Ok, so personally I think marriage is pointless. I've been engaged twice and never made it down the aisle. All that changes is your last name and you're stuck with a dress that you are only going to wear once in your lifetime. Am I right?

No marriage is not pointless .! It's a really beautiful thing that happens for people that they're in love ..! People "must marry "people to call their partner "wife or husband "! It's very beautiful to live like that .!

My grand parents lived for almost 70 years and they still loved another and kept the promises .!

Marriage is about love, it's about sharing your life with someone else.

It's about, respecting,sharing,caring,sacrificing,trusting,promising,loving supporting, having each other's back, building each other up, making each other a better person, confident each other, motivating each other, completing each other, it's about seeing a beauty inside each other that no one else can't find. It's about being prepared to not to think about yourself anymore but to take care of someone else on priority. It's about being ready to die for someone else, it's about someone else's will be on priority beyond everything & everyone else. It's about feeling someone else's breath within your chest, it's about a life empty of lie,cheat,insult,fear,fake,fight. It's about finding the eyes who drown you, the voice who calms you, &  the arms that make you feel secured, it's about the time when "me" turns into "we"  it's about unity, power,strength & loyalty.

Without the elements above, no relationship would stand nor even start,  at least a few pieces is necessary. If you couldn't find any of these in your relationship, means surely there has been a wrong definition of love in your relations & so many other circumstances that makes people confuse a real true love with different breakable feelings. Such as relying on wrong people, getting to know people in real wrong places,feeling temporary love & getting tired of it after while. Seeing relationships as fun & when it comes to responsibilities every thing change. Marrying to get out of current life's pressures,not knowing each other well, marrying without spending a good time together, starting relation on sexual interests, marrying for money, marrying a married person, ect  .  . .

Violet, marriage isn't about the dress or flowers or the color of the bridesmaids' dresses or changing your name. Marriage is about the relationship that you have with your partner, wanting to be with him or her forever, wanting to be in a monogamous relationship with someone that you've given your heart to. People should focus more on the marriage / relationship part of things and less on the wedding, in my opinion.

I can appreciate part of what you say -- weddings are ridiculously expensive these days. Still, you could always re-use your dress after each divorce. (Might keep you husband in line if he knows why you're storing it in such good condition.)

But you're confusing a wedding with a marriage. One is a ceremony, the other is a lifetime commitment.

Far be it from me to quote ancient books of religious lore, but there's a line in the Bible that sums up a good marriage. It says, "the twain shall become one flesh."

I'm willing to bet that all the people who answered your question know exactly what that means and have experienced it in their own lives.

Don't make the mistake of shutting out something beautiful because of your own lack of understanding.

I can tell by your comment that you just haven't met the right Mr Right yet as when you do Marriage will become the most beautiful event in your life.  Just because you met 2 frogs that didn't turn out to be your Prince Charming doesn't men you should give up on Marriage.  The day will come that youll be  elated that it didn't  happen with these two and everything in our lives does happen for a reason. So don't give up yet especially on something you'll haven't even tried yet and start believing your day will come. Good luck

Haven't even tried yet.

You haven't met the right person yet.  You'll know it when you do.  Marriage is two people wanting to commit to each other both legally and spiritually.  It's that commitment that keeps them together when time gets rough, the fact that they've taken vows to love and respect each other. 

I knew I wanted to marry my husband the day I met him, we were engaged three weeks later and married four months later. Until I met him I was dating an assortment of men,having a fun time but as soon as I met him I knew he was different.  That was more than twenty years ago.

There is a huge difference between having a partner and having a husband.  You'll know it when it happens to you, you won't have any doubts. And you won't even need the dress.

It depends on what standard you want to use for right and wrong. The bible certainly is one that will never fail you.