Preparing for Life After the Wedding

Marriage is a big step in your life, and it can be hard to know truly what is married life really like. Many important life situations need to be addressed once you’re married. These things range from how well a couple communicates, caring for the bridal gowns, building a new home, dealing with small machinery repairs, tax issues, and more.

Actively Create What Is Married Life Really Like

There are many misconceptions about what is married life really like before two people start living the realities of it after the wedding. For example, some say marriage is what you make it. This belief means that marriage can be happy and wonderful or miserable and full of problems. It all depends on what both partners do with what they have before them. The only person who can control how you feel about married life is you.

This understanding also means, however, that you can actively create a marriage you both seek. It’s essential to take responsibility for making things work by doing what you can every day to improve your relationship in any way possible. Don’t passively wait around until something happens if there’s something important going on right now that needs attention from one partner or another. Talk about things so that everyone ends up satisfied instead of resentful.

Caring for the Bridal Gowns

It’s imperative to take care of your wedding dress to keep memories fresh and for future posterity to appreciate. Keep the dress away from direct sunlight and store it in a cool place. The temperature should be in a comfortable range where exposure to extreme temperatures is limited. Strive to keep humidity levels below 70%. There are also specific requirements for what you should do depending on what type of dress you have got. For example, if you’re storing the dress on a hanger from the ceremony, make sure it remains on the hanger and has a secure grip, so the dress hangs evenly. Ensure the hangar is sturdy and padded or plastic, so it doesn’t leave marks on the dress. Sometimes you can find specially made garment bags that work perfectly for storing bridal gowns for the long term.

Building a New Home

When learning about what is married life is really like, it’s crucial to understand you’re both going to be spending a lot of your waking hours in your marital home. You both want to make sure it’s a place that you like. A home is what makes us feel safe and comfortable. It should be a place where we can rest and recuperate from the outside world, as well as a place that helps us become better people. The plumbing should work properly. To do this, consider working with a new home builder to obtain a home just the way you want it.

Decorating Your Home

A house is part of what shapes our personalities over the years, as well as what our children see as what they want for themselves when they grow up. There are many other ways to personalize your space than just what you put on the walls. What kind of furniture do you have? What type of lighting do you use? How about curtains? We all need specific things like these to work together to make a house feel like a home. You might even consider decorative iron gates, depending on your combined personalities. In understanding what is married life really like, it’s important that you both agree on decor to avoid unneeded stress in your marriage.

Consider Installing a Pool

When two people realize what is married life really like, they come to appreciate the downtime they each need to recuperate and rejuvenate from their respective hard work. Needs could include what time they each want to sleep, what chores need to be done on a specific day by whom, and what type of entertainment is best for them.

It’s also important that you both understand what it means when one partner says, ‘I’m exhausted.’ You will have to take care of your home together, which should include the occasional chore, like fixing leaky faucets or clearing out gutters. But there are some tasks, such as installing an inground pool to give yourselves something fun and rejuvenating in between all those other responsibilities. Qualified swimming pool builders can help you explore this option.

Managing Your Health Care

Part of your marriage vows may include the phrase ‘in sickness and in health.’ Two people quickly realize what is married life really like when one or the other falls ill or suffers long-term medical issues. It’s important to keep up with your health and manage your health care. Medical issues can be staved off with good preventative steps, regular check-ups, good healthy diets, and proper dental care. In addition, for those who can afford health care coverage, there may be a range of coverage types available to you as a married couple. You should both spend considerable time researching your options to decide on the best health care plans you can afford to give you both extra peace of mind.

Shore Up Life Insurance

Life insurance doesn’t feel like something you want to deal with, especially when you’re younger. But life insurance is a necessity for two people in a marriage. It’s essential to make sure you’re both taken care of when one partner dies so that the other can live without having to worry about money or work. There are different types of insurance available. A qualified life insurance specialist can help you pick the right policies for each other.

Small Machinery Repair

The longer two people live together in one place, the more they realize one or the other will need to learn to repair things, including small machines that might break down. When asking what is married life really like, two people usually gloss over this critical aspect of their lives. Table saws can break, refrigerator filters and outdoor lighting can go on the fritz. One common example is lawn mower repair. How a lawnmower is repaired depends on the make, model, and severity of the issue. Sometimes it just needs a new belt, blade, the proper oil, gas mixture, or the carburetor cleaned.

New Tax Status

When couples ask what is married life really like, many of them don’t think about taxes. Once you’re married, what you do for a living can affect what taxes are taken out of your paycheck and what rates apply. It’s essential to know the tax laws, at least on a general level, so that one or both spouses doesn’t end up with an unpleasant surprise come April 15th. You’ll have a new tax status of ‘Married.’ If the taxes become difficult, the help of experienced tax accountants should be sought.

Picking Good Schools

In the future, you’ll both have kids when you’re ready if children are a part of your long-term joint goals in life. Having children full-time in the home, whether you create them, foster them, or adopt them, will have an enormous impact on what is married life really like. You’ll have to work diligently to consider the types of schools you’ll want the children to attend. Many like the curriculum of Montessori schools, while other parents feel comfortable using public schools or even homeschooling.

Protecting the Assets You Build

As you build your life together, part of what is marriage really like entails protecting things you have both worked very hard to create and keep. The best way to do this is by making what’s called a postnuptial agreement. It helps protect what you have built together and what will continue to be built in the future. Two people can also decide that they want married life without any type of agreement, but it may change how assets are dealt with should one person die prematurely before the other. You’ll want to have taken the time to do estate planning before this.

Practicing Different Religions

Marriage isn’t always easy when two people come from different backgrounds and cultures. Some marriage vows include the idea that marriage vows last forever until death, which may have a religious base or belief that underscores it. Others have no religious base at all for their ceremonies. It’s important to understand that even if both partners currently do not believe in or practice a religion, that one day, one partner might change their mind. The idea of this seems daunting because it can possibly introduce great stress into the relationship. These are sensitive topics and deeply personal to each person in the marriage relationship. One person may want to practice one religion while the other wants to practice a different one or none. If this describes the two of you, it’s vital to allow the other to have sufficient space on this matter. Allowances might mean spending less time with your spouse periodically throughout the week.

Day-to-Day Life

The key to a fun and prosperous married life may be in what the two of them do together. If they’re both working on a project, it could either take twice as long be twice as quick, which could either add pleasure to the situation or not. You’ll have to learn how to cook meals that please each other, how each other prefers to do laundry, and do cleaning and yard maintenance when the time comes (or hire someone else). It will take the two of you several months to discover which types of routines work best for each of you and which ones work best for your communal life together. This discovery period is typical for all newly married couples.

Handing Arguments

Periodically, you’ll get into fights about various things. The biggest thing two people fight about is finances. Other arguments can arise when one spouse does not know how to fix certain things around the house or refuses to learn or try. Sometimes conflict can arise over what each person wants for dinner or what movie should be watched next.

Two people should invest in learning healthy and constructive communication skills to prevent arguments before they happen. Saying something hurtful to your partner can also lead to mistrust and eventual break-ups. Communicating about these issues can help resolve them, but it’s still not always easy. We all deal with different feelings and emotions like sadness, anger, betrayal, and self-pity. Inevitably, some feelings will never go away. Because of this, it’s also helpful to be flexible during unexpected crisis moments or handling sudden life events like job loss.

Making Each Other a Priority

After your wedding, as time drags on, day-to-day responsibilities can start taking the two of you emotionally away from each other. These routines mean that what is married life really like after the wedding will be different from when you were in a dating relationship. But this is not necessarily bad because now, as two mature adults with children or without (or both), it may just take a little more time to find ways to make each other happy and feeling secure in the bond you share.

Joint and Separate Hobbies

Each person should have unique hobbies of their own. It’s also helpful if you both have at least one joint hobby or project to work on together. Having a collaborative project creates another bonding scenario for the relationship. Couples who work on projects together have one more thing to look forward to in their downtime and may help increase intimacy when one or the other is under stress.

Some couples enjoy joint hobbies such as cooking, playing games or board games, hiking, and mountain biking. Alternately, joint projects can also include household chores such as cooking meals together, doing the dishes together, or folding clothes. It’s essential to do these things with your partner because it will create a stronger bond between you two. Enjoyably doing mundane tasks may help decrease tension until both partners return to their usual selves again.

The wedding day is lovely and unique, but it does not define the marriage that follows. After the wedding day, couples should keep their relationship strong by focusing on love and respect for one another. This work is not always easy; however, it will set an excellent foundation to build upon in future years.