What prompted your engagement/wedding?

Four in Five Couple Just Want to Be Married

The vast majority of couples get engaged just because they want to get married rather than in response to any particular event according to an Easy Weddings poll. While some indicated that their engagement want prompted by pregnancy, time, or a special event, 78% reported that they just wanted to be married.

It’s refreshing to discover that the main reason for getting engaged is the desire to get married. In the past getting married was virtually compulsory if you wanted to have a long term relationship with someone, but in modern society marriage is more of a matter of choice, so it’s good to see that couples are still keen to be husband and wife.

5% of the couples that responded to the poll said their engagement was prompted by pregnancy. Perhaps religious beliefs meant that they wanted to be married to have a baby, or maybe they just thought that a marriage was the best set up in which to bring up a child. Getting married would solve common dilemmas such as whose name the child would take.

12% of the respondents said their engagement was prompted by time. It might be that they had been dating for a number of years and they felt it was the right time to make the relationship more official, or they may have been getting to an age where they wanted to get married to start a family. They may also have been busy with careers or travelling and only just found the time to plan a wedding.

Other reasons for getting married included a special event or money. Engagements often take place at Christmas, on Valentine’s Day, or on a milestone birthday such as a thirtieth, and the 3% of couples whose engagements were prompted by a special event may have waited for a significant date to get engaged. The 1% of couples that said their engagement was prompted by money may have had a good bonus, or inherited a lump sum of money that meant they could suddenly afford to pay for a wedding.