Marriage is a life long journey and if marriage is a Ph.D course, you will only get your report card on the last day of your life on this world.

Marriage is a life-long journey. There is no right or wrong. There is no textbook that teaches you what an ideal marriage life is.

Everybody’s marriage differs. So do yours and mine.

I know some couples who are getting married signed up for marriage preparation course. They learn about experiences from the teachers, other couples plus some powerpoint slides showing the number of things they have to do if they want their marriage to work out.

Yes, marriage preparation can give the couples some basic insights of what marriage is about. However, some of my friends who attended them said it was a complete waste of time.

from catholic.org.sg

In fact, for me, the routine in a marriage is more important and effective than just attending a few sessions of a marriage preparation course.

Everyday is going to be stressful for the husband and wife, especially nowadays both are working adults.

When couples returned home, they bound to want to unload their stress on each other. The purpose again is not to find a solution but just to seek a listening ear.

What has been helpful for us is me and wife will go for a 1-hour walk around our house just before we sleep. The night is quiet and peaceful and it certainly is the best time to share with each other’s daily events.
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Planning a wedding had been a big headache for me. It was not just the amount of expenses I had forked out for my wedding, but also how much of my savings had depleted for this one-time mega wedding project.

from trianglecondos.com

If your savings for your wedding is alot, there is no need to fear. However, if your saving is limited or may not even be enough, then you ought to do something about it.

In Asian culture, man is the sole bread-winner of the house. Though time has improved, this traditional belief is still valid and holds true in Chinese families especially.

I know right now you may be thinking how you can earn more money for my wedding. Or you can be thinking what can you beside holding a full-time job. Or you can be thinking that let’s use up your savings and see what happens next.

I have friends who are like earning S$2,500 per hour and I have known those who earn much more. How did they do that?
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Money is the root to all evil. Most of the time, money issue is the root to married couple’s worries.

Before married, our finance matters do not overlap. I took charge of mine, she took charge of hers.

from nhmortgage.com

After married, we have to plan for our family. There are other issues to look into such as saving part of our salary, having joint account, saving for a new flat and for our children.

Looking at all these commitments, we seriously have to sit down and discuss our financial road map.

Wedding planning is a mega-project. It not only take up lots of energy, man-power but also lots of financial resources.

Those wedding couples who have average salaries and have been saving for a few years for their weddings, may find their bank account completely dried up by the end of their weddings.

I have shared earlier planning a wedding does not start after proposal. It comes way before proposal. I took two years to save up for my wedding before I popped the question to my wife on wedding proposal day.

I find that one needs to be financial savvy to save up for wedding. Some who had much better salary will park aside part of their money each month. Others may take up tuition and save up what they have earned. The rest who are even smarter invested what they have saved and their money pond grows bigger.

I know there are some friends of mine neve got married even though they wanted to as they have no idea where their money has gone to.
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Wedding dinner has always been so routine and we kind of expect what will definitely happen at a typical wedding dinner.

No doubt, we are there to give our blessings to the wedding couples, it could be really very boring at times especially you have to sit with strangers you may not have seen before.

Dishes were dished out one after the other and we just ate and ate, avoiding conversation.

Even if relatives do get to sit together and their bond is not close, the few hours could be one of the longest in their lives.

That is why allocation of guests to every table is important and this will determine if the guests really enjoy themselves.

A typical wedding dinner goes like this:
1. Cock-tail reception
2. Wedding 1st March-in
3. Presentation of 1st dish
4. Showing of 1st video of wedding couples’ childhood photos
5. Wedding 2nd March-in
6. Cake-cutting and champagne pouring
7. Showing of 2nd video of wedding couples’ courtship days

I managed to type the list out in less than a minute and it only shows the many weddings that I have attended are mostly the same.

The only wedding dinner that I have enjoyed most was that of my cousin’s. There was songs being sung by live singers throughout the wedding dinner.

The guests were so hyped out that they were waving hands in the air when the singers sung. It was just like a concert.

Other wedding entertainment that I could think of is playing of wedding music by a group of musicians.

And while surfing the net, I happened to find this group of musicians who call themselves “Grace Notes”
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My wife’s cousin will be holding her wedding dinner in November this year.

She has just sent us her wedding photos and we must say, we still love their Hong Kong photographs.

They are totally different from Singapore’s photography style. Previously, I posted my wife’s friend’s wedding photos taken in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s wedding gowns are much more beautiful and have more variety.

Some local friends of mine, who have deep pocket, do fly to Hong Kong to engage their bridal services.

Some even had their make-up artists and photographers flown to Hong Kong with them.

If you are engaging their services and using their services in overseas, you would need to pay for all their expenses such as lodgings, food, air-fares and transport.
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Many times, people mistook wedding as complete tied-down. The women are tied to the families for the rest of their lives. Men committed to the families for life.

from fortburnett.com

Men and women dished out their dreams, aspirations and hopes. Men and women forgot that they were once individuals. They forgot they were once children and children love to dream.

I have female friends who after their weddings wanted their husbands to give up their dreams of making it big so that he could spend more time with his family.

After their weddings, some men wanted their wives to give up their careers to be full-time home-makers.

In our world at this era, these don’t make sense at all.

Only the rarest gems will say “yes”. So if your spouse says “yes”, you are one lucky person out of a million.

Would you want to give up all your goals after getting married?

Personally, I believe husband and wife can work out a plan to support each other’s dreams.
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For the past 15 years of my life, I have never really knew how my father felt when he was leaving this world.

It was not until I was told a moment ago that he died peacefully in his bed at the hospice at about 10 am.

In fact, there was a time he actually left this world and he was travelling on a path towards a door which was brightly lit.

He heard one of my cousins shouted for his name and that made him turned back.

When he woke up, he told my relatives crowding around his bed not to shout for his name. Because he won’t be able to leave this world peacefully and be reincarnated into the next life.

I’m not sure if you believe it or not. But I do.

At that time when my father died, I was only 14 years old.

from diamondtgallery.com

My mother single-handedly brought me up and I am really grateful. She is my mother and I’m ready to give up my life for her.

Yes, I’m raised up in a single-parent family. A family which displays the power and superiority of a woman’s strength.

I admire women who brought up their children (sometimes 10 of them in family) alone.

Women are the most outstanding among human kind.

Without women, there won’t be men. Without mothers, there won’t be fine men to rule the world.

I have shared in one of my wedding speeches that my life has been moulded by women, my aunties especially. I’m the only guy in my office. My best friends are ladies. I’m the only child but I have many supportive female friends who treat me like a sister.

My life is indeed indebted to women.
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