Warning: This story includes spoilers for the Bachelor finale. It's inevitable that any Bachelor couple will always be asked about their marriage plans. Although the show is technically only about finding love, it's also become pretty focused on the whole "putting a ring on it" thing. Several couples from the Bachelor franchise have made it down the aisle, but it's understandable for a couple to not want to rush into that either. This important to remember when talking about Cassie Randolph and Colton Underwood, especially, because she was so hesitant about the engagement aspect of the show to begin with. Cassie and Colton aren't getting married yet, considering they're still just dating and not even engaged as of now.
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Cassie said during the After The Final Rose special that she and Colton were now "super in love." She also said they'd talked about the potential of engagement, but weren't heading in that direction just yet. "We still have a lot of room to grow," Colton added. "We’re enjoying dating right now … we’re not going to rush anything."
Cassie made it clear after Colton came back for her that she initially still didn't know if she could be all in and really get to where he already was. "I know why you came into this was to find someone to spend the rest of your life with ... I didn’t know if I could get there and that’s essentially why I left," Cassie said. She added to his mom, "We are on a little bit of different pages … he’s always a step ahead of me." At points in the finale, Cassie didn't even seem sure she wanted to keep dating Colton, much less get married. She eventually came around to the idea of exploring a relationship, telling Colton "If I'm going to commit to a relationship, it's going to be because I do see it getting there … however we leave this, I want to be all in."
Still, expect her to take things just as slowly on the potential marriage front. As Colton said, "I love hard and fast and she doesn’t. She’s going to take her time and I’m okay with that … I’m okay with being patient."
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Colton also needs the support of Cassie's family, because Cassie's father's hesitation about the speed of the show is actually part of why she left the first time. And Colton made it clear on the show that he has to get his future wife's father to sign off on the marriage before he can even think about proposing. Even though that's a little regressive, it's still what he wants to do. So don't expect the two to be walking down the aisle until Papa Randolph thinks it's OK. The last time Colton asked for Cassie's hand, there were four women still on the show. And Cassie's dad Matt thought it was a little soon to be asking for anyone's blessing. "I think that a lifelong commitment, that's big and shouldn't be taken at all lightly — because it is forever in my opinion," Matt told Colton And too often it's, I think, done without enough thought. So I feel like as far as the hand in marriage, that would be a premature blessing."
Of course, it's been a few months since that initial ask, so maybe Cassie's dad is more on board now. In any case, it's actually just up to Cassie and Colton as far as next steps go in their relationship. Going too fast made Cassie nervous on the show, so it's understandable that they may want to wait until she feels 100 percent on board. But even if Cassie and Colton do get engaged, it doesn't mean marriage is right around the corner.
Even the engaged Bachelor and Bachelorette couples have been taking their time of late. Aside from Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Lauren Burnham (who wasn't technically his winner, since he changed his mind post-show), Desiree Hartsock and Chris Siegfried from The Bachelorette Season 9 were the most recent Bachelor Nation couple to get married. (That doesn't include couples from Bachelor in Paradise, which operates a little differently than the main two shows.) There are several Bachelor Nation couples still happily engaged, but they're not tying the knot quite yet. Those couples include JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers from The Bachelorette Season 12, Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo from The Bachelorette Season 13, and Becca Kufrin and Garrett Yrigoyen from The Bachelorette Season 14.
Fans need to remember that The Bachelor timeline is so quick, and then after the show couples can't go out in public or they'll ruin the ending of the show. So Cassie and Colton haven't really had time to be a normal dating couple yet. They're probably just excited to get to go to dinner in a restaurant and not have to hide their feelings in public anymore. They need to figure out how their relationship works now that the world knows about it before they have to answer questions about marriage. They may walk down the aisle one day, but first they're going to get to know one another on a boyfriend and girlfriend level. And isn't that what every couple is (or should be) given the space to do?