A Happy Marriage Does Not Just Happen...

If you are married and you are reading this, you probably know what I’m talking about:

The wedding day came and went.

So did the honeymoon. And then you are back to “real life” to do what, according to romantic novels, movies and fairytales is known as “living happily ever after.” And it is no surprise that you notice in the blink of an eye that this is way easier said than done.

A Happy Marriage Does Not Just Happen…

While there are countless reasons to justify why almost half of newlywed couples eventually get divorced, one of the main “culprits” is the false set of expectations that the couple may have built around the concept of marriage.

Just because you had the ultimate dream wedding and the most exotic (and expensive!) honeymoon trip, where you and your spouse were the “main characters” of the fairytale, does not guarantee that the rest of your marriage will be “picture perfect.”

So you get back to life and you realize all of a sudden that your mailbox is full of bills that need to get paid (someone has to pay for that huge party and trip, right?) You and your spouse wake up in the morning and realize that breakfast doesn’t “miraculously” appear perfectly set up and served at the table. And unless you make your own bed, you’ll find it just as messy as you both left it in the morning when you left for (yup, you guessed it…) W-O-R-K!!!

It is right then and there that you have a major wake up call:

Your life after the wedding is exactly the same as it used to be before you tied the knot.

Maybe now you and your spouse are finally living under the same roof (no more going home to sleep alone after a long, fun day spent with your honey – yay!) Or maybe you and your spouse used to live together before getting married, in which case, well, the only difference is that now you’re both wearing shiny wedding bands on your hands.

Everything else in your lives is just the same… POP! (that’s the sound of your “fantasy bubble” bursting.)

Reality check…

The most important thing every newlywed couple has to understand and come to terms with is that the two of them are the only ones responsible for creating their own “happily ever after.”

And just like you cannot expect to get paid your salary for doing absolutely nothing, you can’t expect to be happy in your marriage if you and your spouse don’t work at it.
Being happily married and living “happily ever after” is a constant work in progress. It doesn’t just happen.
Stuff happens.

The world keeps turning. Things will fall out of place. Problems will arise. You will at some point face a less-than-pleasant situation. You will wake up with a cold. You will have a bad hair day. Bottom-line: you cannot expect that just because now you are married, things will magically fix themselves.

It may sound ridiculous, but many couples decide to get married only because they think that their lives will “get better” once they do. All the problems in their lives seem to shrink under the illusion created by the wedding planning and the honeymoon, and they hit them like a ton of bricks the minute they get back and realize that is not going to happen.

The couple then blames each other for the problems in their respective lives… And you can pretty much guess where the story ends.

But I don’t want you to think that once the wedding and honeymoon are over your life is set to be doomed.
You CAN Live Happily Ever After!

While it is true that a happy marriage won’t happen “just because,” if you and your spouse constantly make the effort to really get to know, understand and support each other, it is pretty certain that you both will be well on your way towards the road of marriage bliss.

Once you and your spouse see yourselves as a strong team, as reliable partners, as unconditional friends, then life becomes much easier… And a lot more fun!

It is then, and only then, when you realize that even if life gets messy and complicated once in a while, at least now you are not alone to face it. After all, “making lemonade out of life’s lemons” can be a lot more fun when you do it with your spouse than all by yourself.

And that is truly what a happy marriage is all about.