When did you get your apartment?

michelle221

How far in advance did you start looking for your apartment or house? Did you move in before your wedding?

peaches85

We got our first apartment two years ago.  We started looking just a month or two before moving in.

sgdc2011

we got it 2 months after looking, it depends on where you go, some of the places we looked at only had 1 or 2 apartments available for 2 months out.  You might want to look early and decide where you want to move to and see if they have any availability

mbcdefg

I moved into his place about three months after we got engaged (so about 8-9 months before our wedding).

demarcosjd

I moved into his apartment for a few months after we got engaged. We looked for a house for about 10 months and were in our house for almost a year before we were married.

uppereastgirl

He moved into the apartment I already lived in about two years before the wedding (after he got a job in the city ... before then he worked in the suburbs so it didn't make sense for him to live there).  How far ahead you look depends on the area.  Where we live, you basically can only look a month ahead of time because new inventory only comes on the market 30 days ahead of time.  So looking even 5 weeks ahead of time gives you a somewhat limited inventory. 

rlb81

I was against renting for the longest time. We were looking for houses for about a year before I decided I wanted to go back to school (and living with my mom, yikes!) In August, when I made the decision to go back to school, we decided an apartment might be the best bet for the next 2 years. We actually REALLY lucked out... it was the second place we went to see- in a 2 family house. You can really luck out with craigslist!!

Heather822

We will be in our house 1 year this November.... so we bought it 4 months before we got engaged / 9 months before wedding.
We had been looking for a house for almost a year before we bought ours.
It all just worked out that way... didn't really plan the timeline.

meg&jarred

We wanted to save money for the wedding and since we both lived at home we started looking about a month or two ago.  We just signed our lease this weekend for a December 1st move in date which is 3 months prior to our wedding.  We found a lot on Craigslist but most of the places did not want to talk to you unless you were about a month out.  We had more luck in apartment buildings/complexs.  Every area is different though and we are moving  from Central NJ up to North Jersey which is much more populated.  Good luck!!

USER876

I owned my house, and she moved in actually before we got engaged.  It was silly for her to pay rent.

I highly advise living together before marriage.  For us (and I would think most people), it was a huge adjustment.  Things are great now, but it was a shaky start, and was ugly at times.  I couldn't imagine going through that the first 2 month of marriage.  Work out the quirks before hand.....

diamondx423

We got the apartment before we were engaged and it took about a month of looking.

mariaNryan

we got our apartment before we got engaged in may of 2009 and got engaged in oct of 2010 and our wedding is feb 2011.... Its been great to adjust like User said and we have had to adjust quite a bit since I am very neat and he is very un neat

ffbride_0813

We got an apartment together 2 years before we got engaged and bought a house the month before we got engaged.  We lived together for 4 years.  I couldnt imagine not living with my husband before the wedding.  i think when you live together you get to see each other in a different way - bad and good.  I thought it was nice to work things out before we got married. 

[Deleted User]

FI got a house about 1 year ago. He proposed 4 months after the closing. Although we wont be moving in until after the wedding, he made sure I approved of the house and all decisions were made together. When he built me my dream kitchen I knew he would pop the question.

K&J64

We moved in together a long time ago, I shacking up, and think everyone should before deciding on marriage. I couldn't imagine even getting engaged prior to living together - what if you hate each other once you move in??  But I'm not traditional I suppose. We moved into an apt. first and it took about 1 to 2 months of looking before we actually moved in. Then for buying the house it took 8 months of searching before putting in an offer on the house we bought (we put in one on another probably 3 months into it but it fell through) and then we close in two months and three weeks later moved in.

dmoney79

we got engaged sept 08, but we had been looking at houses already, when we got back from vacation (where we got engaged) we stepped up the search...found a house by oct, and put an offer in, closed on the house dec 2 08....he moved in dec 6th and i was supposed to have moved in like, every month after that, but i didn't technically move in until right after the wedding (oct 09) but as the year went on, i was there more than at my parents house....

[Deleted User]

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_did-apartment?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:90Discussion:1524622c-23e9-451d-933d-393c0c972e3aPost:60f8bc5c-e696-4fa4-b3b1-fd1d35035db3">Re: When did you get your apartment?</a>:
[QUOTE]. I couldn't imagine even getting engaged prior to living together - what if you hate each other once you move in??  Posted by kcullen37[/QUOTE]

I love when people say this. Nothing against your post. I dont judge others for moving in before marriage so as long as you're not judging me (which it doesn't seem like you are) I dont have an issue with the comments.

We've been dating 4+ years, I don't honestly believe that if you've dated long enough that things could DRAMATICALLY change so much once you do choose to move in. I spend enough time there to know he's messy, he farts, he burps, when i'm angry he wont leave me alone and it makes me want to hurt him, etc etc....

Everybody has different opinions and thats fine. I just cannot stand it when people tell me what i "have" to do. I know whats best for me, nobody else. Vice versa applies as well.

USER876

No one is telling you what to do....they are giving you advice from their experiences.  And I have to agree with them.....most of us have dated our FI for 2,3,4 years, maybe longer.  Have spent weekends, chilled out at their place a lot, and even went on a few vacations.

TRUST ME...living with each other day in and day out is a totally different experience, esp in a smaller apartment (hopefullly you will have at least 2 bedrooms).

[Deleted User]

When the phrase out of people is "you have to live together before marriage" thats telling what to do. I've literally had people tell us it's wrong not to live together like flat out factual statement. I dont enjoy having to defend our decision.

I completely understand that it's a different experience living together and not being able to "escape" at times. I'm not questioning that at all. It's an "old school" decision on our end and we're excited about it.

I'm not gonna lie, it's really frustrating not living together. We've both talking about it a lot. Everytime we go "F this, lets do it" we talk even more and then go "Nah"

gymchick05

We got engaged in March and he was renting and I bought my townhouse a year earlier (I was in the process of buying it when I met him). To be honest, I have never wanted to live w/ someone before marriage. I just think it is more excited to get married and then move in together. But, when his lease was up at the end of the summer, it didnt make sense to have him keep renting and paying $1k/mo rent, utilities, parking, etc when we could live together and save that money for the wedding. So we moved him in  2 months ago and it has been going great. I mean, we did spend a good 3 nights per week together anyway before moving in together, so it isnt bad at all. If we moved into his studio apartment together, we probably would have killed each other haha. But in the townhouse, we each have are own space, which is great