Congrats. I'm not going to lecture you as you are a responsible adult, or an irresponsible one possibly but it is none of my business.
My personal views on marriage are obviously shaped from what I've experienced from people around me. I don't believe that marriage is a 'sacred institution’ or somehow magical as people like David Cameron like to bang on about. I also think there are many 'bad' statistics related to married vs. unmarried couples. It is certainly not he only way you can make commitment to anyone. My cousin has a partner and they have kids together, and they have lived happily for years. They don't agree with getting married. I understand their position and am sympathetic. Legally marriage is a huge mess. You might be thinking I'm just talking about divorce, but it still comes down to marriage being a piss poor legal definition. That's if you believe the definition is warranted in the first place, which is questionable. Personally I think it is set to get worse. The legal consequences of marriage are always in a politician’s evil eye. It is a cheap gimmick to get votes, but many do fall for it. Of course they usually try to follow through with their plans given the opportunity because it does a nice job of polarizing people, which is the main objective.
My friend got married not long ago. I went to the wedding reception. They broke up recently. I think it lasted about three months. You could say they were naive, she was young, etc but to their credit they did have a year long engagement. It makes no difference to me if they are married or not or anyone for that matter, people are free to make their own decisions and mistakes. But the point is not they are both in the thick of it legally. All accounts they just want to get on with it, but it seems they are not even allowed to get divorced yet. Of course they probably have to hire an expensive lawyer just to find out. Hopefully they can some sort of fast track divorce or ‘annulment’.