I have been thinking of the difference between these two things ever since Daniel and I went to Engaged Encounter. Everyone has been asking me at least once a day how wedding planning is going.. I have had a couple different responses to that normally I say "Its going great... almost done" lately with all the invitation drama I have been answering "sooo stressful to be 8 hours away and planning a wedding". All the little details such as menu cards, jewelry, flowers, place cards, invites, programs, favors, etc.. can be overwhelming especially since I am not a planner at ALL... the joke is I have never planned anything EVER ... (which isn't true btw I was an RA and planned things all the time)and now I am planning a wedding.
People rarely ask how marriage preparation is going and the more I think about it that is WAY more important. I am making a lifetime commitment to another person. I am committing to be there in the good and the bad times AND to give everything I am to this person; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Married love is meant to be the closest thing to God's love on earth. Daniel and I are supposed to be agents of God's love and grace to each other WOW! That is awesome AND a lot of responsibility. I definitely want to be prepared to be the best wife I can and Daniel and I both want to be prepared have a successful, happy, God-centered marriage. So far we have done many good things to prepare and I am excited for the final preparations to come!
Society generally doesn't have a great message about marriage. You rarely ever see celebrities that stay together and every minute on the news someone has had an affair or having a baby with a staff worker. There are always the stories of domestic abuse and the reports of how high the divorce rate is.. even in my own life many of my friends have divorced parents or parents who are "together" but unhappy... But with all the negativity surrounding marriage ... the excitement over weddings has multiplied. There are a billion different wedding shows, websites, magazines etc. Society loves to talk about how important it is to have a beautiful and expensive wedding but who knows what happens to those couples after the big day??
All and all I think if people spent just half the time they spent wedding planning - planning and preparing for their marriage, marriages would be much stronger and the divorce rate would be lower.
People don't ask about it until after you are married :) I had the same thing happen and now people ask me all the time "how is it being married", as for planning a wedding after having the foresight of the "after" don't stress over the little things, it will be a perfect day and all that matters is if you and daniel have a great day. You will be too busy to enjoy any of the niceties you are planning anyway and won't even remember most of your day, sad to say but it is true.
ReplyDeleteThat is sooo true and a great reminder :)
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