marriage = a lot of laws and papers and legal stuff involved
Do you really want to be like 23 years old, just starting out a career and be presented with a bunch of paper and little things you must do to make your marriage legal? OH and at the same time be paying off student loans if you went to college.

The ideal age i guess would be .. 25ish - 30?

Late twenties. In your early-mid twenties you are dramatically changing as a person. If you can go through all of that and you and your partner still love each other for who you are then I think it's okay to get married. Really, though, people settle into who they're going to be for the rest of their lives. Sometimes this involves a drastic change in themselves. Sometimes you're dating someone and you've been dating them for a long time and then all of a sudden they turn 23, 24, 25 and they're a different person. Their priorities have changed. You need to love the person for the person and not what they do, what they're into, what theyre going to do in life, etcetera.

I'm a firm believer that waiting until you're older to get married is the best option if you are looking for a successful marriage. If you just want to get married to get married then whatever, you can get married and divorced as many times as you want to. Me, though, I'm going to do as much as I can to keep the stability of my relationship. Marriage does change things.

30 is too old I think, because by then the woman's eggs will not be as good anymore if you want to have children. And people don't always have kids right after they're married. Each year adds more of a risk for retardation and other bad things to happen to a fetus.

But if you don't want children, then whenever.

The perfect age for me I think will be 22 if me and my boyfriend continue to work out. We've been through many many tough times and we still have them. We just know how to deal with each other. And we still love each other and get excited to see each other even after more than two years. I think if he had money he wouldn't be afraid to propose to me right now, at the age of 19.

Anyways... in any marriage you must be able to work problems out with the person. You do not go into marriage thinking "Hey if it doesn't work out there is divorce." You have to go into it with the attitude of "No matter what I am going to make this work." Unless of course it is something drastic that cannot be worked out.

Also weddings do not have to be expensive. So money isn't always an issue.

There is no perfect age.

maybe he's thinking around that age 'cause ppl that are closer to 30 start to shift their focus into where they see themselves in the future: career, family, relationships, etc. I'm 28 and I'm already planning about how long it will take for me to get my school done so that I can start on my "career" (I'm going to school to become a teacher)

I got married at 21. I was in the Air Force and had been at my first base for 3 months when I met my husband. He had orders to go to a different base because he had been at the base I just arrived at for 2 years. I said, "this sucks, we're just starting to get to know each other." So, he said "wanna get married?" and I said "sure." and that was that. LOL. Wanna know how long that marriage lasted? Barely 6 months. Yeah...I call that my "test drive" marriage. Just because I was on my own and out of my parent's house and had a new lease on life, I decided that I would do whatever I wanted. That was so doomed from the start, but no matter how many ppl told me to wait, it made me want to marry him even more. I was so stupid and naive.

NEWHO, I really don't think there is a certain "age" that ppl should get married. It depends on the maturity level of both parties involved. considering how long you guys have known each other and how long you guys have been dating, I wouldn't see anything wrong with getting married at this time. I think it has to do with how a lot of the "hollywood" couples are shown as being married for x amount of years and then BAM they get a divorce and it's published EVERYWHERE and so ppl start to wonder if they'll face the same dilemna. Because these ppl are in the spotlight, some ppl "look up to them" or just try to mimick them 'cause of their coverage in the media. i definitely want to get married again, but at the same time, it scares me. i have a son who is 3 and 1/2 and i'm a single mom, so even though i want to provide a "stable" family portrait to my son, the last thing I want to do is marry a guy who i think is "mr. right" and then have it end up in divorce.

i also think a girl's perspective of marriage and a guy's perspective are on two separate levels. most girls look at is as a way to settle down and spend the rest of their life with their loved one and possibly starting a family. most guys see this as a way of giving up their "bachelor" style of life. that's just the way i see it. of course, there can be different perspectives from both parties.

that's just my thought on it....

@someone_to_love_you@xanga - i also think a girl's perspective of
marriage and a guy's perspective are on two separate levels. most girls
look at is as a way to settle down and spend the rest of their life
with their loved one and possibly starting a family. most guys see this
as a way of giving up their "bachelor" style of life. that's just the
way i see it. of course, there can be different perspectives from both
parties.

I definitely agree with you on this.  Most of my husband's relatives/friends don't want to get married because they don't want to give up their "bachelor" lifestyle. 

@Viserys@xanga - i agree, i giggled when i read her comment.  it's like "man, lets not get married now cause i'm not ready to write down my name and other information!" i'm just kidding, i feel mean now :P

probably late twenties and early thirties, just cause people are out of college and hopefully in 'good' standing in life (making enough money to not only to live off but there's extra to save/not living with parents/etc).  i guess whenever you are stable in life, that is the right time to get married

howza bout nevur i thaynk marrij iz totally fukd up & singul pepul hafta pay for married pepulz crap i say ban marrij now

For me? I would say 23. I rather not try to juggle marriage, school, and teaching all at the same time until I'm actually DONE with college/masters. When I'm 23, I'll have my masters under my belt, as well as a year of teaching.

 @ordinary_gir1@xanga - and planning the marriage itself too! That's tedious I think it would just be hard during the college years as well! Too bad student loans get paid of like.... 10, 20 years for an average person ( I think? I'm not sure though).

Student loans stiiinkkkk :(

since the majority of marriages are ruined over money issues, i would make sure you both have relatively stable jobs and stable financial situations before you tie the knot. among other things that i am too lazy to discuss and have probably already been mentioned.

@xjadersx@xanga - Right on about the fertility issue.  A lot of poeple don't realize that as women age we run the risk of losing the ability to have children.  Yes, people are generally waiting longer to marry, and are able to get pregnant at later and later ages...but for me, personally, I want to have children as soon as I want, without having to resort to any artificial means.  I don't want to have to "try" to get pregnant.  (I understand that some people have fertility problems despite their age but I don't want my age to be a factor if I do end up having problems.)

The only thing I want before marriage is to be financially sound.  After that I want a few years to be married without children, just to experience marriage with my husband alone.

In general, men want to wait longer to get married.  My boyfriend said his ideal would be to get married at 27 and have children at 33.  For me, that's a bit too far away.  He's only 21, and frankly, I don't want to be dating for eight years before we get married.  That's not so say I'd break up with him if he doesn't propose soon, but I definitely want to meet somewhere in the middle with him.

@xjadersx@xanga - yeah, but do you really want to be popping out babies? why not just adopt one of the MANY children available with no family? as of late, our planet's population's getting bigger and bigger with so much cultural pressure to pop out them babies, but i think you should rethink your desire to do so. 

ya i agree its what you make of it though, if you get married and just keep acting like it hasn't changed much i think its much better that way sometimes people start acting all cliche with marriage and i think they shouldn't its just a ceremony to make it official that your 100% positive in this person and you have the faith that it will last

I think late 20s is perfect. Your frontal lobe actually hasn't fully developed until you're 25 anyways; you're still going through changes. Plus, I'd like to have finished grad or med school and have a stable career before settling down with someone and having kids.