Thank you to our Guest Contributor Cynthia Milo for this amazing article…..
326 couples wed everyday in Australia according to the 2018 Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The transition from being engaged to married is incredibly exciting, but it also includes quite a few adjustments to the relationship, some of which might come as a bit of a surprise.
Being mentally prepared for your future together means keeping channels of communication open and claiming individual responsibility for what you each bring to the relationship.
Plan ahead for your marriage with these tips.
Attend Premarital Counselling Sessions…
Studies have shown that eighty-nine percent of couples that go for counselling before marriage find it helpful.
The sessions help couples develop and cultivate the necessary skills and qualities essential in marriage. Communication, for example, is emphasised in the classes.
Communication creates avenues for expressing what you feel needs to change or what you agree on.
Also, the sessions help couples bond and deeply know each other enabling them to address their expectations for each other and the marriage.
The counselling can also merge with looking for a mentor couple.
A mentor couple should be preferably older for experience purposes and they should also be happily married.
The essence of the couple is to provide wisdom, support, and guidance on marriage and life matters in general.
Discuss your Finances…
With marriage comes responsibility. Being financially responsible in marriage starts with being open on money matters.
Letting your spouse in on your income and expenses builds trust.
This stage also ensures that monetary expectations on both ends remain reasonable.
Setting financial goals together and coming up with budgets is essential.
Consequently, sharing financial obligations as a couple prepares you to embrace the financial responsibility that comes sharing life together.
Committing to being responsible as an individual involves saving for the future bearing in mind there will be other people who will eventually depend on you financially.
Have an Open Mind…
Marriage is a lifetime commitment and should, therefore, be fun.
Being open-minded ensures that certain aspects of the couples’ life do not remain fixed.
Couples that do not keep their ideas flexible leaves them disappointed and frustrated.
This outcome can in the end strain a relationship.
Flexibility also entails reworking everything that affects the other party for example time schedules, preferences for some of the wedding details or even deciding on a place to live.
Also, it involves accepting the other person’s beliefs and being respectful of their family by genuinely loving them.
Compromising lets the couple enjoy diverse aspects of each other while trying to make the other person comfortable.
Most people learn how to be a good spouse, on the job.
Hence, asking the right questions and working towards becoming the partner you would want helps couples become the best version of themselves.
Lastly, it is important to know that creating a great relationship takes hard work from two individuals.