Starting a Life Together

**Before I start I just wanted to say sorry there hasn’t been much travel content on here!! Obviously travel is a key part of Golden Hour Girl and is something I love with a passion, especially documenting and writing about it. Saving for the wedding has meant travelling has been put on hold (which is good and bad for several reasons). But it is on the horizon over the next six months with planned trips to Maldives, Singapore, Hamilton Island and Europe hopefully in June so stay tuned!

Have I mentioned how excited I am to get married in 4.5 weeks?! 😉 The closer the big day gets the more excited I become. For many reasons. Not only are our plans slowly coming together, our vendors are great, the final RSVP’s come in and our friends and family around are thrilled for us, but also our life, my fiancé’s and I, is coming together.

And this is the big part of marriage. Not the big day, but the big commitment for forever.

After reading my good friend Ellie’s blog about what she’s been learning about her and her fiancee in this engagement period, I was inspired to reflect and share what I had learnt.

Arden and I have been taking part in a pre-marriage course called PREPARE with an amazing couple from our church in Manly. This couple has been married for eight years now with two kids and valuable wisdom to share about how to have the best marriage possible for both yourself and your partner.

We’ve touched on topics including conflict resolution, you and your partners strengths and weaknesses, your familial upbringing, the roles of husband and wife and personality traits. I didn’t really think I could learn much more about my partner but it is amazing how much it helps when you break things down and have them written down on a report in front of you (after doing a 200 question quiz).

So here a three big things I’ve learnt so far about starting a life together:

1. You make your own rules. There is no recipe to a healthy and happy marriage. You make it yourself. Determining who does what house rules, whether you will both compromise and what lifestyle you want to live is completely in your hands.

2. Taking initiative. Whether this be taking in the bins because you know your husband isn’t home until late or helping your wife out with making the bed before she asks, thinking about what will make the other person happy before they have to ask is a selfless and rewarding thing to do.

3. Marriage will be hard work. But will also be the most rewarding journey in life. Hard work as in working through the bad times, the disagreements and not meeting each other’s expectations. Good times as in there is nothing more satisfying than sharing your whole life with someone and going through the seasons of life with someone’s hand to hold.

Oh and we also get to start moving into our place this weekend! We had been looking in Manly for a while.

Living here is going to change a lot of things for my partner and I. It means getting into work and the city is so much easier. We also wanted to live somewhere that was alive and bubbling with lots to do (just a few steps away) for our first year of marriage. Manly has also been my all time favourite for the beautiful promenade that runs along the beach with cafes along the rock edges and sweeping views on all aspects of this coastal place. Morning runs, sunset bike rides, walks along the rocks… ah can’t believe it will be real!

What is the best thing about starting a life together? Or what are you looking forward to in marriage?

Love xx

Here are some photos from the internet that inspire me about marriage and Manly.

Manly itself!