Goin'
To The
Chapel

Brides claim
love, not
backlash, in
their desire
to marry
young.

Feminism and marriage were compatible
for Andrea Jaron and Larry Bircoll.

Paul and Tracey Shelton often feel the
financial pressures of marrying young.

LESLEY PEARL

Rachel and Rashi Kuhr are among the
youngest of their friends to tie the knot.

STAFF WRITER

ndrea Jaron was on her
way to a march
against domestic vio-
lence when she spot-
ted her husband-
to-be.
She was a
freshman at the
University of Michigan with
dreams of law school and
dedicating much of her
spare time to the women's
movement. Marriage and
children just didn't fit into
this young feminist's picture
— until she met Larry
Bircoll.
Andrea remembered the
medical-school student from
Camp Tamarack. Larry had
been a counselor while she
was a camper. The summer
following Andrea's first year
at U-M, after the march
sighting, she re-met Larry
while working at Camp
Tamarack. They started
dating soon after.
Upon Andrea's gradua-

tion from U-M, she and
Larry moved in together. In
1991 the couple married.
Andrea was 24, Larry was
29.
Formerly from Royal Oak,
Andrea and Larry recently
moved to Atlanta, Ga.
"We'd dated on and off all
through college and had
lived together. The next log-
ical step was marriage, so
we took it," Ms. Jaron said.
Like more and more
young women, Ms. Jaron is
breaking an unspoken code
of the 1970s and '80s —
career now, marriage later.
If ever.
In the 1990s, the rule
appears to be slowly chang-
ing. Although U.S. Census
numbers still show men and
women marrying for the
first time at older ages
(median age for men in 1992
is 26.5, for women 24.4),
creeping numbers of college
graduates are walking from

commencement ceremonies
to the altar.
An increased interest in
religion, a political and
social swing to the right,
AIDS and the age 40-plus
women and men still single
are often among the reasons
mentioned to consider wed-
ded bliss and babies instead
of burning the bra. How-
ever, most claim love, not
nostalgia or fear, as the
motivating force in tying the
knot at a younger age.
Now 26, Ms. Jaron is
expecting to give birth in
October. She is a recent
graduate of Wayne State
University's School of Law.
At times, Ms. Jaron still
feels young. But lately,
pregnant, married and
graduated, she feels older.
But she never regrets the
choices she made.
"Some people thought if
we lived together we'd never
get married, and if we mar-

k

ried I'd never finish law
school. I've done all that,"
Ms. Jaron said. "When we
go to the bar with our single
friends, we're both so
relieved not to be a part of
that scene anymore."
Like Ms. Jaron, Tracey
Shelton is happy to be done
with the dating scene. She
also was happy to take on
her husband's name —
Shelton — and give up her
maiden name — Klueger.
"Everyone got it wrong —
pronunciation, spelling, you
name it," Mrs. Shelton said.
Mrs. Shelton lost her dif-
ficult name in September
1991, following a five-month
engagement. A Farmington
Hills native now living in
Tucson, Ariz., Mrs. Shelton
was 21 years old the day she
said, "I do."
"I didn't feel like a young
bride until all my friends
told me I was," Mrs. Shelton

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