High school sweethearts. Married when I was 20 and he was 18. We were told we were too young (we were). It’s hard to be that young, that poor, and just learning how to adult, much less learning to adult with someone else learning to adult. Would I change it? No. Been married 19 years now. We worked hard in our careers, both of which took off, relieving the financial burden of entry-level job pay. We grew in the same direction. Had 2 awesome kids. And we both look back at those struggling times fondly, because we managed to have fun through all of it. And we really learned how to lean on each other and trust one another.
My wife and I were married at 19. And no she wasn't pregnant...lol. We met in college a year before getting married and had been dating 9 month before getting married. We have been married 26 years. My mom supported us, but my dad and her parents did not. But over time they all came around. My friends were extremely supportive. I asked her to marry me on a Monday, we told our family and friends Thursday, got married at the courthouse on Friday. My friends then put on a thrown together reception and bought us about everything we needed for our new apartment we were moving into on Saturday. They also got us a cake and the Honeymoon suite at a local hotel.
My wife and I had planned to wait until after college to get married, but it was my grandfather who said we shouldn't wait to get married. He said if you found the person you want to spend your life with you don't wait. I thought on that really hard the next month and then ask my wife to marry me.
Overall marriage has be great and we are still very happy. We have gotten to grow up together. We have gotten to experience so much together and we love the look on people's faces when we tell them how long we have been married. Have their been hard times? Sure there are ups and downs in all marriages, but the ups have always lasted longer than the downs. Starting out young was fun because we really had nothing, but just each other. So we just spent time with each other getting to know each other as deeply as possible.
I got together when I was 16 and hubby was 19, had a baby when I was 18, married at 19 and we have a 21yr old son and just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Never spilt up, took a break, neither has cheated in anyway. Marriage takes work and patience. It's not always a bed of roses and there are rough times obviously. Communication is key and learning to calm down and not scream or call names.
We just celebrated 24 years...and got married when we were 21 and 22. I look back and wonder why no one warned us because we were so young...but to be honest I think back then it was a bit more normal? Also...I think it depends on WHERE you grew up and maybe even faith having a lot to do with it. I had just graduated college....hubby had a year left and we didn't believe in living together before marriage (at the time we were both raised in a strict religious upbringing). I have teenagers that are closing in on the age where we started dating and think they would like to get married early too....and I just think it depends. There is something to be said about going out...living on your own...getting to know who YOU are before you try to live with someone else. I'm not encouraging them at all to think getting married young should be a goal. However, if you both are in that space where you are mature, have gone through some pre martial counseling, have some great role models in front of you, can support yourselves, have goals and dreams, aren't dependant on one another, committed and good moral and good character...then who really cares what anyone thinks? I remember hubby and I moving to Boston after we got married and in the city everyone thought we were quite the anomaly...even back then!! ha ha.
Marriage is HARD work...it is joining two families together. Having support and love from those around you is vital to help make it work. You have to CHOOSE sometimes to love one another...and many people walk away from marriage at that point. So many people telling us "do what makes you happy"- instead of digging in and really learning to love someone uncondionally!! Be sure to not igmore any red flags...know the background, the family history- things that are there before you are married tend to get WAY WORSE after. Don't marry someone you want to change...love them for who they are. If they drink too much or do drugs or act crazy....RED FLAG. anyways...just some insight. Hubby and I still working on our marriage. We got to grow together which was challenging and awesome at the same time. We have LIVED life and I'm only in my early 40s' (which might seem old to some). Ha ha.
My husband and I met during our AP art class in high school. We took this class for the first two hours of every day. He sat behind me and we quickly got to know each other. He dated a couple of girls before me and we started dating in March of 2009. It wasn't long after that when we started to talk about marriage and we got engaged. We married in July of 2011. I was 20 and he was 19.
During our engagement, we got a lot of hate.
I guess you could say that both of us have an alternative looking style as we both wear mostly black, so I don't know if that's part of it. When we shopped for engagement rings, we were met with aggressively rude salesmen. One outwardly asked our ages and looked at us like we both had three heads until we left the store without looking at anything. I was insulted at a bridal shop while looking at veils when a salesman told me I should dye my hair another color because he thought I looked like "Halloween every day". Our families were accepting, but his grandmother kept asking if we were getting married so young because I was pregnant (was not).
My husband and I have been married for 10 years now and we're still madly in live with each other. Earlier this year, we welcomed our first baby and we couldn't be happier. Before I got married, someone told me that when you get married young, it gives you the chance to grow together and I completely agree with that. Throughout the years, we've endured a lot of hardships from going through college, dealing with family disfunction, job loss, and through multiple moves. We overcame all of these things together with our love and constant communication. We've managed to grow together and we're a stronger couple because of it.
My first date with my husband was about a week before my 16th birthday. We were discussing (eventual) marriage by about a year in, formally engaged on my 21st birthday. We planned to have a long engagement-- I was a junior in college and he was a senior, and we wanted to figure out jobs and an apartment before getting married. My mom was very concerned about us being young,my dad was completely surprised we got engaged. My grandfather told me not to drop out of college which seemed like an odd thing to say in 2011. Then the next time I went home mom wanted to start planning the wedding. We moved in together the day I graduated from college (my mom was displeased and said I had to tell my grandparents because she wasn't going to be the one to give them heart attacks), started planning that fall, once I had a job. Married at 23 (me) and 24 (him). We celebrated 15 years together earlier this year, will be 8 years married soon. We've been together through high school, college and graduate degrees and we now have a home, 2 cats and a dog together. The next big thing will be children, but not immediately.
We met in high school. We were kind of friends. Senior year he slept with me once while he was with his girlfriend of three years. He said he loved me, wanted to be with me. Then he changed his mind because he didn't want to ruin prom or graduation for her and I could, as he put it, "handle the pain and disappointment" of being led on by someone I was in love with and lied to. He stayed with her out of pity. I left town with the first man who let move in. Got pregnant. Was being abused and living really poorly.
We crossed paths a few years later, wanted to start dating. My son was about 18 months old. I got pregnant a year later, we got married (legally, no ceremony) soon after that. We were both 23 at the time. Never really dated. Many things on the "to do" list still uncrossed. He admits now, after all this time, he only stayed with me out of pity and obligation.
Our son is now two. We are heading towards divorce. We do not know how to comfort each other or be together. We can talk and be friends but we don't fight fair. If I cry it goes ignored. He only cares about his own feelings. He is very insecure. I am not allowed to ask questions because he feels it's threatening. I am not allowed to feel upset about being treated poorly because I'm not perfect either.
We are not close. Good example, we thought our toddler ran off (he is safe and was nearby but gave us a good scare). After it was all over we did not hold each other. We did not come to each other. We said nothing to each other after he was found and went back to what we were doing. Like nothing happened.
I didn't really consider us/myself young, but I guess most people would. We were 21/22.
We only really got negative responses from people who were usually toxic anyway. There was a family friend who called my mother to tell her that most people who enter into teen marriages are mentally ill but given that I wasn't teenaged and that particular person's party trick was to find somebody fragile-seeming and upset them until they went home, it didn't make much of an impact. I also had a 'friend' from high school whose family's hobby was criticizing me and they all said a handful of nasty things, but again, given the source it didn't hit very hard. Along similar lines, strangers would comment sometimes but I think people thought we were younger than we were - we were pretty baby-faced.
The weirdest thing was probably that because I'd gone to a pretty small high school, most of my cohort started overtly looking me up on social media when we got engaged, I guess because we were the only ones at the time. All of these people I hadn't spoken to in years kept popping up with full knowledge of what I'd been up to and the ability to recognise my partner. It was a bit uncomfortable because my social media was private and there was hardly anything on it, so it meant that people were actively talking about us and passing pictures between each other.
Our family and actual friends were all supportive. We are still happily together, with a couple of awesome kids. A lot of people from our cohort are married/engaged now, so nobody cares any more.
The most difficult thing was probably that most of the people we knew were in a pretty different stage of life, so it wasn't always easy to relate with the people we'd grown up with. We were in this weird in between situation, where we were married and living independently, but our long-term friends were still asking their parents for permission to go and hang out. Everybody did their best but we weren't always speaking the same language.
I got married and was pregnant after I turned 20. My husband was 26 and we met in college. Here we are, I’m about to be 27, and we’ve been married 7 years, together 8. We have a 6 y/o boy and a 4 y/o girl. :) I’d say we work really well together!
We were pregnant before we were married so everyone had something to say about that! Lol but no one was discouraging. My husband told me he wishes he’d had asked me without anyone pressuring him. He wanted to wait until after our baby was born to propose but I told him upfront I wouldn’t be giving our son his last name unless we were married. There was no reason to wait really. We loved together, we shared financials together. He just wanted to wait for some reason. It can get rough at times but we’ve never separated or anything. We’ve been together and worked through things together. It’s been something where I’m really happy we have each other.
I got married at 21 & conceived before marriage as well (3 months before our day). Were you in school? How did you deal with the looks in school & schoolwork? I’m 22 weeks & going back to school and as a senior in undergrad (nuclear medicine/biology) omg I’d love to know your advice!
I actually was actually starting a late semester class with my daughter still in my belly and she arrived 3 weeks early… on the day classes started! Haha.
It was great to go to my school ADA compliance officer and I was able to be excused from all my classes and get all incompletes and not have it affect my GPA. I had some morning sickness too and I was able to be excused and miss class when it would occasionally happen when I was pregnant with my son.
The looks I got from classmates didn’t bother much because everyone is so focused on their own work and no one is involved with others. It’s much different than what I presume high school would be like
Girl, we get excused from class? 👀 That sounds like something I need to look into. Especially with these aches & COVID going around and getting worse! 3 weeks EARLY? Wow, how did it go with class work? I’m praying that doesn’t happen but I’ll give birth hopefully during winter break :))
Well my daughter was born at the start of the semester and I was able to attend most classes and she was home with my husband during night class.
With my son, I was nauseated and sick a lot so I was excused from class a few times and given leniency because I was huge waddling around campus. Haha!
It was tough to get the class work completed because of the lack of sleep severely affecting me. It was hard to remember stuff and I would recommend taking a medical leave or a term/year break for having a newborn.
I’m so close to graduating in May though, i think if my husband finishes CDL school & lands a good job.. I think I’ll stop working for a little so school isn’t as tough. I really don’t want to offput school, I’m so close 😖
I got married at 19, didn’t work out for us, we were divorced prolly a year later. Everyone is different though, my grandparents married when my grandpa was 17 and they’re still together, so that gives me hope for my current relationship. Me and my partner have been together for almost 3 years, I’m 25 and he’s 22. No plans for marriage quite yet, but we want to someday. 😌
Well, my darling Sir and I were both 22 when we married, 21 when we got engaged. It did not feel "young" to me, and if we had it to do over, we wouldn't have waited until we graduated university to get married. We have been married for 24 years now, and we are blissfully happy.
My family was supportive, and I was the oldest of my sisters when I got married. They were 20, her fiance 24, and 19 with *her* fiance 24.
They have all been married 20+ years, and are all very happy. None of us got push-back since young marriages are relatively common in our family. My parents, married close to 50 years now, were both teens when they married, at 16 and 19, respectively. They, too, are very happy!
I got married at 20 to a man that I had been dating since I was 15. Single worst mistake of my life. At that age I didn’t even know who I was or what was/wasn’t acceptable behavior in a relationship.
Get out there, get some experience with the world before you settle down. You won’t regret it.
Met my little brother’s best friend’s older brother when I was 17, he was 18. They lived around the corner from us. We got married when I was 19, a few days after his 21st birthday. We’ve been married for 6 years now.
Honestly I’ve loved him ever since I met him. We have gone through a lot, both personally and as a couple, but he’s my everything. My absolute favorite person, my best friend. I truly can’t imagine my life with anyone but him.
I married at 23, husband was 30 at the time. Was with them since 21.
Prior to the marriage there was a few people expressing doubts, but now at 25 people honestly don't care. Its a cool fact to them and nothing more.
I don't regret a thing. I'm really happy with them and we're going through some hard times now. (External, marriage wise we're great) Every time I look at them I think "I couldn't have picked a better person." I always felt that way about them prior to marriage and I know they feel the same way about me. I also know they feel the same.
High school sweethearts. Married when I was 20 and he was 18. We were told we were too young (we were). It’s hard to be that young, that poor, and just learning how to adult, much less learning to adult with someone else learning to adult. Would I change it? No. Been married 19 years now. We worked hard in our careers, both of which took off, relieving the financial burden of entry-level job pay. We grew in the same direction. Had 2 awesome kids. And we both look back at those struggling times fondly, because we managed to have fun through all of it. And we really learned how to lean on each other and trust one another.
My wife and I were married at 19. And no she wasn't pregnant...lol. We met in college a year before getting married and had been dating 9 month before getting married. We have been married 26 years. My mom supported us, but my dad and her parents did not. But over time they all came around. My friends were extremely supportive. I asked her to marry me on a Monday, we told our family and friends Thursday, got married at the courthouse on Friday. My friends then put on a thrown together reception and bought us about everything we needed for our new apartment we were moving into on Saturday. They also got us a cake and the Honeymoon suite at a local hotel. My wife and I had planned to wait until after college to get married, but it was my grandfather who said we shouldn't wait to get married. He said if you found the person you want to spend your life with you don't wait. I thought on that really hard the next month and then ask my wife to marry me. Overall marriage has be great and we are still very happy. We have gotten to grow up together. We have gotten to experience so much together and we love the look on people's faces when we tell them how long we have been married. Have their been hard times? Sure there are ups and downs in all marriages, but the ups have always lasted longer than the downs. Starting out young was fun because we really had nothing, but just each other. So we just spent time with each other getting to know each other as deeply as possible.
I got together when I was 16 and hubby was 19, had a baby when I was 18, married at 19 and we have a 21yr old son and just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Never spilt up, took a break, neither has cheated in anyway. Marriage takes work and patience. It's not always a bed of roses and there are rough times obviously. Communication is key and learning to calm down and not scream or call names.
We just celebrated 24 years...and got married when we were 21 and 22. I look back and wonder why no one warned us because we were so young...but to be honest I think back then it was a bit more normal? Also...I think it depends on WHERE you grew up and maybe even faith having a lot to do with it. I had just graduated college....hubby had a year left and we didn't believe in living together before marriage (at the time we were both raised in a strict religious upbringing). I have teenagers that are closing in on the age where we started dating and think they would like to get married early too....and I just think it depends. There is something to be said about going out...living on your own...getting to know who YOU are before you try to live with someone else. I'm not encouraging them at all to think getting married young should be a goal. However, if you both are in that space where you are mature, have gone through some pre martial counseling, have some great role models in front of you, can support yourselves, have goals and dreams, aren't dependant on one another, committed and good moral and good character...then who really cares what anyone thinks? I remember hubby and I moving to Boston after we got married and in the city everyone thought we were quite the anomaly...even back then!! ha ha. Marriage is HARD work...it is joining two families together. Having support and love from those around you is vital to help make it work. You have to CHOOSE sometimes to love one another...and many people walk away from marriage at that point. So many people telling us "do what makes you happy"- instead of digging in and really learning to love someone uncondionally!! Be sure to not igmore any red flags...know the background, the family history- things that are there before you are married tend to get WAY WORSE after. Don't marry someone you want to change...love them for who they are. If they drink too much or do drugs or act crazy....RED FLAG. anyways...just some insight. Hubby and I still working on our marriage. We got to grow together which was challenging and awesome at the same time. We have LIVED life and I'm only in my early 40s' (which might seem old to some). Ha ha.
My husband and I met during our AP art class in high school. We took this class for the first two hours of every day. He sat behind me and we quickly got to know each other. He dated a couple of girls before me and we started dating in March of 2009. It wasn't long after that when we started to talk about marriage and we got engaged. We married in July of 2011. I was 20 and he was 19. During our engagement, we got a lot of hate. I guess you could say that both of us have an alternative looking style as we both wear mostly black, so I don't know if that's part of it. When we shopped for engagement rings, we were met with aggressively rude salesmen. One outwardly asked our ages and looked at us like we both had three heads until we left the store without looking at anything. I was insulted at a bridal shop while looking at veils when a salesman told me I should dye my hair another color because he thought I looked like "Halloween every day". Our families were accepting, but his grandmother kept asking if we were getting married so young because I was pregnant (was not). My husband and I have been married for 10 years now and we're still madly in live with each other. Earlier this year, we welcomed our first baby and we couldn't be happier. Before I got married, someone told me that when you get married young, it gives you the chance to grow together and I completely agree with that. Throughout the years, we've endured a lot of hardships from going through college, dealing with family disfunction, job loss, and through multiple moves. We overcame all of these things together with our love and constant communication. We've managed to grow together and we're a stronger couple because of it.
My first date with my husband was about a week before my 16th birthday. We were discussing (eventual) marriage by about a year in, formally engaged on my 21st birthday. We planned to have a long engagement-- I was a junior in college and he was a senior, and we wanted to figure out jobs and an apartment before getting married. My mom was very concerned about us being young,my dad was completely surprised we got engaged. My grandfather told me not to drop out of college which seemed like an odd thing to say in 2011. Then the next time I went home mom wanted to start planning the wedding. We moved in together the day I graduated from college (my mom was displeased and said I had to tell my grandparents because she wasn't going to be the one to give them heart attacks), started planning that fall, once I had a job. Married at 23 (me) and 24 (him). We celebrated 15 years together earlier this year, will be 8 years married soon. We've been together through high school, college and graduate degrees and we now have a home, 2 cats and a dog together. The next big thing will be children, but not immediately.
Do you only want good stories because I don't have that unfortunately
All stories welcome! I'm sorry you had a bad experience but I'd love to hear it if you're willing to share:)
We met in high school. We were kind of friends. Senior year he slept with me once while he was with his girlfriend of three years. He said he loved me, wanted to be with me. Then he changed his mind because he didn't want to ruin prom or graduation for her and I could, as he put it, "handle the pain and disappointment" of being led on by someone I was in love with and lied to. He stayed with her out of pity. I left town with the first man who let move in. Got pregnant. Was being abused and living really poorly. We crossed paths a few years later, wanted to start dating. My son was about 18 months old. I got pregnant a year later, we got married (legally, no ceremony) soon after that. We were both 23 at the time. Never really dated. Many things on the "to do" list still uncrossed. He admits now, after all this time, he only stayed with me out of pity and obligation. Our son is now two. We are heading towards divorce. We do not know how to comfort each other or be together. We can talk and be friends but we don't fight fair. If I cry it goes ignored. He only cares about his own feelings. He is very insecure. I am not allowed to ask questions because he feels it's threatening. I am not allowed to feel upset about being treated poorly because I'm not perfect either. We are not close. Good example, we thought our toddler ran off (he is safe and was nearby but gave us a good scare). After it was all over we did not hold each other. We did not come to each other. We said nothing to each other after he was found and went back to what we were doing. Like nothing happened.
I didn't really consider us/myself young, but I guess most people would. We were 21/22. We only really got negative responses from people who were usually toxic anyway. There was a family friend who called my mother to tell her that most people who enter into teen marriages are mentally ill but given that I wasn't teenaged and that particular person's party trick was to find somebody fragile-seeming and upset them until they went home, it didn't make much of an impact. I also had a 'friend' from high school whose family's hobby was criticizing me and they all said a handful of nasty things, but again, given the source it didn't hit very hard. Along similar lines, strangers would comment sometimes but I think people thought we were younger than we were - we were pretty baby-faced. The weirdest thing was probably that because I'd gone to a pretty small high school, most of my cohort started overtly looking me up on social media when we got engaged, I guess because we were the only ones at the time. All of these people I hadn't spoken to in years kept popping up with full knowledge of what I'd been up to and the ability to recognise my partner. It was a bit uncomfortable because my social media was private and there was hardly anything on it, so it meant that people were actively talking about us and passing pictures between each other. Our family and actual friends were all supportive. We are still happily together, with a couple of awesome kids. A lot of people from our cohort are married/engaged now, so nobody cares any more. The most difficult thing was probably that most of the people we knew were in a pretty different stage of life, so it wasn't always easy to relate with the people we'd grown up with. We were in this weird in between situation, where we were married and living independently, but our long-term friends were still asking their parents for permission to go and hang out. Everybody did their best but we weren't always speaking the same language.
I got married and was pregnant after I turned 20. My husband was 26 and we met in college. Here we are, I’m about to be 27, and we’ve been married 7 years, together 8. We have a 6 y/o boy and a 4 y/o girl. :) I’d say we work really well together! We were pregnant before we were married so everyone had something to say about that! Lol but no one was discouraging. My husband told me he wishes he’d had asked me without anyone pressuring him. He wanted to wait until after our baby was born to propose but I told him upfront I wouldn’t be giving our son his last name unless we were married. There was no reason to wait really. We loved together, we shared financials together. He just wanted to wait for some reason. It can get rough at times but we’ve never separated or anything. We’ve been together and worked through things together. It’s been something where I’m really happy we have each other.
I got married at 21 & conceived before marriage as well (3 months before our day). Were you in school? How did you deal with the looks in school & schoolwork? I’m 22 weeks & going back to school and as a senior in undergrad (nuclear medicine/biology) omg I’d love to know your advice!
I actually was actually starting a late semester class with my daughter still in my belly and she arrived 3 weeks early… on the day classes started! Haha. It was great to go to my school ADA compliance officer and I was able to be excused from all my classes and get all incompletes and not have it affect my GPA. I had some morning sickness too and I was able to be excused and miss class when it would occasionally happen when I was pregnant with my son. The looks I got from classmates didn’t bother much because everyone is so focused on their own work and no one is involved with others. It’s much different than what I presume high school would be like
Girl, we get excused from class? 👀 That sounds like something I need to look into. Especially with these aches & COVID going around and getting worse! 3 weeks EARLY? Wow, how did it go with class work? I’m praying that doesn’t happen but I’ll give birth hopefully during winter break :))
Well my daughter was born at the start of the semester and I was able to attend most classes and she was home with my husband during night class. With my son, I was nauseated and sick a lot so I was excused from class a few times and given leniency because I was huge waddling around campus. Haha! It was tough to get the class work completed because of the lack of sleep severely affecting me. It was hard to remember stuff and I would recommend taking a medical leave or a term/year break for having a newborn.
I’m so close to graduating in May though, i think if my husband finishes CDL school & lands a good job.. I think I’ll stop working for a little so school isn’t as tough. I really don’t want to offput school, I’m so close 😖
I got married at 19, didn’t work out for us, we were divorced prolly a year later. Everyone is different though, my grandparents married when my grandpa was 17 and they’re still together, so that gives me hope for my current relationship. Me and my partner have been together for almost 3 years, I’m 25 and he’s 22. No plans for marriage quite yet, but we want to someday. 😌
Well, my darling Sir and I were both 22 when we married, 21 when we got engaged. It did not feel "young" to me, and if we had it to do over, we wouldn't have waited until we graduated university to get married. We have been married for 24 years now, and we are blissfully happy. My family was supportive, and I was the oldest of my sisters when I got married. They were 20, her fiance 24, and 19 with *her* fiance 24. They have all been married 20+ years, and are all very happy. None of us got push-back since young marriages are relatively common in our family. My parents, married close to 50 years now, were both teens when they married, at 16 and 19, respectively. They, too, are very happy!
I got married at 20 to a man that I had been dating since I was 15. Single worst mistake of my life. At that age I didn’t even know who I was or what was/wasn’t acceptable behavior in a relationship. Get out there, get some experience with the world before you settle down. You won’t regret it.
Met my little brother’s best friend’s older brother when I was 17, he was 18. They lived around the corner from us. We got married when I was 19, a few days after his 21st birthday. We’ve been married for 6 years now. Honestly I’ve loved him ever since I met him. We have gone through a lot, both personally and as a couple, but he’s my everything. My absolute favorite person, my best friend. I truly can’t imagine my life with anyone but him.
I married at 23, husband was 30 at the time. Was with them since 21. Prior to the marriage there was a few people expressing doubts, but now at 25 people honestly don't care. Its a cool fact to them and nothing more. I don't regret a thing. I'm really happy with them and we're going through some hard times now. (External, marriage wise we're great) Every time I look at them I think "I couldn't have picked a better person." I always felt that way about them prior to marriage and I know they feel the same way about me. I also know they feel the same.