We’ve been married for five years. We got married after being together seven months (though we had known each other since we were teenagers). We decided to do it, registered to get married and bought rings (cheap rings, hers now replaced with something nicer, mine still going) on the same day. Received a call from the registry office to say they could do it in two weeks’ time, and we said yes. Didn’t tell our parents, grabbed a couple of friends and went for it. Bowling, meal out, home. My only regret is we picked the wrong friends, as we don’t talk to those people anymore.
We got married as a commitment to each other. Everything else around it seemed unnecessary. It was absolutely the right thing to do for us, and our commitment has got us through some tough times. I love being married, I don’t like weddings.