than that? Speaking of committed, a husband you can divorce just like that but getting rid of the father of your kid is probably much more complicated.
Marriage in itself doesn’t mean anything. It’s the bond and the love between the couple that says something about the quality or intensity of their relationship. So please, just stop downgrading non married couples. Maybe they don’t want or don’t have the means to get married, in any case, their relationship might actually be at least as good as your marriage.