Some of us still believe that you should work on a relationship to make it last. And marriage is the way for us to say that without actually saying it.

I'm 22. I got married at 19. My family thought I was pregnant. I wasn't. We have no kids.

My husband still hangs out with his friends, and I have my friends I hang out with.  He wants me to get to know some of his friends so that way I'll start going with him to more of their houses. 

I think in this time period, it's different than in the 50's.  It's not all about staying home, tending to the house, kids, chores, etc.  People like going out and having fun.  It's not like we're cheating on each other when we do.  It's not like we get wasted and go home with different people.  We just have fun.

And we didn't get married for the titles.  We got married because we love each other.  But I know people who have gotten married for the sake of getting married.  Which is beyond stupid to me.

The point of marriage is a sign of the strong bond you both hold for each other that all hope is the forever time. Dating is just handled in a way anymore that makes it almost pointless. As a culture and world, the ideas of dating that originally acted as a way to determine whether a person is "marriageable" needs to be reinstated. The idea that is adopted far too commonly anymore needs to go away in the process and the old ideals need to be restored.

You really said it. Nonsense tradition.

Fiscal reasons are numerous... for many women, getting married means they never have to work another day in their life, whether they get divorced or not.  The relatively high percentage of women that think like that are a pretty serious reason to shy away from the marriage concept...

There are also certain benefits to be had from the state, employing companies, and whatnot, as well as a number of legal rights that are important.

Perhaps the most important though is that it is the culturally acceptable thing to do.  If, like you say, the arrangement is basically similar to the one the couple is already sharing, but will win them some approval from friends, family, and maybe even strangers, then why not enter into marriage formally?

Least important, but most desirable, is the personal pledge to another person that you really love them enough to put a timeless symbol upon your relationship, and be recognized, evermore, in conjunction with the other person.  It is a symbolic tying of fortunes that can be very meaningful if the couple is the type to which symbols of that sort matter.  It's something like promising to bring home flowers every day, or promising to visit his parents each summer without complaining.  It is another way, an honorable way, to tell someone they are special to you.  And in long term relationships... you can't find enough ways to express to the person that they are special to you.

I think too many people see marriage as something people do or a rite of passage.  Marriage takes a lot of work.  To be honest, there is no real purpose for marriage.  People don't have to get married to have a fulfilling life. Your friend is being completely unrealistic.  You cannot change the terms of a relationship just because you are legally married.  She is asking for trouble in her relationship.  I think that if she does not want her boyfriend partying anymore, that is something she needs to discuss with him.  To me it sounds like she is getting to the point where she and her significant other might be at different points in their lives and they may have different priorities.  Getting married is not going to force him to change.

There really wasn't until governments around the world starting meddling into people's affairs and tying certain legal rights to marriage, and saying that only married couples should have these rights. It's complete bullshit.

There should be no tax breaks for being married (or having kids, for that matter). You should be allowed to file jointly on your taxes with whoever you want. You should be able to get an insurance policy with whoever you want, open a bank account with whoever you want, name anyone to get survivor benefits and/or take over your retirement pension, among other things that are relegated only to married couples. No, marriage is a means of legal discrimination. That's all there is to it.

Make all the 1200+ rights only given to married couples available to everyone (like they should be!) and marriage will be a thing of the past. I can promise you that.

I do not believe in unconditional commitments, and thus I disagree with the idea of marriage.  It is too bad I will be somewhat disabled by the many tax breaks I won't be getting because my boyfriend and I chose to be sensible with our lives.

to me, wanting to get married is a sign of a person wanting to seriously settle down, stay committed, and be there to help, support, respect and protect their partner for the long haul. I would not want to stay involved with someone who had no intentions of getting married, because being married and just dating/being engaged are two completely different ball games to me. marriage is the be all, end all in my eyes. I dated someone for 6 years and was engaged for 2 of those, but I broke it off due to just needing to go my own separate way and doing my own thing. I know it wouldn't be so easy for me to just walk away if I were married. maybe I would've tried harder, maybe I would've fought longer, but we were just engaged, and it wasn't the end of the world. 

Marriage was largely used a vehicle for consolidating political and financial power as well as providing an environment for children to grow. Sure, it has a religious dimension, too, but that doesn't really matter much to most people nowadays (as if it really did in the past, lol). 

In the modern world, a lot of things have changed between the genders, but marriage is still treated, from a legal standpoint, in a very old-fashioned way. It's starting to change in certain places for the better (such as the reduction or even elimination of alimony, etc), but it still has a long way to go before it's really up to speed. The main changes to marriage that need to occur could be reduced to two areas: the legal definitions of marriage, and the legal precedents that the courts use to award things like parental custody, division of property, etc. I think that fixing up the legal issues (for example, making prenups a pre-requisite to obtaining a marriage license) would solve a lot of the problems with the latter issue of legal precedents. 

I also think that it's very foolish for anyone to view marriage solely as a declaration of love, because the history of the institution shows that it was often treated as anything BUT that. Just because you want to view it as a solidification of the bond you have with your lover, does not mean you get to ignore the legal and fiscal implications of such a union. And if or when that bond dissolves, you will find yourselves dealing with those implications in a very ugly way that you could have mitigated earlier, had you taken a more pragmatic view of the marriage institution. 
Of course the easier option is to get the state out of marriage altogether. But that's a story for another day. 

@QuantumStorm@xanga - I never thought I would agree with you to this degree. I think that couples who don't think about pre-nups are overly idealistic, but love kind of blurs reality for some of us.

Marriage is different for everyone, I think. For some people, sure it's all a trend. Especially a lot of the girls who get married straight out of high school. For others, they're genuinely in love & have been together for a long time & believe it's time to take that next step. For me, marriage will be a partnership. I can't just be in love with a guy, I want to be deeply & firmly ready to start a family with him, & ready to tackle any problem that comes our way, because I don't really believe in divorce unless you're really not in love or your relationship is damaging the children.