Although I loved our wedding, I came across this article about a groom who surprised his bride with a wedding (yes, you read that right), and I was absolutely jealous. To me, there is nothing more romantic than a well-planned surprise.  And when that surprise also happens to be your wedding? Hello, Romeo.

This is quite possibly definitely the most romantic wedding story I’ve ever heard. I’m willing to bet there is a plethora of women out there who are wondering if this man has brothers. And there is probably an equal number of brides elbowing their grooms.

Ever since that first whirl-wind day in Seattle when we met, we’ve known that our relationship was going somewhere serious. It didn’t take long for us to become completely wrapped up in each other, for us to be silly with lovesickness.  It’s a silliness that has not subsided.

And, oh yes, it includes pet names.

Now we regularly share cheshire-cat grins as we remind ourselves, “We’re getting married!”

Such a satisfying statement.

We eagerly look forward to the rest of our lives together, confident that if anyone can make a marriage work, we can.  Even so, we find it astounding that so many modern-day marriages end in divorce or become mired in misery. Where did they go wrong? There is a plethora of theories available to tell you why and how marriages go astray, and we’re interested in what they have to say. What is it that these experts and authors believe couples need to know to navigate marriage successfully?

While we experience little conflict with one another and we’re not entering our marriage expecting the worst, we realize that no couple enters marriage anticipating its failure. It could not hurt us to collect ideas of where couples often go wrong so that we can more easily recognize and avoid these common pitfalls in our own relationship.

That’s where the 12 marriage books come in. We decided that our first year is the best year to read as much as we can about marriage,  so we’re reading 12 marriage books in our first 12 months of marriage.

This is our place to share what we are living and learning.