On an otherwise normal day during spring break of his junior year at Texas A&M, track & field athlete and construction science senior Ethan Sanders bought an engagement ring for his girlfriend. To him, holding on to the ring felt like having a burning hole in his pocket as he waited with anticipation.
Amidst current times, where changes in lifestyle and attitudes have caused a shift that has seen a growing portion of young people to wait and grow up or develop a career before marriage, Sanders’ response is simple: Why wait?
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is really happening, I’m gonna get to spend forever with him,’” Sanders’ fiancee, psychology senior Kaitlin Waldmann, said. “It was so surreal, like since you’re a little girl, you dream of getting engaged. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is real life.’”
While some believe such a commitment can hold you back, agricultural economics senior Shelby Kouba feels that being in a serious relationship is liberating. From fully enjoying her college experience to planning on buying a house and starting her career after college, she spoke in support of young marriage.
Kouba addressed the joke of the age-old ‘ring by spring’ Aggie stigma, even joking about putting ‘two ring queen,’ on the bottom of her ring dunk pitcher.
“It’s been so fun just to kind of see this is the next step in our lives, and we’re just excited to get there,” Kouba said. “You’re only around once. So why would you not want to do it with your person?”
Many of Kouba’s friends, including her maid of honor marketing senior Kalei Burkitt, are from California — a place where she said young engagements are not as common. Although the average age of marriage was just over 28 years old for women and 30 years old for men in 2024 according to The Knot, it is more common to get that “ring by spring” in Texas than in her home state. Adopting the mantra of waiting for marriage until you have life a little more figured out is slowly becoming the norm.
“I don’t know if it’s because everyone is just going to college more and still kind of living in this, like, false reality of college where you’re an adult, but not fully an adult,” Kouba said. “You know what I mean? People go to grad school and work, then some people are pursuing that. I feel like marriage is kind of that step into adult life, and I don’t think as many people are thinking about that.”
Anyone wondering what wedding planning in college looks like should know the effort involved in juggling it alongside school and work demands a well-managed schedule and a very supportive circle, according to Kouba and Waldmann. They both noted that it hasn’t been as bad as expected, other than taking more time in the evenings to set aside for planning and vendor meetings.
“We have such amazing friends and family and a great community,” Waldmann said. “I had nothing but support from every single one, especially my parents. I don’t think they understood at first, like they were like, ‘You’re so young.’ But everyone in our life has been so supportive.”
Hiring a wedding coordinator is a college bride’s saving grace, in Kouba’s opinion. The extra help is needed for staying organized during a process that requires so much attention to detail and can become overwhelming at times.
“I think that it’s the right amount of busy,” Kouba said. “I’m a pretty busy person, as is, so I mean, if it’s just just having an extra meeting to talk about flowers, I guess it could be a lot worse.”
For Waldmann and Kouba, the best part of wedding planning is personalizing the decorations and asking friends to be in their bridal parties. Freshman-year dorm friends become the girls who now go grab a coffee to talk wedding logistics during their last year of college.
“I think it’s just been so cool to form these relationships with friends over the past four years and then invite them into the next season of life with you, like you hear like all the time you’ll meet your best friends in college,” Waldmann said. “Coming in, I was like, ‘All right everyone just says that,’ but truly, most of my bridesmaids are friends from college.”
Being surrounded by all their close friends and future bridesmaids or groomsmen while soaking up the last year of college is a special experience for these engaged couples, according to Sanders.
“I would just say, like, I think getting married and engaged young is so fun, and it’s exciting,” Sanders said. “You’re their best friend, and you want to be with them forever; I don’t know why you would really want to wait. I think there’s so much fun about being young and doing this.”
