I am an avid watcher of the TLC show Say Yes To The Dress. This past friday, the new season started with back to back episodes. One of them was the normal plot line, girl finds dress, loves it, buys it. But another episode made me stop and think about our discussions from class this week. One girl, couldn't have been older than 22, was shopping for her wedding dress. The weird thing was, she met her 40+ year old husband on a golf work trip... he is her boss's boss's boss. The entire thing gave me the shivers. This girl was marrying a man almost twice her age, and she was just beginning her adult life. In class we discussed how the average marriage age for women has gotten higher in the past 10 years, for women it is up to about 26 (according to the USA Today article). On this show, I see first hand the age of these women getting married for the first time. Some are younger, around 24, some older at 30, 22 is very young. Usually with younger brides on the show, they have been dating their fiancee for since high school, so they really know their mate well, but this girl had barely dated this guy for a few months. We talked this week about why people get married young, why so young before their lives have really even started, and why so quickly? Someone shared a story this week about her cousin who got married at 18 and people kept asking questions about why they weren't going to wait, and they're reply was simple. We don't want to wait. Maybe when you're really in love, time and age don't matter, but its still surprising when I see someone only a few years older than myself committing their life to someone, becoming someone's wife.
Here is a link to the full episode if you'd care to watch... she is looking for a piratey dress... whatever that means haha
Chloe I completely agree with you. Personally I am always told by my mom to go out and travel before I get married and have kids so the thought of me getting married at 22 seems impossible. I don't know the reason why people get married so young but maybe if you think you've found the right partner, religious beliefs or economic benefits. Also, just being able to say you are married is a big deal for some people. Research shows that the divorce rate for people who get married in their early 20's is way higher than that of their late 20's which is even higher that that of early 30's. (http://www.divorcerate.org/). I'd be interested to see how the couple on Say Yes to the Dress turns out!
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