Feet first into marriage

What can we learn from couples who don't live together before tripping down the aisle, asks John Naish

by John Naish

'Why didn't we live together before we got married?" I asked my wife. "It was your idea," she replied. "And a particularly daft one." Nevertheless, I should be feeling smug after a recent burst of headlines forecasting marital misery and early divorce for couples who cohabit before getting wed. We're the only marrieds we know who lived separately before the big day.

More than three-quarters of UK couples now live together before marriage. If you subtract strictly religious spouses from the non-cohabiting cohort, there's only a small minority left. But perhaps something helpful can be learned from the oddball few who decide to plunge straight in. Not that they are nicer, more upstanding, virginal types, but that their actions could betray a higher level of commitment to the actual idea of being married.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/22/feet-first-marriage