Marriage in Middle-earth I (happy)

[Marigold Hedgeworth]

Many of these happy marriages seem to have a "love at first site" beginning. Thingol & Melian, Beren & Luthien, Aragorn & Arwen. I wonder if that's part of the formula for sucess?.

There's at least one strong, happy marriage that didn't begin with "love at first site" -- that of Eomer and Eowyn. By the time they married, they were very much in love(at least IMO), but their relationship began with something very close to dislike.