I didn't know right away. But I pretty much knew after we had been friends for several months that Lance was the one for me and that we would eventually get married. Unfortunately he didn't know it! It was all for the best though, because I needed to finish college (Lance was already done), and it was much easier to do that without being in a serious relationship or married. We were close if not best friends for 4 years before we started dating! But once we did we knew right away we would get married. When you've been close friends for so long, once you start dating you either know right away it's going to work or it's not.
I think that using the 50% of marriages end in divorce excuse is a bunch of crock. Marriage takes work and people are too lazy to work at it. When the going gets tough, people get out. Marriage is not always going to be peachy keen. You are going to have good days and you are going to have bad days. As a married couple said to us on our Wedding video "We wish you good days and bad days, because you are going to have bad days, but working through those bad days only makes your marriage stronger".
Actually they say that living together before marriage actually takes a greater toll on a relationship because you are sending conflicting messages...that it is okay to be intimate, but that you don't want a commitment.
=) Christy
