Is engagement compulsory?

Is engagement compulsory?Question:

Is it necessary for a young man and woman to betroth before wedding?

No, it is not, or, at least I don’t know any commandment in the Bible to say that engagement is compulsory, but the reality shows that it is necessary. And no one performs the wedding as soon as he got a positive answer from the woman whom he proposed marriage. Since he has got the answer, parents discuss about the wedding plans, then they begin to get ready for the wedding. All this time, it is good and necessary to be known by other people that that man and woman are engaged, they bound themselves before God to enter the covenant of marriage soon.

Translated by Felicia Djugostran