Wedding Ideas - Marriage #3

It's inevitable at this time of year. Up and down the wedding industry comes those oh too familiar rumblings through blog posts and tweets about work/life balance, wanting to spend more time with loved ones and needing some time off. As we near the end of the busy summer season, everyone is desperate for a break, a marathon of their favourite TV show and a bloody long a lie in.

Nov 10, 2014

My husband says I've still "got it" and he laughs at my jokes, or perhaps he's laughing at me. Either way, it doesn't really matter. There's laughter happening here and that can only be a good thing, right? We also annoy each other.

What changed in me was the realization that I was committing to a process of being with another person. There is a difference. I came to peace with the fact that I was not committing to being the same person for the rest of my life; that person he in...

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Hooray, you guys! Today we're debuting a brand new feature (which after this you'll be able to catch on Sundays). This idea came out of a chat I had with my friend Belinda late last year, when she suggested a bit of a SouthBound Bride revisited feature, asking our lovely brides and grooms which is their favourite wedding picture, now that years have passed, and why.

I know everyone says that marriage takes work, but what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that I, as the wife, need to add "keep marriage chugging along" to my to-do list? Am I my marriage's caretaker? What if I'm too tired to do the work? Then what?

When a friend of mine who is an Old Testament scholar gets asked by congregations to offer an adult study on "biblical marriage," his reply is regularly and succinctly the same: "You actually don't want me to do that."

He pulled me into the closet and closed the door. I could hear kids calling. We ignored them. He whispered, "I miss Hawaii. I miss you." We promised each other last summer, loving and living a carefree togetherness we hardly recognized, that we wouldn't slip back into the hurried routine and forget each other.

Try to accept your partner as he or she is Not trying to change each other is the key to a happy marriage life. This statement sounds surprising but it is true. The more we try to change each other the more we argue and fight. Rather than trying to fight your partner’s personality style,

Coming of Faith brings the voices of Muslim American women to the world through multidimensional storytelling and empowerment initiatives. This post was originally published on Coming of Faith. Posted: There is a marriage crisis amongst Muslims and I think that is putting it lightly.

The argument to "wait until marriage" puts sex so high on a pedestal that love and exploration -- what sex is truly about -- are lost to fear and uncertainty. It makes any kind of sex before marriage experience (good, or bad, or ugly) look ...

We seek acceptance from the time we are children through adulthood. As children we mainly seek approval and acceptance from our parents. However, once we become adults, marriage is often our most intimate relationship, and our spouse is the one from whom we seek acceptance.

In a few days, we will celebrate fifty years together. That we have lived this long is due, undoubtedly, more to genetic and environmental luck, modern medicine, and some reasonable choices than to anything else.

This is the first post in a series called "Love Stories," found at jaymiranda.com. Like many women, my girlhood views of love were heavily impacted by the final scene in Cinderella when the happy couple rides off in a carriage and you read that they lived happily ever after.

When I got married in 2012, my wife and I wrote our own vows. It is the vogue thing to do these days. What I soon learned is that the writing of one's vows can be intimidating and extremely personal.

Lately I've been reading about Middle Eastern women enduring abominable backlashes from ISIS: Women held as prisoners; girls (as young as 9) repeatedly raped; women stoned by their families for committing adultery (while the men involved are absolved of any responsibility). These acts are horrifying.

SCOTUS's decision to make gay marriage a constitutional right in all states is a landmark victory for the gay rights movement. But could it also be a victory for the institution of marriage in and of itself? Justice Ruth Ginsberg repeatedly argued that gay marriage is part of a civil rights continuum.

A few years ago, I attended the wedding of a dear friend of mine. Before the actual ceremony the minister took time to give a powerful bit of counsel to everyone who had gathered. His words affected me so deeply that they have prompted me to change not only how I approach my marriage, but also my relationships with family and friends.

Enrique Iglesias, son of popular Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias, was in the news recently -- not because he came out with a new album or because he's on a world tour. No, it's because Iglesias was asked -- again -- whether he was ever going to marry his girlfriend, former tennis pro Anna Kournikova.

Whenever the subject of my divorce comes up in conjunction with the fact that I work in the wedding blogging industry (this often elicits a raised eyebrow or maybe some shade being thrown), I tend to quip "My wedding was freaking fantastic. The marriage just didn't work." Easy, straight, and totes true.

There are lots of expectations about what marriage will provide that motivate people to choose it over the single life. Including... Love Companionship Regular sex Meaningful emotional connection Mutual support Financial and emotional security Material comfort A permanent playmate Fulfillment Fun Committed partnership Stability To name a few.

Some people think marriage is obsolete. Many Haven't Seen a Good Marriage Sally says she and her friends are all cynical about marriage. She and all her friends are divorced, some more than once. Margaret, 30, says that she, her boyfriend, and their baby live together.

Marriage throws up some big life questions and often a wedding is just the starting block for making a lot of major decisions in very quick succession. Wedding planning discussions also invariably lead into deeper, more long-term topics. Things like if you want kids, where you want to live and what career paths are you're each going to take. It's no coincidence that lots of couples seem to move house or one spouse has a career change pretty quickly after saying "I do". Making this kind of commitment often encourages us to start thinking seriously about these other things too.

Posted: A truly enjoyable romantic plot, the kind that makes you sink into the story with empathic pleasure, is a seductive construct. From Cinderella to Bridget Jones's Diary we love to hear the one about the female underdog who attracts a higher class male and proves herself so appealing he finally begs her to marry him.

We talk about the engagement times, and the wedding plannings, and the party throwings, and the identity questionings over here on Offbeat Bride. But over on our sister site Offbeat Home & Life, we talk about all the post-wedding stuff - marriage, sex, communication, breakups, etc.

Mr. Narwhal and I have been debating back and forth for a while about how we were going to go about our vows. We knew we didn't want to do the standard "repeat after the officiant" vow structure because there were some different things that we both wanted to include.

Posted: In honor of the fact that JoAnn and I are celebrating our thirty-seventh wedding anniversary this week, I thought I'd reflect a little on what I think has allowed our relationship to survive.

When looking for that special someone to spend the rest of your life with, it's important to find a partner who cares about you, understands your inner-most desires and, of course, allows you to play as many video games as you want.

Portrait by Catherine Mac Which of your wedding pictures has remained your favourite? My favourite pic is the one of Ash and myself above. I just love the light and the moment that Catherine managed to capture. What changes have happened since your wedding?

Oh hello there, are you new here? Well don't be shy... have a peek around. If you like what you see... join the Broke-Ass Brigade by signing up for our newsletter. And, feel free to subscribe to our feed, buy The Broke-Ass Bride's Wedding Guide on Amazon, make our ...

Blake Lively's marriage to Ryan Reynolds is by no means a dictatorship. Almost one year ago, the blond stunner married the "R.I.P.D." actor in a...

Posted: Print Article This is a no-brainer, but it's always good to see research that confirms what seems obvious -- or resonates with your personal experience. This study found that stress within your marriage can make you more vulnerable to depression.