We've always heard about people making marriage pacts, but ever wonder if they actually work? Now we know...
From Business Arrangement to Love
“We left our spouses around the same time (not for each other) and decided to share a house. We got to taking one night and decided we each had all the things the other was looking for, plus we got along really well. We were in our mid-thirties by then and sick of the dating scene, so we just laid it out like a business arrangement. What started off as an ‘arrangement’ eventually evolved into something extremely serious and passionate. We’ve been together now for almost seven years and married for almost one. We are extremely in love and I have zero regrets.” Source
She’s Been Married How Many Times?
“My aunt did. Lasted for a few years until they split, and since then she has been married 7 other times. I’d say her life didn’t go too well after that.” Source
Just Like a Movie
“We were both never single at the same time, but always best friends. Made a pact in high school that, if at 30 we’re both single, we’d get married. We stayed friends after graduation, and at 25 we started hanging out more and more. We fell deeply in love, and on our 30th birthday (yes we have the same birthday) we were married. Life couldn’t be better!” Source
It’s Only for the Tax Benefits
“My friend and I made a pact that if neither of us are married by the time we are 30, then we are getting a domestic partnership so we can get tax benefits.” Source
Wedding Bells Did Ring
“I made this pact with my best friend in college. If we weren’t married by the time she’s 30 (I’ll be 33) then we would get married. Next month, I’ll be the Man of Honor in her wedding and she is going to be my Best Maid in my wedding next year. Everything is grand.” Source
He Missed His Chance
“My uncle had a pact with his best friend that they would marry if they were still unwed by 40. He called her on her birthday and she announced her engagement to someone else.” Source
She Has a Strange Way of Saying “I Love You”
“A couple of friends from high school made such a pledge, I believe ‘by the time we’re 35…’ He always had a crush on her, she was always interested in other guys and straight-up said she’d settle for him if no other takers. They moved in together (ONLY as roommates) in late 20s, had awkward drunken sex one night a few years later (next morning, ‘Don’t think this means we’re together’), and a few years after that they were basically a couple, though she insisted they weren’t. At 35, I asked him if they were finally official. He said, ‘She says she just uses me for her lady needs, but I asked her once how she’d feel about me dating someone else. She told me to feel free to date anyone I want if I’m okay with getting my d**k cut off in my sleep. So yeah, I’d say we’re official!'” Source
Keeping It in the Family
“I was supposed to get married to her if she hit 40 and was still single. married her sister in Feb of this year in Copenhagen.” Source
Shortest Marriage Pact Ever
“Not a pact but a joking promise: My best friend and his girlfriend had been dating for several years. When I asked why he hadn’t proposed (I didn’t know they were having problems), I told her, jokingly, ‘remember, if he didn’t marry you in a year, I would.’ We were friends, never dated, never kissed, nothing. 1 year later we were walking down the isle. Can’t stress how big of a surprise it was for both of us when we got together. That was 2 kids and almost 24 years ago. Our oldest starts college this fall. Best thing is, we’re the way we were when we were just friends, being married hasn’t changed much.” Source
Saved by a Marriage Pact
“Girl I dated for about a year broke up with me when I told her that I wasn’t wanting to get married. A month later she hooked up with her high school friend. They had made the marriage pact years earlier and she claimed it. They were married three months later. She called to talk to me a year later to let me know that she was pregnant and that she didn’t know how to tell him that it wasn’t his and that she didn’t know who the father was because she had cheated on him so many times. Noped the h*ll out of that conversation and haven’t heard from her since.” Source
Some Pacts Are Meant to Be Broken
“Had that deal with a friend from church camp. If we were both single at 30, we’d go for it. He dated my good friend when they were 16, then that relationship blew up. A year or so later, we started going out. In the 3 months we dated, he treated me like s**t, made fun of me for not doing drugs with him, cheated on me. Then, when I told him we could try and work through it, he dumped me for being ‘too clingy.’ So, I’m not gonna recommend it.” Source
And They Lived Happily Ever After
“My grandparents made this agreement when they went to college in different states. They agreed they’d get back together after they were done if they didn’t meet someone else. They’re both in their 90s and have been married for God knows how long.” Source
She Was Just Too Strong
“I did but we got divorced 6 months later. She was storm born, breaker of chains, mother of dragons.. you know the type.” Source
She Finally Found Safety and Security
“Three years ago I was married to someone else. I’d known her for 17 years, we kept ‘missing’ each other. She was at my first wedding. We always stayed friends. Her boyfriend got rough with her and she was miserable, he was a deadbeat. I was miserable with a very YELL ALL THE TIME wife that cared less for my ambitions than her domestic ideals. I drove to my hometown, helped her pack her stuff, left my wife, and followed her to her ‘safe’ place, and married her last year. We had a couple of those agreements – 30, 35, 40, ‘kids age.’ She’s amazing and I can’t believe that I’m the person who gets to treat her the way she deserves.” Source
Young Love Wins
“Well, my best friend and I made that pact when we were 13 and just friends. We pledged to marry each other when we were 30 if we hadn’t found anyone else by then, which really kind of made him happy-sad, because he was worried I’d find someone else within that amount of time and he’d be left alone. So, he was kind of prompted to ask me out. Long story short, we’ve been together for about 4 years. We’re still really young, but yeah, we want to get married. And move to California. And raise some cats together. And become teachers. Maybe we’ll get married in a few years. At least, before we’re 30.” Source
This Couple Hit the Mark
“When my now wife and I were 19, we dated for a few weeks, and during that time, I suggested if we were still single and childless by age 35, we should look each other up and have kids. After college, we rekindled that romance, dated 2 years, broke up for 9 months, dated again 9 months, then she moved to Japan for two years, I followed her after 1.5 of those years, and asked her back to the States. We dated another 5 years before I proposed, got her knocked up, and were married just before my 35th birthday. We had our beautiful daughter just before her 35th birthday. And we’re doing great. We’re about to celebrate our 5th anniversary, and today is the 17 year anniversary of our first date after college. Life is sweet.” Source
A Forgotten Pact
“I’ve been married to my wife for 15 years now and we’re 46. We dated during that awkward summer between high school and college. We ran into one another years later, about nine years after that summer, when I had just finished law school and she had just gotten divorced from a two year marriage. We had a lovely courtship and sometime during that time, we were joking about this sort of thing and we soon remembered that we had, indeed, made such a pledge. Well, at least we had discussed this. We had both forgotten this until about 6-8 months into dating. We ended up getting married about 3 years after running into one another again and have been quite happily married since.” Source
Cashing in Early
“HAPPY ENDING! She was the loud, popular, social butterfly, I was the awkward sheltered kid. By way of sheer luck and proxy we became very close friends in high school: nearby lockers, nearby seating, I had a car and could drive her home, that sort of thing. Like I’m sure many of you have experienced yourself, I couldn’t not crush on her something fierce, but I obviously wasn’t going to make the move on someone so far out of my league and ruin our friendship. But at one point she brings up how we should totally get married if we’re both still single by the time we’re 30. Obviously she’s joking or she’ll find someone way before then, so I sheepishly agree and forget about it. I even set her up with a friend of mine and they were great together. Graduation comes, she moves to the other side of the country (military parents got reassigned), and we effectively drop out of contact like so many other high school friends. Two years later I make a Facebook page, we get back in contact, and she starts unloading on me about her failing relationship with the guy I set her up with. Apparently the long distance wasn’t working too well and he had become distant to the point of outright ignoring her. Sucks and I’m disappointed in my friend, but I’m happy to hear her voice again and being her shoulder to cry on again works just fine. But then the conversations get longer. Like, phone calls that last from midnight to six AM and texts first thing in the morning-long. And then she brings the pact back up. And then she tells me the relationship with the friend is effectively dead, and she’s tired of waiting for him. And then she says she loves me, she’s always had a thing for me, she just didn’t want to say anything for fear of ruining our friendship. We were together for three years long-distance, only ever seeing each other during holidays and long breaks, before I graduated college and moved across the country to be with her. We’re getting married in October, five full years before the pact would’ve happened. I still like to joke that, since we said, ‘I love you’ before even starting the relationship, I’ve never actually dated anyone.” Source
Is This Against Girl Code?
“My best friend of 10 years said to me one day in a group conversation that if we weren’t with anyone by the time she was 30 ( she was 25 at the time) that we would have to be together. As beautiful as she is I never made a move because I used to date her female best friend, so I thought the ‘girl code’ would halt my advance. Sure enough, once she said that, I was like ‘hold up, she’s possibly into me?!’ I made the move! Six months after that conversation, we got married. It was a fairly easy transition. Currently married for 3 years with 2 children. I’m f**king loving every moment of it.” Source