"19 Kids and Counting" star Jill Duggar told the New York Post short engagements are key to remaining pure before marriage.
The pregnant newlywed married her husband Derrick Dillard, 25, in June after meeting each other over Skype a year ago.
"We prayed a lot, prepared and really didn’t see any reason to have a long courtship and engagement," Duggar told the New York Post. "Once we knew we wanted to get married, we didn’t want to put off the wedding for a long time and provide a stumbling block for ourselves; We purposed to save ourselves physically for each other within marriage (even our first kiss for our wedding day!), so we had a short engagement period."
PHOTOS: Jill Duggar marries Derrick Dillard
She admitted long engagements can be difficult for those waiting to have sex until their wedding night.
"You may not wanna push the wedding date out too far, as those natural God-given desires with too much time between engagement and marriage can make it harder to remain pure," the 23-year-old said. "If you are financially ready, and things are in place (which should be at the time the question is popped), we believe an engagement should only be long enough to plan a wedding!"
Duggar and her husband announced they were pregnant with their first (and definitely not last!) child when the reality star was only eight weeks along.
"Understanding that the majority of miscarriages happen within the first trimester, and believing that every life is precious no matter how young, we decided to share our joyful news as soon as we could," Duggar explained.
"We knew that we weren’t going to prevent having children, so when we found out we were expecting within our first month of marriage we were thrilled!"
The couple's wedding will air on TLC, however, they have yet to decide whether they will share their child's birth on "19 Kids and Counting."
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