Hub and I lived together for five years, and had a commitment ceremony among our close friends in the fourth year. We had both gone through a previous marriage "until death do you part" that didn't meet that pledge. We were both relunctant to make that promise again.
It wasn't until our sixth year together that we both felt certain of our relationship and chose to make it legally recognized. At the time, there was no imperative for spousal recognition; and after marriage we continued to keep separate finances, debts and checking accounts. The income tax "marriage penalty" was certainly not an incentive. We also had no interest in making babies that would need "legal" parental status.
In answer to you question LL, there was no "reason" to our marriage other than we were no longer fearful of making a legal recognition of what we shared together. Very 70's
