7 months is the shortest engagement period ever!

I never realized that seven months of being engaged would be considered a ridiculously short engagement length. I've actually had people act shocked, like this was a shotgun wedding we were planning. We've been dating for 12 years - a two year engagement period seems a bit silly. Besides, I'm almost 35 and we're thinking about starting a family. If we're going to do that, we need to get moving so waiting forever to get married doesn't sound very wise in my book. I just think it's sad that so many people have such long engagement periods because they need so much time to plan a wedding and/or they need to save up money. I also know of at least two young girls who are having really long engagement periods because "they want to be sure" this is the person they want to marry. Whatever happened to waiting to get engaged when you're sure you know this is the person you want to marry?

I don't want to be overly critical of other people's choices, but it's frustrating when I've had so many people be critical of mine. Of course, we also have the opposite side of the spectrum - people who tell me they planned their wedding in two weeks so I can do it. You know what? That's great that they did that but I have this feeling that the wedding they planned for themselves is not the kind of wedding we want. The wedding we want will take some time and planning and that's ok.