Week 6: Weddings and Marriage.... Whats the difference?

I LOVE talking about weddings, marriage, love, family, its all so happy! Here is a picture from my wedding, me and my husband with my beautiful family! I love this picture because we were all so sincerely happy.

In our class discussion, we partnered up and talked about what we thought was really important in a wedding and I was paired with a girl that was also married so we got the chance to talk about what made our weddings special. here are some of the things we talked about

-Timing
-Spouse
-Temple
-Sealer
-Family
-Preparation
-Understanding of the Marriage contract
-Respect for the partner
-Formal and special

SOooo I'll just explain a few of our points here. Something that really made my wedding special was that there were no surprises! I knew what I was getting into! Don't get me wrong, i don't have it all figured out but I was spiritually and mentally prepared with my husband. Something else that I realized is that I could have been better about preparing my family. What i mean by this is, when we get married our entire family structure changes. I am no longer just a sister and a daughter, i am now those plus a wife and a future mother and a sister-in-law and I think my family wasn't aware of the amount of change that would occur in our relationship. I shared the example in class of my little sister, she honestly thought that chad and I were just on vacation in Rexburg for 3 months and when we came back she was so excited to see us, a week later when we had to leave again, she was so confused and i had to sit down with my husband and her and we explained that I don't live at the house any more, and that I was still her sister and her mom was still my mom but we lived together in another state. I wish i would have prepared her more for that change in roles.

I also thought that the understanding that marriage is a contract was what made my wedding ceremony so peaceful and spiritual for my husband and I. when he proposed to me, he told me that we would have trials and that he would make me mad, he would get mad at me and we wouldn't gain perfection together, but he promised me that he would always try to be better and love me unconditionally, he understood the depth of marriage and its importance. I loved that when he proposed to me, he actually Proposed marriage. It wasn't just a formality, it was an actual question and request. I showed me respect by knowing that it was an equal choice to be apart of this marriage. he also showed me humility when he acknowledged the fact that we would struggle. Those desirable traits (along with a million others he showed me when we were dating) carried over into our marriage.

It was a great experience to review my proposal. It was nothing extravagant, i think my husband was just a surprised as I was that he was down on one knee but what he said and committed to that day was a great foundation for our marriage.