While we have been obsessing over getting our own wedding invitations printed, other wedding invitations have been filling our mailbox, signaling the beginning of the wedding season.

These are joyous occassions for our friends who are ready to take that next big step in their adult lives. But somewhere amidst adding wedding dates to our calendar, news of another wedding came tumbling through the grapevine - a wedding we were, quite honestly, less than ecstatic about: My nineteen-year-old cousin had just accepted a wedding proposal from her boyfriend.

Don't get me wrong, I love my cousin to pieces (and her boyfriend is a wonderful guy as well). She is like a sister to me, a person I've always been inclined to be protective over. So it made it all the more difficult to swallow news that she was ready to take such a big step at such a young age. To me, the vision of her as little girl toting a dirty white stuffed bunny around with bangs in her eyes and a finger in her mouth still doesn't seem so long ago.

For three days, I fretted over how to be honest with her about my feelings that she was too young while not crushing her spirit. It didn't work. Both my sister and I had the exact opposite reactions she was looking for. She was admittedly hurt and we are still mostly tongue-tied about how to express our concerns in a way that she still understands how much we love and care about her.

They are vowing not to get married until she is done with college which eased my concerns somewhat but I still have to wonder what the rush is? They clearly have no interest in exploring relationships with anyone else so what's the need to lay such a strong claim on one another now?

I think back to when I was her age and all of the things I would have missed out on if I would have gotten married then. Job opportunities, exotic vacations, learning how to manage my own life, figuring out who I am and what I like - all without the pressure of having to give someone else's needs and wants consideration in my decisions.

By the time Chad and I got engaged, we were ready to start thinking in the plural rather than singular terms. We had lived some life. We had careers. We had enjoyed successes. We had weathered missteps and disappointment. We had tried other people on for size, refining our own preferences for a partner.

Is it so wrong to want the same things for my cousin?

I'm not saying that she should follow my life recipe to find her own happiness. And I'm not saying that getting married young is tantamount to a total disaster. I would just hate for her to wake up 20 years from now and wonder where "she" went and regret that she didn't take some time for herself before she became a wife and a mother.

SOUND OFF: Did you get married young? Did it work out? What age is the right age to start thinking about marriage? What advice would you give young couples about marriage? What do you wish you would have known about marriage before you took the plunge?