Failure to prepare is preparing to fail

Last week E! showed the wedding of Khloe Kardashian {‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ fame} and Lamar Odom {LA Lakers} who decided to get married after a month of meeting each other, and planned the wedding in just 9 days.

Now obviously no one can comment on somebody else’s personal situation but I know I wouldn't feel comfortable getting married to someone after a month, no matter how ‘in love’ I felt.

It got me thinking about marriage preparation and what people do to get themselves ready for marriage and how you know when you’re ready. Your wedding is only one day and is the start of the rest of your life. Your marriage will last a life time, so needs to be built on a solid foundation.

Over the past year, we have spent time in pre-marital classes, read loads of books, read lots of articles in magazines and online, been sat down by members of the older generation who want to give advice {and trust me they have been real pearls of wisdom}, watched TV programmes. Lots. And like a sponge I’m soaking it all in, as I believe you can’t have enough good advice. To be honest the books are great, but in a sense it’s just theory, I get so much more value from the people who are living and breathing it daily. Especially those couples who have been married for many many years.

I personally have really valued every moment because sometimes you need those opportunities to sit there with your significant other and discuss issues that you might not want to talk about. As my dad would say, it’s better to talk about them on this side of the marriage, as once you’re married there’s no going back.

In turn as you walk through the journey of courtship, your level of ‘readiness’ should increase. I know mine has. When we set the wedding for September 09, I felt in myself great I have a year to ‘get ready’ – my excuse at the time was ‘off course you can’t plan a wedding in less than a year’, clearly you definitely can. Now that they year has been and gone, I feel like I’m in overtime, you know like in a football match. The game has ended and I’m playing extra time.

Nearlyweds, how are you preparing for your marriage? Newlyweds and married folks what piece of advice have you found most valuable?

Photo from OK Magazine