Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Marriage is an institution between a man and a woman and is the only grounds in which people can legitimately have sex.

Anything else is immoral and illegitimate: "shacking up", one night stands, homosexuality, group marriages, plural marriages, you name it. You can take great pains to justify it but such things aren't right.

I guess the reason I haven't had a ceremony is that I want to do it "properly" and it would probably cost about $10K, which is don't have. We are saving for the house and then when we are settled in we will save for a ceremony. I figure it makes more sense to get a house and start paying it off before spending money on a ceremony and a piece of paper. I want to do the ceremony, but I don't think it will change my feelings about my partner or our relationship. I will not love him more, feel more secure, feel happier or feel more complete for having a piece of paper that states we have made a committment to each other. We have stood by each other though a lot. My father died, my nanna died, my dog died, he started his own business and we pumped as much money as we could into it but it still failed. We have spent a long time together and I cannot see how we are less than Brittany Spears who has a quickie Vegas wedding and then has it annulled, or any of the thousands of young people who decide they are in love, get married and separate within a year. I may be a harpie and immoral, but I think it is good to live with your partner before getting married to ensure you are compatible as lifemates not just in love and blinded to each others faults and ideosyncracies. I know some of the things I do my other half finds bizarre, and some of the things he does I cannot comprehend how anyone from our solar system could rationalise. We do love each other, but committment is stronger than love.

Myrthos, the Netherlands sounds excellent. Everything I ever hear about the laws and attitudes are open but based on facts and not sentiment or fear. A very forward thinking country that I think a lot of governments could learn a lot from.