Wedding Planning for Men

Find a woman, get married and live happily ever after...

...in 10 easy steps!

brought to you by the ICBE

Step 2. Cultivating a Relationship

Without screwing it all up

Be friends with the girl

Newsflash: no matter how much you think it's going to happen, you are not going to be having constant sex with your wife for the rest of your life. In fact, chances are that the more time you spend together, the less overall fraction of that time is going to be spent fooling around. So you're going to have to learn how to interact with your girl on a platonic level. I mean talking to each other, going to movies, playing sports, hiking, board games, dancing, whatever floats your boat. If you can't find some common ground outside the bedroom, you are doomed. Sometimes you build up a friendship before dating, and that's great, but it doesn't always happen that way. The friendship can develop later on with a little effort on your part, all you need to do is spend some time caring about her as a person, and not a pleasure-machine. But make sure you take care of this early on, because if you find yourself struggling to be friends a couple years into the marriage it's going to be "what's wrong with our relationship" time, and not "let's get to know each other" time.

But don't treat her like a friend!

Okay, I know I just told you to be her friend, but that doesn't mean you get out of treating her like a Princess. If you stop doing romantic things together, or start treating her like one of your buddies and sit around scratching your ass in front of her and the TV all day long, she's going to think you are taking her for granted and she's probably right. At best, she ends up insecure about your relationship, and you have major damage control. More likely, she just dumps your sorry ass. At worst, she sleeps with that friend of yours who was romancing her at halftime while you were taking part in that nacho eating contest. You don't want any of that to happen.

Signs she might not be "The One"

There's really no way to know if a girl is right for you. So you'd better just make damn sure that you love her like crazy, because that's the only thing that is going to make this marriage last. Love, and a lot of hard work, but we'll get to that later. There are however a few red flags that might suggest this girl isn't marriage material.

• She's bad with money - I mean irresponsible, bad credit, large debt, pays her bills late and can't stop spending. Financial issues are a major source of stress on a marriage, and if you aren't happy with how she manages her money, you are going to be really pissed when it's your money too.
• She shaves her eyebrows completely off, then draws them back in - She's either a pornstar, or just plain a freak, but either way this totally creeps me out.
• She's high-maintenance - These girls are fun for awhile, because they usually look really good, but in the long run you have to question if it's worth all the effort. My advice, go find a girl who looks good without spending two hours in the bathroom getting ready.
• She talks to her mother for an hour or more on the phone every day - You really don't want to marry her and her mother, so you might want to take a pass on this one. Unless you enjoy having your mother-in-law walk all over you that is.
• She reminds you a lot of your mother/sister - This is going to hit you in the middle of sex one day, and then it's all over.
• She's trying to change you - If she's unhappy with who you are now, it's only going to get worse. Why are you dating somebody that doesn't even like you for who you are? Better question, why is she dating you?

Step 1 --- Home --- Step 3

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