Will you be living with your fiancee before marriage?
Most couples now live together before their wedding
Living with your fiancé before marriage has now become the norm according to the results of an Easy Weddings poll. Out of almost 3,000 respondents, 86% said that yes they would be living with their fiancé before marriage while only 14% said that they would not.
The proportion of Easy Weddings couples that plan to live together before marriage has increased rapidly over just a few years. When this poll was first conducted in 2002, the results were less extreme, with 72% of couples planning to live together and 28% waiting until they were married to cohabitate. This sharp increase is in line with figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which show that only 3% of couples lived together before marriage in the 1960s, rising to around 74% in the 2000s.
The attitude to living together before marriage has certainly changed in the past couple of decades. It is no longer seen as something shocking or ‘living in sin’ as our grandmothers might have said. At one time living together before the wedding meant that a couple’s marriage was less likely to last. These days the opposite is probably true because cohabiting couples at least have the chance to discover if they are compatible enough to live together before they tie the knot.
There are many reasons that couples choose to live together before they get married. They may prioritise their education and career over getting married. They may feel it is more important to buy a property or have children together than to get married. They may simply want the time to save up for the wedding of their dreams.
The 14% of couples that choose not to live together before they get married might risk finding out they’re not as compatible as they thought once they do cohabitate, but on the other hand they will benefit from that wonderful honeymoon period when they first move in together as husband and wife. Whatever you choose to do, the pressure to say I do before you move in together has clearly lifted.