Met at 26. Engaged at 27. Married at 28.

This was 20 years ago so things may have changed. The majority of our friends met their future spouse at 24-25, were married at 27-29, first child at 31-33. Typically dated 2-3 years before getting engaged. Many are from this area already so I don’t know if that impacted things as in meeting spouses through friends of friends or someplace local to DMV and having family nearby when you start a family.

Started dating at 25, married 15 months later at 26 and had first baby at 31. It’s crazy but except for international travel I barely remember the five years before we had children.

Median age of first marriage for women in DC, us 30.4 years. It’s higher than any US state, though the city’s demographics (entirely urban, lots of professionals) skew our numbers versus a state with urban and rural areas. https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/payne-median-age-first-marriage-geo-fp-19-07.html

The mean maternal age at first birth is 29.7, again the oldest mean in the country. https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/college-of-arts-and-sciences/NCFMR/documents/FP/guzzo-payne-age-birth-fp-18-25.pdf

FWIW, I met my DH at 29, married at 34, had my first child at 37. But I have a graduate degree and the more education you have, the older these averages tend to be.

In my late twenties and of my friends that have gotten married, they have been together with their partner 3-7 years before marrying. But I'm in a very liberal, highly educated circle. I think the number of years will decrease before marriage will decrease as I get older.

Met at age 23. Got married 5 years later at 28. Baby at 32.

Anonymous wrote:Most of my friends date 1.5 years, get engaged and then married a year later at 2.5 years.

We met at 20 and married at 25. People acting like we were rushing sooo fast. Wedding venues and bridal dress stores made comments about my age. Whatever. We waited until our 30s for kids.

Posted below you - I still get called teen mom by a couple of friends who have kids the same age but are 10-15 years older than me... it’s just a joke but I’m looking forward to when the kids are out of the house and Dh and I will still be “young” and can enjoy ourselves!

Met I was 22 he was 26, married 2.5 years later, though we were engaged within 10 months. First baby 18 months after wedding which was sooner than I had planned but we had a big loss and a baby felt right. Married 13 years this year, 3 kids.
I was the youngest of my friends to get married and have first baby at 25 and 26. Dh was about average.

Most of my friends date 1.5 years, get engaged and then married a year later at 2.5 years.

We met at 20 and married at 25. People acting like we were rushing sooo fast. Wedding venues and bridal dress stores made comments about my age. Whatever. We waited until our 30s for kids.

Met in October married 6 months later in April. My husband was 30 and I was 24 when we married.

We met at 22, engaged at 24, married at 25, baby at 29.

It depends how old they are.

I’m divorced now, but I dated my ex 2 months and we were engaged, married 4 months after that.

We were married for 20 years.

I grew up here in the DC area, he had lived here 10
Years before we met.

Oh lord, I dunno. I would say meet in late 20s, date for two years, get engaged in early 30s, married a year or two later. People get married about 5-10 years later than people from my hometown in NC, that's for sure.

What would you say is the average timeline for dating/getting engaged/married in DC? Like how long do people usually date, how old when they get engaged, etc. Just interested in what people think.