Nervously Engaged & Wedding Planning

Hi, just chiming in because I have been there, done that. DH and I started dating when I was 15 and got engaged on my 21st birthday as a junior (me) and senior (him). My parents were initially pretty skeptical, to the point that my mother wrote in their Christmas card to approx 300 people that we would be having a very long engagement and expressed substantial concern the next time I was home. After we discussed it, she asked me the next day whether I had thought about where the reception would be. My grandfather told me not to drop out of college (because apparently that was something he thought I would do in 2011). We both graduated on time and moved in together, he was in grad school and I was working before we started planning our wedding. I got married at 23. My parents did end up paying for most of it as this was always something they'd said they would do. I took the LSAT about 2 months before our wedding, started applying to law schools shortly after, and started law school on our first anniversary. We are closing on our first home in July, and will celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary in August. I will have been a lawyer for 2 years in November and we just had a conversation about how 2 years ago, I was furiously studying for the bar and now we are buying our home. I am hoping we can start a family in the next 2 years. All of this is to say that I have been there, done that and it was tremendously difficult at times-- there were days in law school that I thought we would end up divorced and I honestly think if law school were 1 more year, we could not have done it. I have a ton of student debt that we are still working on, a job that I LOVE 90% of the time and a marriage that I can see lasting the rest of our lives. My point is that it is difficult but doable, and avoiding discussions about your parents' fears is not the way to go. I suggest you sit down and have an open discussion with them about your future plans and where you see your lives going, including the timeline and role that your relationship will play in it. They may get onboard or they may not, but having the conversation will clarify the situation. Don't avoid it out of fear.

I agree with this. I think it would do more harm than good as well. Maybe your parents will slowly come around once they realize you're definitely getting married and still going to school. Good luck, I know parents can be hard to deal with at times