Marriage seems so far away these days. The idea of settling down and finding the love of your life to spend the rest of your life with doesn't seem very plausible, does it?
Some genius people found a way to combat this, by making pacts while they are still young to get married to someone. This person can be their best friend, a co-worker, or even an old classmate.
People change over time though, so what happened when it came time to enact their pacts? Keep on reading to enjoy stories from the times' people went through with a marriage pact... or didn't!
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Is That A Sweet Or Strange Gesture?
I made this pact with my best male friend in high school. When we were about 20, he told me that even if he got married before 30 and I still wasn't married, he would divorce her for me, which I found to be an odd statement. We went our separate ways and I didn't hear back from him until I turned 31. By this time, he was married and I was not. We spent the day together and he asks me, "Remember our marriage pact?" He wanted to divorce his wife for me. I declined.
#2 Some People Just Can’t Wait
When I was like 15, my best guy friend was 21. He wasn't creepy or "friend zoned" or anything. He was just someone I could talk with about anything. I said by the time we were 25 and 31, let's get married.
We actually wound up getting married at 20 and 26 after he joined the Army. 8.5 years later we're still madly in love.
#3 If Only She Wrote Back...
I made a marriage pact with my very good friend in 10th grade - around 1988 or so - that we'd get married at 27 if we were both still single. We had every class together for three years straight, got along famously, and were just hugely compatible. She went overseas for college and I joined the military, and she just stopped responding to letters after around 9 months.
In 1992, I get engaged and suddenly run into her in a mall. I introduce my future wife, and my old friend loses her mind. Right in front of my future bride and all, middle of the shopping center, screaming at me about how I betrayed our agreement, I belonged with her, yadda yadda yadda. Calm as can be, my wife asks her why she stopped writing to me then?
Like a light switch flipping, the old friend starts bawling her eyes out and plops down on the floor. We hurried out of there, and I never saw her again. Bullet dodged.
#4 Communication Is Key
I made a pact with a couple of girls but forgot to tell them about it, so I'm single.
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#5 Nothing More Romantic Than Taxes
When I was in high school I made a pact with my buddy that if by the time we were 40 and we were both single AND if gay marriage was legal that we would get married so we could file taxes jointly.
So gay marriage is legal in our state now. 18 more years, Brody!
#6 Divorce Pacts Are a Thing?!
We married young and have two kids together - we parent well together and there's no one else that I could handle days-long road trips with, but we really, really suck at marriage. We jokingly made a divorce pact for 2020, thinking we would both still be young enough to enjoy going out then and would have gotten the kids through some of the tougher transitional times of adolescence. As it turned out we made it only a year longer than our pact and we are currently in the process of ending our marriage. But there is no one I'd rather work peacefully through this with than him, whether in 2020 or today.'
#7 Pacts Don’t Always Have A Happy Ending
I have friends that did it. The girl is an awful person and cheated on him in the first 6 months... They had the most awkward wedding ever... But they are still together. God, I wish they would divorce... It's not so much the pact they made when they were kids just that she stinks.
#8 If You’re Meant to Be, Life Will Bring You Guys Together
I made one with my wife when we were kids, like ages 14-15 to get married at 30. We lost touch because we went to different schools, we had fairly different walks of life, etc. Then we randomly started talking on Facebook about 10 years later and ultimately got married about 3 years before the pact would have gone into effect.
#9 You Don’t Always Need a Pact to Get Married!
My husband and I were best friends in 8th grade and were those kids that kind of hated everyone else at our school. We always said we were going to get married when we got older “because everyone else sucks.” We never dated in high school because we just went down different paths, but stayed good friends. We started talking more again after high school, started dating, and are now very happily married.
#10 When The Feelings Fade
I had a marriage pact with a friend. I'm now 33 and he's 35 and neither of us are married still but I just don't want to marry him after all, and he doesn't really seem to want to marry me either. We were 17 and 19 when we made the pact.
#11 Maybe She Planned On That Happening?
I meet my now fiancee years ago through friends and I just became single and was looking to hang out. Her and myself always kind of flirted back and forth but I thought nothing of it. We were talking and said if we're both single at 30 we would get married. I get a couple girlfriends through the years but nothing special. One night I asked if she wanted to go to dinner she says yes... As soon as she gets there I realized she thought this was a date. I just go with it as we had a good connection anyways. We ended up starting to date... She will be 30 soon.
#12 Life Doesn’t Always Go According to Pact!
I made one with one of my best friends! He has since come out as gay, so it's probably not happening.
#13 Marriage Pacts Don’t Always Work Out for the Worst
I made one about 10 years ago with a very close friend (never dated, hooked up or anything like that, we just agreed this would make sense in the long run if we don't find our soulmates on the way to his 30th birthday - he's a couple years younger than me). I'm now 30 and 6.5 months pregnant with the love of my life (not the guy I made the deal with).
About two months ago, I met him and his girlfriend at the OB/GYN waiting room - I came for a regular pregnancy check and they came for the pregnancy confirmation. We laughed because we didn't share the news with each other yet and we never spoke about the pact with our partners. Now we're both waiting for our firstborns with different people and sharing pregnancy joy and stuff. It turned out better than we could ever imagine.
#14 A Little Too Late For A Pact
I had a girl ask to make a ‘by 30 marriage pact’ one time. I was about 28 so I didn’t think it was very logical. I was also in a relationship, so I told her no out of respect for my girlfriend. Truth be told, the relationship I was in was not great and we all knew it was going to expire. Anyway, I think she posed the suggestion just because she wanted to date me.
#15 Love Is A Mysterious Thing
Anyone remember Google Mystery Missions years ago?
If not, Mystery Missions was a site where you put in a request and other people had to fulfill that request. Each time you reloaded the page you'd get new ones to look through. I stumbled across hers looking for someone to talk to; this was about a decade ago we were both 14.
She was from Memphis; I was from Chicago. We instantly became best friends. For years we talked every single day. Around 17/18 we made a marriage pact saying by 30 we'd marry if we were still single. At this point, we knew we both had strong feelings for each other but the thought of being in the same place didn't seem possible at the time.
Since the pact, we lost touch here and there. It felt like a big piece of me was missing whenever that happened. We both had relationships that didn't work out. About two years ago we started talking about being in a relationship and just being together. I met her for the first time about 18 months ago. We're engaged, and she found a new job in Chicago.
#16 Things Could Have Turned Out Much Worse!
In high school, my friend and I kind of had a crush on each other but nothing ever happened because he had a girlfriend. We promised that we would get married if we were both single by the time we were 40. We lost touch after we finished school and I ran into him a couple of years ago and added him on Facebook. It turned out he became the biggest jerk on my Facebook friends list and I'd probably rather die of a fire than hang out with him again.
#17 Sometimes All You Need Is Determination
I joined my high school graduating class in grade 11. It was a rural school and most people there had been classmates their whole lives. Come graduation and people were assigned partners for the graduation parade. I was assigned to a beautiful young lady who had a boyfriend a grade below us, while I had a girlfriend a class below us. Some guys were ribbing me about my assigned grad "date" when another guy who was usually quiet spoke up and boldly stated, "I'm going to marry her." Everyone kind of just chuckled and we all headed to our next class. I was very impressed when I reconnected with my old classmates on Facebook years ago and saw that he did indeed marry her and they have grandchildren.
#18 Never Involve Your Mother Into Your Marriage Pact!
My cousin is 6 years older than I am, (so 35 when this happened) and apparently the guy she made the pact with was a momma's boy cranked up to 11. She made a marriage pact with someone she knew, watched her cousins and friends all get married and/or have babies back to back in the space of a couple of years, so they enacted their pact. He proposed Christmas Day, married on Valentine's, fast-tracked a pregnancy.
In the first trimester, things go south. The Momma's Boy involves his mother in their marital disputes who convinces him to leave his brand new pregnant wife. The wife gives the ultimatum: show up for the birth or stay gone. Guess who is back living with her parents with a new baby and a divorce in the works?
#19 For His Sake I Hope She Forgets
My best female friend and I made a pact when we were 18 that "If we're both still single when we're 30, let's just end each other's lives."
I am 29. I'm a little older than her and I'm scared.
#20 They Could Have Been High School Sweethearts
I had a real close friend in high school that was a social butterfly and, for whatever reason, liked to hang out with awkward nerds like me. One day she suggested a marriage pact if we were both still single at 35, and I agreed with a laugh because, hey, I didn't expect her to remember me among all her other friends and there was no way she would still be single by then.
After graduation, her family moved clear to the other side of the country and I figured I would just be another Facebook friend. But we stayed in touch and actually started talking more - I'm talking constant Skype webcam and phone calls way too late into the night. It turns out I was one of the few people that actually bothered to put anything into a continuing relationship, and about a year after graduation, she confessed that she had fallen in love with me.
That was seven years ago. We're getting married in 29 days.
#21 If Only It Wasn’t So One-Sided
My good friend made me sign a bar napkin marriage agreement. I laughingly told her that we were both too messed up, on top of our drinking problems, to be getting hitched. But she was very adamant about it. From time to time she would remind me of it and when I would laugh, she would dig in her purse and produce this very fragile bar napkin. And I would relinquish any protests for her sake and agree: "Yes, ok, ok... We will at this age. Blah, blah."
There is more to the story, but eventually, she took her own life. I had a lot of guilt, but that's for another time to tell.
A week or so after her passing, her sister calls me assuming we were very close. She, the sister, had found the bar napkin and felt obligated to contact me. We talked for a long while on the phone. Another week proceeds and I attend a small gathering/tribute for my friend. It took me about a year to stop beating myself up over it.
#22 The Stars Aligned Just Right….
My wife and I dated during that awkward summer between high school and college and then she went her way, and I went mine; we joked about a marriage pact - we didn't say, but a "wouldn't it be funny if? yeah, you know, that would work." I think I saw her for lunch like one time when we were 20ish(?) Anyway, I ran into her again at a friend's party when I was 28 and we hit it off. She had just gotten divorced from a two-year marriage and I was just back from law school. It was nice as we both knew the other wasn't a psychopath - more or less got on with one another's families and we had many of the same friends.
Anyway, here we are almost 20 years on from running into one another again - married 16 years, a couple of kids, living in the suburbs. All is good.
#23 Soulmates Eventually Find Each Other
My wife and I made the pact at 15. We led different lives after high school. I went to the Army she moved to California. Somehow 10 years after the pact we ended up in the same area again and started dating. Rushed it by 5 years but it was worth it.
#24 Sometimes You Find The One Early On
My best friend and I since 6th grade had a running joke that once we were single, we should give it a go because chances are we would end up getting married since she's the only person who puts up with my crap and vice versa.
We got married last month after 5 years of dating.
#25 Love Wins Marriage Pact
Some good friends of mine are both gay and lesbian (a gay man and a lesbian woman) - they decided if they didn't get in serious relationships they would marry each other.
They have two wonderful kids together an they are amazing people.
They are still looking for their ideal same-sex partner, but it's very clear that they love each other and care much for their kids.
#26 He Took It To Heart
I had a roommate who went through with this. He was dating a girl and they broke up, agreeing to marry if they didn't find someone else in 10 years. They're both slightly weirdos. 10 years went by, he dated a few people and so did she but nothing stuck. So he calls her up, they briefly start dating and bam, married. Kids came less than a year later. He was pretty introverted, it seemed like he held that option pretty close to his heart.
#27 Love Finds A Way
My sister did. He's in the navy and she dated other guys. Then the age struck and they got married. I was at the wedding.
They're expecting their first child in two months.
I have a sneaking suspicion that these "pacts" are really just a way to word around wanting to be with another person, but also acknowledging that whatever circumstances they're in aren't conducive to it.
#28 Early Birds Get The Worm
When we were 18 my best friend and I said that if neither of us were married by 30 we'd marry each other.
We ended up dating at 26 and married at 28.
#29 Don’t Give Up Hope
My childhood best friend and I made the same exact pact when we were 18. We're 25 now and I had completely forgotten about that pact until last week when I called him crying about a recent break up. I said something blubberingly emotional, something along the lines of, "I'll be single for the rest of my life," and he reminded me of the pact. I've been wondering all week if this ever actually works out.
#30 It All Worked Out
I had one of these pacts with a girl. Then we started dating each other a couple months later and then ended up married. Still together more than 10 years later.
#31 They Can’t All Be Happy Endings
We agreed that if neither of us were married at age 40 we would get married. Well, we decided to move it up by about eleven years. Got married in 2008. In 2011 we divorced. Life moves on. Hopefully at least one of us is married in 2019 because I don't want to marry her again. So I guess we haven't actually done it.
#32 It’s Always Good To Have A Backup
Made a similar pact with my best girlfriend in high school, that we'd be each others backup. We've been together for 7 months now after 10 years since graduating. Looks like it’s on track!
#33 Shoot Your Shot
I found my high school boyfriend on Facebook six years after we broke up (all of which I had spent thinking of him). I sent him a message and invited him to go for a drink. 5 years later: We got married last Friday!
#34 This Is Some Brutal Honesty
I'm ugly as hell, and my wife is no looker either. We made the agreement and followed through on it, because although we'd dated other people, neither of us had found anyone as kind, fun and easy to talk to as the other. So we went for it, and we're happy we did.
Granted, our kids were beaten nearly to death by the same genetic ugly stick that got me, but other than that, there really hasn't been a downside to it.
#35 Fall From Grace
A friend of mine. Their parents were best friends, so the couple were babies in a crib together. Agreed at age 8 that if they were both single at 23 they'd get married. Well 23 rolls around and he's happy single but she wants to get married. So he does it, out of love/respect/obligation. They have a kid, she ends up meeting some dude in a chat room and runs off to Pennsylvania, leaves the kid.
He goes on a bender, they get back together, but not happily. He even said to me at one point, "I know she's bored but I want the marriage to work." She leaves again.
Then he got arrested for an unspeakable crime and that was the end of our friendship.
#36 It All Started With An Email
My ex-roommate's story from my recollection:
They were in college and it wasn't the right time to settle down. They went their separate ways with the joke that, in 10 years, if they weren't already committed, they would marry. They kept in contact with occasional emails when they remembered, like you do with old friends. They both had somewhat long-term relationships in this time that didn't work out for various reasons. They lived as friends that hardly ever spoke. He was in Asia and Europe for at least 6 of the 10 years so they didn't even get to accidentally see each other.
She happened to remember the pact and sent him an email laughing about it. She was in the first few weeks of dating someone else so she didn't think he would take it seriously. He sent back an email saying he was going to be in the US in late summer and they could start to plan things then.
They got married the next summer and had a child about a year ago. From my view, they seem to really love each other and have a very happy life.
#37 Love At First Sight
Made the pact at 17/18 with my best friend. I loved her since the moment I met her on a school bus when I was 10 years old. It was one of those "the world stops" moments when I first saw her (the movie Big Fish actually had it right). Ever since then I've been a sucker for redheads.
She went to college in Boston and I in western NY. We didn't go a week without talking to each other on the phone at least once (no matter where we were). Anyone we went out with hated the other just because we talked so much.
Around the age of 25 we started exploring the possibility of getting serious. It was a lot more difficult than you think considering, in all honesty, the only thing to be added was a physical relationship. The risk was almost too great. The feel that, "If we mess this up, we lose each other". I was more than willing to take that risk but she was really scared.
Five years of dating with one or two serious moments where we almost didn't make it, we got married in 2010. We now have two girls (ages 1 & 2) and I couldn't imagine it any other way.
Sure, it wasn't exactly 10 years, but we had to do it our way.
#38 The Pact Shall Be Fulfilled
Made this deal with a guy about 5 years ago, we then dated a while but stopped seeing each other for whatever reason, just not great timing I think and a bit young for anything too serious. 5 years on and a few relationships with other people later, we've started dating again. So I guess we will see what happens!
#39 A Sincere Joke
My fiance and I made this pact over 10 years ago as a joke and now we're getting married next year! We were apart for a long time but always loved each other.
#40 On The Dot
I have a friend from high school who is doing it this fall. They made a pact in 2004 and are going through with it more or less 10 years to the day.
#41 The Pact Works
My relationship with my husband started with one of those pacts. We'd been friends for ages, and made one of those daft marriage pacts. I guess it made us think about what it might be like to be married to the other, and it wasn't a bad picture. Became a couple soon after that, and have now been together 12 years.
#42 What A Roller Coaster
I know a guy who fell in love with a girl. They had a little pact to get married at 40 if they were both single. Their relationship didn't really work out, and she eventually married his best friend. They were friends still, so it was all good. He got married to this musician lady that he actually met at their wedding. Had kids, but she died unfortunately. And the first girl got divorced. One day, he called her up and, well, the rest is history.
#43 The Facade
I had a best friend in high school. One day I introduced him to a female friend of mine who had wanted to arrange a date between them, but was too shy. The two of them hit it off really well, but senior year rolled around and the college prep work kind of got in the way of their relationship, so they made one of these pacts. Well, three years of college later, they finally reconnect and start going out again. Now, I was a bit busy with school and that sort of stuff too, so I kind of lost contact with them.
Fast forward a few years and I get a call from my old best friend for a small get-together, where I discovered that not only are they now married, but that night is also the anniversary of when I first introduced them! The conversation rapidly proceeds through their jobs and hobbies, but I can tell something's wrong. There's a bit of tension which I never recalled from my years of knowing them.
Seemingly out of nowhere, my old friend admits that he's been having an affair! For some reason, she responds that she always wanted to be an artist, and he was stifling her creativity (an odd thing to say after hearing "I've been having an affair," I know). Eventually they're yelling and screaming at each other, and I'm caught in the middle. They each give me a few loaded questions, and try to make me pick a side. Deciding that I've had enough of this, I decide to back up my former friend, because, y'know, the "guy code" and all, right? She storms out, as he calls her name. Unfortunately, I must have been having too much to drink because I don't quite remember what happened after that.
However, a few days later I get a call from her thanking me for helping her realize that she was in an unhappy marriage and that they're getting a divorce. My guy friend? He hasn't talked to me since, and still doesn't to this day.
I guess their marriage must have just been a façade.
#44 What A Funny Joke
My husband and I had this joke...if all plans failed (plan a, plan b, plan c etc.) and we were down to plan x14 in our lives, we would get married. There was no set date of time to this, so a little over a week after the joke's creation he asked me to marry him via a text message.
I thought he was kidding. Broke his heart a little, but he bounced back when, during a conversation a few hours later, I said, "Wait, why are you upset? Were you serious?"
"Kind of, do you wanna?"
"Um....sure?"
Been married 7 years and have 4 kids.
#45 Does This Still Count?
I ended up with my pact person at 25. We made the pact at 19 and said we would marry at 30. I am still with him and now 31. We have been dating for 7 years and are still not married.
Sources: Reddit,
