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Well, that and finding a woman crazy/desperate enough to have me, but that's for another thread.

If you have a very close friend of the opposite sex, it is very likely that the two of you share the values that important to a marriage. It is very common for best friends to marry and they tend to have long-term, successful marriages.

Frequently, one of the members of a close "platonic" relationship has thought about marriage to the other partner, but fears bringing it up. Treat the other person as a date, rather than as just friend and you may be surprised at the response.

Just my two cents. I am married to the best friend that I have ever had and it is a really good marriage.

Very true. My husband and I became friends when I was 16 and he was 16. We remained friends (purely platonic) through the rest of high school and into college. We did not start dating until I was 19 and he was 21, after my freshman year of college. We married nearly 5 years later - a full DECADE after our friendship began.

Marriage is not all wine and roses and perfection, but I have to say that we've enjoyed our first year (our first anniversary is next month). It has had challenges but overall it has been wonderful to share my life with my best friend!

We are purchasing our first house now - and in a higher priced real estate market. So many young couples make the mistake of trying to buy a new beautiful house. They wind up stretched thin on their mortgage even with two incomes, and then when you add the cost of children into the mix, things get out of hand. Our home is decent but not new, and not huge, and we can afford it relatively comfortably. We are expecting a big boost in income this year when DH finishes college and starts making more money. We have the rest of our lives to own a larger, fancier home - for now we just need a comfortable place that will build equity and that can accomodate a few kiddos (not for a few years yet!).

If you have a very close friend of the opposite sex, it is very likely that the two of you share the values that important to a marriage. It is very common for best friends to marry and they tend to have long-term, successful marriages.

My best friends are all men. That's not a bad thing, they are like brothers to me, which is a big deal since I'm an only child and never had brothers to grow up with. There's literally nothing in this world I wouldn't do for them.

I don't really have any lady friends that close, however. The only one that comes to mind I think wouldn't be a good choice, for a number of reasons, but don't think it hasn't occurred to me a couple of times.

Friends turning romantic isn't that common as you think. I think a person is better off engaging in a romance with a fresh face rather than one who has been around for a while in a non-romantic context.

I will go out on a limb and say that it's basically up to the woman: if she is open to it becoming romantic, there is a good chance of that being cultivated. If she isn't, a lot of times a male friends sudden gesture in a romantic direction is greeted with the enthusiasm of a hand grenade being tossed through a nearby window.

It's bogus, I agree, but basically true.

PS - the FR spell checker suggested 'necromantic' for 'nonromantic' in my prior post! Tread carefully! :-)