Marriage

DonZabu

Gelzo

I recognize the arbitrariness of marriage, but I still count it among my long term goals. Well, maybe it'd be more accurate to say that creating a stable family is one of my goals. Marriage isn't especially necessary, but I see there being more benefits to it than downsides. Besides the legal benefits, I imagine it's a lot easier to refer to your mate as a spouse than a girlfriend and have people understand the nature of your relationship. Plus, while I don't care that much for ceremonies myself, I realize that it would probably make some family members happy if there was a wedding. I don't see marriage as something you should use to change the nature of your relationship, or something you should undergo before knowing the person intimately enough to be able to trust them to be reasonable and not a jerk, or at least at a point you know you can tolerate with good cheer.

Then there's the whole thing about premarital sex being taboo for some people. I can see it being more understandable back before DNA testing and contraceptives, but it's just silly in the present day.

Bee

I'm turned off by the idea of the wedding, but the marriage is in all honesty one of the more awesome arbitrary rituals we've come up with.

My main issue with it rituals-wise is that engagement rings absolutely must be diamond because DeBeers said so.

Knew a couple whose engagement ring was plain steel.  Kind of an elegant simplicity.

Also he was a metalworker and he engraved it, so it didn't quite come off as cheap :P