A hypocrite in a tux?

I read an article in the newspaper that less 6% of couples who get married last 50 years. Only a third make it to 25 years. I have observed wedding receptions where the MC asks those dancing couples on the dance floor who have been married less than a certain amount of time to have a seat. Eventually, everyone sits.

Now granted, those numbers don't take into account the number of couples who were married, and had a spouse pass away. Yet, to me, to see the astonishing few who make it to 25 years, a mere 1 in 3, is disheartening. Is it because we, as a generation, are getting married later? Is it because couples are comfortable as a pair that doesn't want to get married? Or is it because couples are making the wrong choices and calling it quits instead of working through things?

I have always maintained that I want to do it right, or not be married at all. Now that I'm in my thirties, I begin to wonder if marriage is really where I want to be. I think I've gotten comfortable doing things my own way, never having to answer to someone else about my decision to do something I want to do.

I am in a unique position, because I also photograph weddings. Yes, I photograph weddings, but I am a bachelor. I capture all those happy moments, and sometimes I wonder if people are pushing too hard to get married.

Ironic, isn't it? Here I am, a bachelor going to weddings and taking the pictures that celebrate a couple's commitment to being one but in two bodies. Sometimes, I am wistful. Sometimes, I am glad it isn't me. Sometimes, I feel entirely hypocritical.

I almost always tease the groom about being sentenced for life. I get a grin (or is it a grimace?) every time. Yet, those statistics from the article tell a different story. They say that half of the couples married don't make it past 15 years. Being from the other side, I have to wonder what goes wrong, because I surely do not know what it is like.

I have known about these statistics, garnered from other sources, but the numbers are mostly the same. So, as I ask the bride and groom to smile, in the back of my mind, I know that they have a 1 in 2 chance of staying married before any kids they have make it to college. Shouldn't I warn them?