When you first realize that you are dating the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, that’s the time to start planning the marriage proposal. Don’t rush this. Try to discover what your partner thinks about public proposals? Do they like them, or do they think that a marriage proposal should be something between the couple alone? The “Cleaver” idea of family and home firmly put love and marriage together in a rose-tinted cameo of how a happy life ought to be. But only a generation or two down and life is very different. Attitudes have relaxed. Social norms have changed. Love and marriage don’t have to go together – and with the more open society we live in accepting that we are free to love who we choose and not be restricted by gender, then in some cases it isn’t even legally possible for them to do so. As sappy as it sounds, the best marriage advice that anyone can give you is to listen to your heart. The person you have the problem with is your life partner, not just someone who may be transient in your life. Is this really something worth upsetting the person you love about? Is it something that you can’t reach a compromise with? One popular unity ceremony asks that the man and woman light a single candle with separate flames. Jewish marriage ceremonies call for breaking a glass by the man and woman in unison. After any unity ceremony has been completed, the couple is usually pronounced as husband and wife and they enjoy their first kiss as a married couple. In a few states, couples that live together a certain amount of time, normally seven years or more, are considered to have a common law marriage. A marriage that is legal is one that is performed by a minister or someone that is qualified to perform the ceremony. Once the ceremony is complete the bride and groom will sign a piece of paper and a few weeks later get a certificate in the mail, in the meantime you will be given a document to show proof of marriage. The Question continues with each party to the marriage being asked whether they promise to love, comfort, honor, and keep the other for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. This is also the part of the ceremony where the couple are asked whether they will be faithful to each other so long as they both shall live.