However, counsellor Francis Lee, 56, of Touch Family Services, says that while under a year is too brief a dating period, a long courtship does not guarantee a lasting marriage either.

He says: "A couple may know each other for 10 years or more and still divorce one or two years after marriage."

This would be so if relations were "shallow" and the couple merely enjoyed going for movies and meals together but did not know each other's expectations.

For instance, a wife might find her spouse insensitive and a man might think his wife "restrictive" if they had not spelt out that she likes a man with a listening ear and he had not said he wants time with friends for fishing or football, adds Mr Lee.

Nurse Gin Tan, 28, feels that the length of a couple's courtship depends on the age of the couple. She says: "A couple in their early 20s should have a longer courtship to find out if that person is the one."

However, her husband, Mr Daz Lim, 29, a manager in a food manufacturing plant, feels that three years is the mininum.

He says: "If you are young, anything less than that is too rushed. When you are married and everyday problems pop up, you won't be able to handle it."

When they met in 2003, she was a polytechnic student and he was waiting to enlist for national service, and they had entered the same modelling contest.

He popped the question in 2010, after seven years of dating her. He was then 26 and she 25.

During the seven years, he did his two- year national service, completed a three- year business management diploma course at a polytechnic, then worked and saved for two years before proposing.

Part of the reason for dating longer was that he needed two years to save for a $7,000 diamond ring.

However, hanging on for too long is not advisable, he adds, as life is unpredicatable.

"I didn't want to waste any more of her time and wanted us to move on to the next stage of life," he says. The couple now live with their one- year-old daughter, Lixuan, in the private apartment of Mr Lim's parents in Woodlands.

His wife says: "He was the one who sped things towards marriage. People now are settling down later. "Age is not a problem because women are more independent today."

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