The Five-Year Engagement Plan of Attack

Universal's new film, The Five-Year Engagement is due to hit the theaters at the end of the month. The comedy stars Jason Segel and Emily Blunt as an engaged couple who can't seem to tie the knot. They plan to get hitched, but something keeps coming up making their short engagement a five-year comedy.

So, is that so bad? I mean, is a long engagement a bad idea? Well, to be frank…no. A long engagement is a great way to test the waters of marriage without actually taking the plunge.

Many couples feel like they are ready to get married after six maybe eight months. But, the problem with that is that they are still under the spell that Mother Nature casts with all of her hormone and brain chemical potions that make everything perfect in a relationship. So, many coupes will say, "We don't need to wait. Why wait? This is the perfect relationship. We're getting married next Tuesday." (Really? Saturdays are advised over Tuesdays).

Then, after the dust settle s and they're about a year into their wedded bliss, that pile of dirty dishes, toilet seat up and hair in the shower drain no longer are cute idiosyncrasies, but rather the things that cause chaos in the home.

Having a long engagement quells this problem, and it also let's you get to know your partner well. If you end up in divorce and go for a second round with a different partner, I tell couples to double the length of this second engagement. In other words, if you were engaged eight months before your first marriage, better make it sixteen months on marriage number two, because you didn't have enough time in those eight months to know if the marriage wold work or not.

 

Five year? Yea, might be a bit long. But if you are already up to marriage number four, a five-year engagement seems just about right.