Wedding Blog

My kooky friend Anne is getting married this summer, to a much less eccentric but equally fantastic man named Ethan. They are the epitome of opposites attracting, and somehow each seems to be the yin to the other's yang. Anne has always been a wild child, whose interests range from backpacking in third world countries to pole-dancing as a form of exercise. It makes sense of course, then, that after she returned from the Peace Corps she fell madly in love with Ethan, a quiet financial analyst in the city. But faster than you can say "What the…?" it became apparent that this was the real deal: these two were smitten, and pretty soon Ethan popped the question and successfully reined Anne in.

Neither Anne nor Ethan is particularly religious, but have decided to be married by a minister to placate various family members. The minister required them to complete a premarital counseling course before the wedding, in order to determine their compatibility as a couple. Unfortunately for them I found out they were going to do this, so they had no choice but to spill the beans about their counseling experience to me so that I could air their private business all over the internet to mywedding.com readers.

For their counseling program, Anne and Ethan had to undergo a number of relationship exercises, including completing a questionnaire about premarital red flags. Some questions they answered were thoroughly embarrassing, and I plan to share every juicy tidbit with abandon. While premarital counseling may seem like a grueling and unnecessary process, particularly if you feel like you know your mate inside and out, according to Anne it was actually FUN. She liked having to really think about their relationship and the commitment that they were about to make.

Many of you may be going through premarital counseling or considering it, so I hope this case study will shed some light on the subject for you. It has been a learning experience for me, since my husband and I based our pre-engagement compatibility quotient on a shared love for cold, light beer in the summertime and red wine by the fire in the winter. Thankfully, we have managed to find some deeper connections over the years, including microbrews and champagne in the bathtub. Hey, they say you should never stop learning from one another, right?

So stay tuned--starting tomorrow I will post some of the questions that Anne and Ethan were required to think about, and their answers as they were relayed to me. Enjoy!