Living together before the wedding?

My fiancé and I are waiting until after we get married to live together. He owns a home, so it’ll be easy just to move in with him. We wanted to wait because we like the idea of the big change after the wedding. If we were already living together, besides paperwork, it felt like nothing would have changed. It gives us something to really look forward to other than actually getting married.

We bought our home last April together. We had been dating for almost 3 years at that point, but had been engaged for 2 months. (We were not engaged when we first started house hunting.) We lived together in our apartment for a year before buying our house. We were tired of apartment living and wanted a place to call our own, especially since we knew that soon enough we'd be married and trying to start a family!

View Quoted Comment Totally makes sense! It’s fun to have something to look forward to!

We've been together for nine years, and have lived together for the last five years! It just made sense to move in together a long time ago.

I think it is a common misconception that nothing changes after marriage if you were living together beforehand and that signing the papers is basically a formality. H and I lived together for a year (H owned his own home and I moved in with him) before getting married, and marriage has definitely still been a big change and adjustment. I'm not sure that this was something we were even prepared for because we also believed it would basically be the same but it hasn't been. I am glad we lived together prior to marriage so that we did not have to navigate the living together changes and the marriage changes all at the same time.

My FH and I have lived together for 4 years. However, in those four years we've kept most of the same household items (knife set, pots/pans, etc.). We've always rented the place we've lived in and are looking to buy shortly after we get married. Even though we've been living together for a while now we're looking forward to getting new items for the house that we will save for our new home!

We lived together over a year before he proposed.

We lived together for a little over a year before we got married. I had moved into his small apartment with him when my lease ended, all my stuff went into storage. Honestly not much changed when we got married. For me I felt married when we moved into our own home about 6months after getting married. I felt like it was ours instead of his.

We've lived together for 5 years and bought a house together last year.

Personally I think every couple should live together before getting married. You learn so much about someone and it's a completely different dynamic. It's also hard in the beginning - we definitely struggled the first month or so. I know not everyone feels that way though and may be restricted by finances, distance, religion etc

I moved in with FH about a year after we started dating. One of my personal 'requirements' for any SO was that if we were talking marriage I wanted to be living with the person for at least 6 months before we were engaged. He agreed with me. We learned so much about each other after we moved in together and it made our relationship stronger. We were able to really see each others personalities and quirks and we worked through a few things together. I think living together before marriage is a good thing.

We moved in together after 6 months of dating. So we'll have lived together for 3 years when we get hitched. It was one of his "conditions" of marriage. To see how we work financially and effectively when theres no "you can just go to your own place when you're upset".
My parents weren't thrilled but in the end said they would have much rather us do this than have us rush into a marriage like my brother.

My fiancé and I won't be moving in together until after the wedding! It is mainly for religious reasons but I also like the fact that I get to look forward to that after the wedding. I'll be a married woman and can finally from my parent's home to my husband's!

He moved in with me to the house that I own at 6 months. For me it was crucial to live together because we learned so much and grew together in a way that solified our future together. We will be looking to buy a new home about a year after we marry.

I think so. Pretty much all our friends lived together before getting married (besides 1 couple). We've lived together for 3+ years, and bought a home together in July 2018.

We have lived together in a rented townhouse for 2 years of our 3 year relationship before getting married. We are in the process of finding and buying a house right now, which is really exciting with the wedding right around the corner too. It's our new adventure

ETA: When we moved in together, we didn't really have a choice. Both of our home situations were less than ideal..

We lived together first, but I had made it clear that moving in together should mean he's ready to propose in the next year. I didn't want to end up like my brother who has lived with several girlfriends and always ended up breaking up after living together for years. It's just messy. So we didn't move in together until we were ready to get married, he proposed about 10 months after we moved in.

I have to disagree though with the idea that nothing changes after marriage if you've lived together. We got married, and it did feel different. It's different to change your name. It's different to say "my husband". We went and bought a house less than a month later, something I refused to do without marriage. It is still different.

Also....why would you want a "big change" after getting married? Isn't the whole point that you have a great relationship now and you want to continue that?? I didn't want anything to change after marriage, I just wanted to continue the same wonderful 6 year relationship we had.

Well be living together the same. 2 1/2 years. I had to make sure we could live together properly and get along before marrying each other

FH and I have lived together in the past, but due to our jobs being in different states right now, we have been living apart. However, once we get married we will be moving back in together. We're going to use the registry to "upgrade" items we already have.

We’ve lived together for two years. After my last experiences I would never marry someone without living with them first. It’s nothing to do with snoring or dirty clothes on the floor. You see a different side of someone when it’s just you and them 24/7 with nowhere else to go. For our registry of course we would like to have some updated things.

Even if couples don't live together a lot live independently from parents where they need all of the necessary household items long before they get married. I moved away when I was 18 and have had all my own stuff to furnish my apartments for the past 7+ years. I might ask for things like new plates (my Goodwill ones have served me well but can be passed on haha) but I don't need items like a Keurig coffee pot or iron/ironing board since I already own them.

More people are getting married later in age (and independent from parents) so I think not asking for household gifts is becoming more common.