How Planning Your Wedding Can Help You Even After You're Married

Think about all the hours you spent planning your wedding. The sleepless nights. The countless decisions. Your wedding was splendid. The honeymoon fantastic. And now, life begins. But that doesn't mean you should throw all the lessons learned from planning your wedding by the wayside.

With marriage comes lots of new adventures and decision making. You learned how to interview vendors for your wedding celebration and how to decide who would work best with you for the job at hand. The same goes for buying a house or hiring home improvement professionals. Like your wedding professionals, you need to have a solid relationship with someone to trust them enough to work on important projects such as buying a home or renovating a room. Use the same tools you used when planning your wedding. Ask lots of questions, get references, and go with your gut. Make sure your personalities click too, as some of these people may be working with you for a while.

Stay organized. You had to do it for your wedding. Now try to keep it going. Things can become a bit more confusing when you get double the mail, bank statements, and the like. As a couple, decide how you plan on organizing your files and paperwork. Who will be in charge of the mail or paying the bills? Who will file important documents away or shred unnecessary ones? Where will you store everything? Having a plan and knowing who does what, will save you time and prevent any misunderstandings about each other's roles.

Keep each other in the loop. When you were engaged you wanted to share all the little details of the big day with each other. Don't slack off now, when it comes to important matters. Make sure to keep each other apprised of account changes, medical issues, financial concerns, home improvement work necessary, etc. It's a good idea to let each other in on PIN numbers or passwords to important accounts too, in the event of an unforeseen emergency.

There are lots of other tools you can apply, like your listening skills, time management, and gratitude. But just like when you were planning your wedding, remember to enjoy the journey. It's for a lifetime.