Not wedding planning-marriage planning!

I remember when I got married several years ago.  Once that beautiful rock was on my finger I could not get to the store fast enough to buy every brides magazine I could get my hands on.  Then for months the most important thing to me was invitations, what color flowers and bridesmaid dresses and the most important decision of deciding what appetizers we would serve at our wedding during cocktail hour.  After months of planning the day arrived and it was perfect and went off without a hitch.  Then we were married and went on an amazing romantic honeymoon and then the wedding part of our marriage was over.  Now on to the stuff I saw on The Brady Bunch and Ozzie and Harriet as a kid-a perfect marriage.  Well what no one tells you is that you should not worry about the flowers and the dresses and the appetizers that after your wedding day are long sense forgotten-you need to know how to have a happy marriage not a happy wedding day.  That takes work.  Although I married the man of my dreams and I am more in love with him today than I was the day I married him, there are good days and bad days in a marriage and no one tells you that when you are planning a wedding. The reality is 2 people meet who are from different backgrounds and different opinions, they fall in love, decide to get married and after the wedding romance is over life happens.  Life-marriage is what needs to be planned for.  In less than 2 years of marriage we dealt with cancer (mine), childbirth, a job change, moving and many, many more life issues. That is what marriage is all about.  Life is never boring and now that we have been married for several more years and life has dealt is with more curves I have concluded that instead of investing in all of those brides magazines which now sit on a shelf collecting dust, I should have invested in marriage magazines because that is what wedding planning should be about.  I cannot remember what appetizers we picked for our wedding but I can remember the last meal we ate together as a family yesterday which was delicious because we were together.