For decades the marriage rate in Germany has been declining and the age of first marriage has been increasing. At the same time non-traditional living arrangements like cohabitation and long-distance relationships have been spreading. From the perspective of the theory of individualization these developments are viewed as empirical evidence for pluralization and for a rejection of the institution of marriage. Considerations from the perspective of utility theory come to the conclusion that marriage is losing in relevance because its utility is declining in comparison to other alternatives due to social change. Moreover, it is argued that especially for well-educated young women the opportunity costs of a marriage are rising because of the loss of autonomy and flexibility of married women. In spite of the theoretical and empirical evidence for these interpretations it is also true that almost four out of five members of the mid-1960’s birth cohorts in Germany marry at least once in their lives. The questions are: Why do these people marry and what subjective meaning do they ascribe to marriage? With data from a standardized survey of both partners (N = 754) of couples who married between 1999 and 2005 explorative cluster analyses have been conducted. The findings show the substantial importance of traditional attitudes toward marriage, and they indicate a high individual evaluation of church marriages. Moreover, they relativize the significance of the “love match.”