Th Business of Marriage

As we approach wedding season, countless starry eyed brides and grooms are planning the event of a lifetime.

The venues, gowns, flowers and favors have all been chosen. The guest lists are being finalized. The limos have been booked and the shopping for the all important honeymoon has begun.

At their very best weddings are sacred and beautiful. And men and women enter into matrimony with the best possible intentions as they blend their lives and families.

Having spent more hours than I care to admit planning my own wedding, I can honestly say that I have no regrets. Our wedding day was one of the greatest days of my life. The ceremony was touching, the food plentiful and delicious, and the party was a blast.

Thanks to my dear friend Sharon who insisted that I pack a pair of wedding sneakers, I was able to truly enjoy the celebration.

My husband and I are happily still together despite more than our share of challenges. Though I’ve acknowledged that our wedding day was great it has little if anything to do with the success of our union.

We are bound by our faith and our values and very simply, we made a commitment to take care of our family business long before we were family.

Once we were engaged and before any wedding planning began, life planning began. We took time to plan our marriage. We met at a restaurant, pen and paper in hand and we had a business meeting.

We discussed the fact that we felt very fortunate to have come as far as we had. Neither of us grew up wealthy but by our teens we had come a long way. At age fourteen, I took a job that paid about a hundred dollars a week and he took up tennis which led to national recognition.

My husband earned a Masters in Education. I studied Economics and was in the midst of earning my CFP® designation when we met.

In our meeting, we discussed our goals and dreams in a very practical way. Though we decided against it, we discussed a prenuptial agreement. We talked about, salaries, savings, investments, children, home ownership, joint versus individual assets, vacations and retirement destinations. We decided upon an appropriate amount of life insurance and decided when we would apply.

We’ve had many more meetings of that type since our wedding day and those meetings pen and paper in hand and hearts and minds open have made us a family. The time we’ve spent on them has created a marriage out of the foundation that we lay before our wedding day. I encourage those planning a marriage today to follow in our footsteps.