Ok so headcanon time I feel like because hobbits like to gossip and get up in each other's business so much, as basically a defense mechanism they've developed a very different and far more intricate system of marriage than other races. Instead of it naturally being a romantic thing, it's basically a public declaration for when you move in together of what your relationship to each other is, so you can live together in peace without rampant speculation. (Hobbits don't really see a point in marriage for your own sake, since you and your partner(s) should know the nature of your relationship without a piece of paper saying it. If you want to throw a party about yourselves that's perfectly acceptable at any point in your relationship, but mostly it's for the sake of the general public.)
They have four main types of marriage and at least twenty subsets (mostly for various poly arrangements), all of which have names in the hobbit language (which I will get to work on at some point). Their word for 'marriage' literally translates to 'one-souled', reflecting their view of marriage vs the rest of Middle Earth automatically assuming a romantic connotation for the word. You can marry your romantic partner, but also your queerplatonic partner or your platonic best friend.
Also just picture a hobbit explaining to Big Folk 'oh yeah, we're married. They're my best friend's romantic partner's best friend's romantic partner's best friend. We're roommates. It's chill.' and just watching their brain implode. And having no idea why.
Because. Also. They have no clue that they're the only ones that do this. Especially the hobbits that live in the Shire and don't interact with outsiders much, certainly not to get into cultural discussions. They just assume that the Big Folk are more private and therefore use an umbrella term since they think what the exact relationship in their marriage is is no one else's business.
Enter: the massive misunderstanding that is the engagement between Bilbo 'has just enough understanding of dwarven culture to follow his dwarves' behavior without really getting it' Baggins and Thorin 'token of motherfucking friendship' Oakenshield.
Thorin survives the battle (obviously), and now free from goldsickness discovers that the only good thing he's done since arriving in Erebor is give his hobbit a proper engagement gift. Probably should have courted him a little first, but he's still wearing the mithril, so Thorin figures it's fine. Bilbo, meanwhile, knows that he's been given an engagement gift, but is a little confused by the manner it was given in. He'd sworn Thorin's feelings for him were romantic, but then he proposed talking about friendship. Which implies they're getting *insert hobbitish word I haven't invented yet for platonic marriages here* married, not *other hobbitish word for romantic marriages* married. And, well, Bilboâs feelings ARE romantic, and he knows he'll regret it and be miserable later, but he loves Thorin enough that he'll marry him any way Thorin wants. (This is not recommended in the Shire, but does happen. Bilbo just never though it would happen to him.)
They go on like this for a bit. Thorin is a bit confused on how much Bilbo's cut back on the physical affection since they got engaged, but assumes it's some hobbit thing- which isn't ENTIRELY incorrect, it's just not at all the kind of hobbit thing that he thinks. This lasts for about a month or so until Bard and Thranduil are getting married (this is not going to devolve into my headcanons for post-restoration Daleish culture. It's not) and Bilbo politely inquires as to the nature of the thing, confusing everyone until Gandalf awkwardly clears his throat and informs Bilbo that non-hobbits only get married one way. This confuses everyone else even more, and Bilbo ends up having to explain a lot of hobbit culture to curious dwarves, elves, and men while Thorin just listens in dawning horror as he remembers how exactly he proposed, until he bursts out with an interruption that he needs to talk to his betrothed and drags Bilbo off for a long overdue talk.
They work everything out and get happily married, and the entire Company teases Thorin about it for the rest of eternity.
Also, the Big Folk of the Fellowship (we will also not delve into my multicultural Fellowship stuff here) definitely all marry each other after the quest is over in one of those complicated hobbit marriages where it's like 'here's my romantic partner and his best friend who's also my best friend and said best friend's romantic partner who's also our best friend', half because they've adopted so much hobbit culture at this point and half to confuse the fuck out of literally everyone else.
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