How young is too young to get married?

Got up early today to feed my daughter, and as I always do, I turned on the TV to see what could possibly be on TV at 7:00 on a Sunday morning. I stumbled across MTV's "Engaged and Underage." I had heard of this show, but my first impression was that MTV was following around a couple that was under 18 and headed for the altar. Then I watch today and find out the couple, Josh and Bre, I believe, are 21 and 20, respectively. They're my age.

Hmm.

MTV shows them picking up a marriage license, buying a house, planning the wedding and lets Bre discuss why she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex: "I was a huge Jessica Simpson fan...."

They don't seem to be the most mature couple, but perhaps it's the editing, which purposely altered the footage to make it look like Josh is a goofball and Bre is a tad naive.

But I think the key to a good marriage is when you marry your best friend.

I'm fortunate in that I met my husband my first day of college when I was moving into my dorm. I thought to myself (and later told my roommate), "I'm gonna marry that man and give him a bunch of babies..."

Fast-forward four years later and here we are with a little one in tow. (By the way, that is a much cleaner version of my ring up there...) Over the years, my husband became my everything. He was the one that made me laugh, made me think for more than just today, made me appreciate what a good man was. He taught me everything I know about football (blech), made me an authority on ESPN (I watch, or rather sleep through, SportsCenter every night), and helped me appreciate saving money.

I tell him anything and he won't judge me. In fact, I have told him everything and he hasn't judged me. And I don't judge him.

So does that mean we shouldn't be married because I'm 21 and he's 26? I like to think we're not your average young couple, because, well, he's not that young to me. He has his Master's degree and a full-time job and I'm 10 weeks away from getting my degree (magna cum laude in four years, thank you very much!) So what's too young to get married?

I remember when we were about to get engaged and my husband gave me a bridal magazine to look through. My dad saw it and flipped out, saying, "You don't need to look at that," like it was a porn magazine or something. He was just saying that I was too young. Of course, I was 19 then and my hubby was 24.

So maybe I was too young. But I don't regret being an "old married lady" at the ripe old age of 21. We're happy. Isn't that what counts?