I tend toward the sentimental, and I did just attend my sister's very expensive wedding this weekend, so maybe my answer is a little biased. But I think marriage as a concept is sweet, assuming you find the right person and the reasons are good.
However, how often is this really the case? The media constructs this idea that we all need to get married to be "normal" and that the average American adult subject is married. So while we can say, "People should be able to do whatever they want, man," many people are manipulated and coerced into wanting certain things from life.
When my sister first started dating her husband, she complained to my family that "he's ugly and I don't like him." Then at the wedding there was a speech about how "she loved him and his eyes from the first moment they met" which my immediate family recognized as BS. People want romantic lives and stories like in movies and TV, but this is rare and hardly ever, if ever at all, the case.
I do not like this kind of hypocrisy. Why can't she admit that their meeting was not perfect? Why can't she admit that maybe their relationship is rough around the edges? And they're a pretty good couple; I can only imagine how some other dysfunctional, power-grabbing couples operate.
If you cut the media influence, financial incentives, arrangements, coveting, and hypocrisy, I love marriage and I think it is somewhat a natural instinct. Humans enjoy mates. But if most men had the chance, wouldn't we spread our seed everywhere around the world? Maybe desire for a single long-term mate is more of a female thing, as their biology requires a mandatory 9 month commitment for offspring. I'm not a biologist so I don't know.
Regardless, aging and dying alone (physically, mentally, emotionally, and sexually) is a sad prospect, and if you can find the right soulmate for the journey, I think it can be a very beautiful ride.