Is marriage necessary?

Very interesting question, and my answer will hopefully be just as interesting :) Honestly I see both sides to this question and will address both the good and the bad. I will say I am married and have been for 3 years, my husband and I had been together for over 6 years prior to our marriage.

Personally I could not have cared less about getting the "marriage certificate" or anything like that. I personally did it for my family since I know that it bothered them that my husband and I were together without being married. My family is VERY old school and it really bothered my parents clearly more than it did my younger brother.

My husband was not concerned about getting married for the paper, but he felt that if we were going to get married he wanted it done before we had children. His mother was 17 when he was born, and married his father when she was 7 months pregnant. This marriage did not last and ended very poorly. He vowed that he never wanted his children to feel like he got married because their mother was pregnant.

If we had gotten pregnant prior to our wedding I don't believe we would have gotten married. He would have preferred that the child know that we chose to stay together because we wanted to be, not because that child was born. Our daughter was a honeymoon baby but we are 110% sure that she was NOT conceived before our wedding (within minutes maybe, but not before!).

His sister has followed this philosophy. Also unfortunately if you are not married you have more benefits as being able to apply as a single mother for quite a few things. She and her bf got pregnant without planning, and are still together but I don't think they will ever get a sheet of paper saying they are married.

Either way I DON'T think a large wedding is needed! We did a cruise wedding and LOVED it! No stress, low cost, everything covered, you couldn't beat it!

I think that marriage can mean many things to many people and if it is important to you then yes, it is absolutely necessary. If you don't care, then I would say listen to your partner. If it means something to them, and you don't care then why put up a fuss? If neither of you care look at your family and friends if ti matters to them then it maybe worth it, if you feel strongly against it then there is no reason to make everyone else happy!