Since the beginning of August I have been involved in a blog network called Bigs & Littles (click the picture to read more about it). I was paired up with Amberly from A Prioritized Marriage. I have linked to Amberly’s blog on here quite a bit with linkups and such, but if you haven’t checked out her blog, you should. She is a fantastic young lady with a heart for the Lord. She has taught me so much about blogging through Bigs & Littles, but she also taught me about married life and how to be a better wife. Amberly has turned out to be a great friend and I am very blessed to have her as my Big.
With all that said, you know you are in for a special treat today. Amberly and I decided to introduce each other to our readers. We asked each other 5 questions about marriage. Below are my questions with both her answers and mine. If you want to see how we both answered her questions, you will have to go see her blog! 😉
But enough of my rambling… Meet Amberly (and Joe)!
My Q’s:
1. How did you prepare for marriage before the wedding? Did you have marriage counseling? Did you read any marriage books?
Amberly: We didn’t really have marriage counseling before the wedding, but we did meet with religious leaders for a short interview and they shared marriage advice and thoughts with us. Life was so busy at the time we were engaged that I don’t think we had much time to think about things like that.
Me: Our preacher offered marriage counseling before he married us. We only had a couple sessions with him. We also went to a marriage seminar one weekend that Harding (our Christian college) put on before we got married. But we didn’t go out of our way with tons of expensive counseling.
2. What is one piece of advice you would give someone who is about to get married?
Amberly: If other people’s advice doesn’t work for you, don’t worry! Your experience with marriage is going to be unique to you and your personalities. Do what feels right and learn from your own experiences. Some people will give you really specific counsel and make you feel like your marriage should be one way, but everyone’s different, so everyone’s relationship will be different.
Me: About the wedding itself: Enjoy it. Don’t get too stressed out. Everything will get done and be beautiful. The important thing is that you will be married at the end of the day. About marriage: Make time for each other. Don’t assume since you will be married that spending time together will be natural. Make date nights and put away your phones/electronics.
3. What is your favorite memory of your marriage so far?
Amberly: It is so hard to pick a favorite memory, there are so many. I think all of our weekend getaways, unique date nights or the days that we don’t have to work include some of my favorite times. Any quality time together is my favorite.
Me: So I kind of can’t believe I asked this question, because now that I am trying to answer it myself, I realize it is really difficult (Sorry Amberly). I guess the obvious answer would be our anniversary trip to NYC. I loved spending time in the city that I love with the man that I love. We spent a lot of bonding time together and made a lot of memories that weekend. Other than that, basically everything I talk about in this post could be a favorite memory.
4. Is there a song that you think describes your marriage or fits you two as a couple? If so, what is it and why does it fit?
Amberly: We always say that ‘Just Say Yes’ by Snow Patrol is our song. It’s been an inside joke for us since the beginning of our relationship. Something to do with me joking around that if my husband waited too long to propose, I might tell him no. And it became our joke. It was even part of our proposal story.
Me: Before we were got married, we always said “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson was our song, mostly because the one time we broke up, it didn’t last very long. Also the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t it Be Nice (if we were older)” described our situation since we dated 6 years before we were ‘old enough’ to get married. In all seriousness though, I think “God Gave Me You” by Blake Shelton and “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat both sum up our relationship pretty well.
5. Have you created any family traditions since you have been married? What are your favorites?
Amberly: I am always trying to create new traditions! Weekend getaways for our anniversary, birthday dinners, Christmas day stuff, etc. If it’s a tradition, I LOVE it!
Me: Technically this one started the year before we got married, but we are going to try to go to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert every year at Christmas time. TSO is such a fantastic way to get into the Christmas spirit! Other than that, I think apple picking every fall will become a tradition, and other things on Christmas day. Basically, I just love traditions as well!
Well, now you know a little more about the wonderful Amberly! Don’t forget to pop over to her blog to read our answers to her marriage questions.
Thanks for reading!
