*Disclaimer: I am not a relationship expert or professional…this is simply mere observation.

     Virtually every young girl dreams of a certain day. The day when she is dressed in that perfect white gown that she has spent hours searching for. She has thumbed through numerous bridal magazines for ideas and searched more websites than she wants to admit. She has visited venue after venue for the picture-perfect setting. There has been cake tasting and floral selections. The perfect song list has been chosen and the food will be the most immaculate delicacies imaginable. It will be a day filled with her favorite flowers, colors and music. Family and friends would have come from near and far just for her special day. The day will be impeccable! She imagines herself surrounded by her closest friends as they anxiously move about preparing for the big event.

     The time will finally come as she enters through those doors and all eyes will be on her. She will feel exquisite as she hears all the aahs and oohs. Her eyes fill with tears, but she quickly bats them away because she dare not mess up the makeup that her makeup artist applied just moments earlier.

     She looks like a princess. It is just as she imagined it would be. She is about to marry the man of her dreams!

     All her hard work and many hours of preparation has made this the picture perfect day; it’s the best day of her life.

     But is she as prepared for what could possibly come?

     Let’s talk. Before you have a suitor or before he ask you on a date, before you are sitting across the dinner table from him and your heart is melting as you gaze into those mesmerizing eyes and marveling over his pearly whites, before you start feeling the butterflies, before you get emotionally tied to someone; I want you to take a few things into consideration.

**At the center of any marriage ceremony are the wedding vows. They are the words spoken by the couple to each other which express both an intent and a promise.

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Groom: I ________ take thee, ________ to be my wedded

wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer,

for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish forever, according

to God s Holy Ordinance, and thereto I give thee my pledge.

Bride: I ________ take thee, ________ to be my wedded

husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for

richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish forever,

according to God s Holy Ordinance, and thereto I give thee my pledge.

Officiant: Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

Forasmuch as ________ and ________ have consented together in Holy

Wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company of

witnesses, and there to have given their pledge, each to the other, and have

declared the same by giving and receiving a ring, and by joining hands; by the

power vested in me by the State of (wherever you preside), I now pronounce you

husband and wife.

**The famous words, “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health”, found in one of the oldest and most traditional vows, are a beautiful expression of the couple’s intent to be there for each other regardless of the circumstances.

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     Too many marriages fail when the tough days come.

    Is she prepared to love him past his flaws? Is she prepared honor him, to put him before all others? Is she prepared to cherish him and protect his heart? Is she prepared to support him in the decisions he makes for the household? Is she prepared to be by his side to care for him and serve him if he becomes sick; no matter what the sickness is? Is she prepared to support him if loses his job? Is she prepared to live with him until death do them part? Is she prepared to endure the inevitable differences they will encounter? Is she prepared to forgive him in spite of how bad he hurts her feelings?

Just a few thoughts to ponder, Before the Date. 

**Reference: EzineArticles by Jonathan_Payne