No, I do not think it is sad at all. Jonathan and I celebrated our 17th anniversary on the 2nd of January -- we date that from the first time we had sex.
I do not ever (and do not want our children to ever) confuse "romantic" with good, or real, or even better than something else. Romantic is a state of mind to make us feel misty eyed. Life decisions aren't about misty eyes -- but about long term goals and commitments.
In the middle ages, marriage as we now know it was for the upper class, to guarantee inheritance. For the rest of the folk, you set up house together in most places. The same thing was certainly true in ancient Judea where polygamy was practiced, and generally marriage was acknowledged when a man took a woman into his tent.
I'm not impressed by the idea that people could or should wait until some romantic moment. It's worked just fine for a lot of people I know to follow more modern routes.
Regards,
Hermes