My wife and I lived together for at least 3 to 4 years before marriage. Still married. My experience is marriage is a tough logistic problem to pull off with families from two different regions of the US. When we wanted to get married the Presbyterian Church in her hometown required a six month counceling program before they would marry us. Same with the Catholic Church. We offered to do the counceling in a NJ Pres/Catholic Church to qualify, but neither church would accept “transfer credits”. Ironically we were married by the prison chaplian from the local State Prison in a city owned Chapel that once belonged to a Presbyterian Divinity College. In a strange way being married by a prison chaplain has its merits.
It’s probably the only time a minister has said, “And I don’t want to see either of you back here again!” lol.
Congrats on the successful marriage!