My thoughts are very much like @livelaughlove21‘s – it depends on the relationship before the marriage. I have seen many people over the years put romantically idealistic and unrealistic expectations on others and on what ‘getting married’ means. In those cases the people are disappointed and it often doesn’t work out in the long run. A colleague was with her partner for over 20 years and they had kids together; but once they got married, his possessiveness became even worse and they are now divorced.
When I was dating after my divorce, people would ask if I would get married again. It is not unusual to see divorced people either desperate to marry again, or dead-set against it. My reply was this: Marriage and commitment are mutually exclusive, as each can exist without the other. If I find a partner with whom I share a strong commitment, and it makes financial and legal sense for us to get married, then I have no problem getting married again.
In my current relationship, we have had commitment from the time we started dating four years ago. I made it clear that I was not going to risk a solid friendship just for fun. As it stands, it currently does not make financial sense for us to get married; so we live together, share everything and are engaged, but will not marry until it offers us benefits. Nothing about our relationship will change because we are married in every other sense but legal.