MY SECRET MARRIAGE WEAPONS — marriage books
My heart for my business is not to “just” make beautiful weddings all the time with custom signage and stationery, but to help encourage the building of a beautiful marriage too. Which is why I wanted to help provide my engaged friends with resources to do just that.
Donovan and I took marriage prep very seriously. We read in one of our first books on marriage that, “Most people spend far more time in preparation for their vocation than they do in preparation for marriage,” No wonder the divorce rate hovers around fifty percent.
That hit us HARD – especially while we were studying for way less useful anatomy tests, music theory, etc. and yet we hadn’t read one page on marriage yet.. After just reading that intro sentence, we thought, “You’re right. This is important. We should make this a priority.”
So we did. While we were engaged, we read a chapter of a book every week together and discussed it. I swear to you – I cannot imagine how the last 4 years of our marriage would have went if we didn’t START by being focused on growing together and investing in our marriage like that.
Whether you are dating, engaged or married 40 years, these materials will never go to waste or not be valuable. Marriage is always pivoting and having the skills taught in these books is just adding more and more tools to your toolbox to fix things when they need fixed.
I will star the books we personally have read, but I’m also including a few we didn’t but heard good things about. Because we are Christian, a lot of them are religious with Christian values, but some are not. I also will note that below with R for religious and NR for non-religious.
Either way, I can’t wait to hear how these books change your relationship with your partner for the better. You thought things were good now? Just wait and see how much better they can get. xo
MARRIAGE PREP MATERIALS
Before You Say “I Do”®: A Marriage Preparation Guide for Couples
Things I Wish I’d Known Before We Got Married
- This was the FIRST book we ever started. I got it soon as we got engaged and we read it together long distance while I was away at college.
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts
- There’s an awesome app we LOVE called “Love Nudge” that is based on this test. It starts with the Love Languages test and then prompts you & your partner to take action daily to love him/her the way that THEY need to feel loved and vice versa. It’s AMAZING and I highly recommend it to everyone and anyone.
Communication Miracles for Couples: Easy and Effective Tools to Create More Love and Less Conflict
Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs
- We read this during our pre-marital counseling with our pastor. IT ROCKED OUR WORLD.
The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
The Power of a Praying® Wife
- I’ve never read this, but my assistant has and said that it changed her marriage through and through. She says everyone NEEDS this book.
The Power of a Praying® Husband
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- THESE BOOKS are AMAZING! If you and your fiancé are pursuing a Christian marriage, go ahead and buy these books right now. If you are married, also buy these books now. We got them at the beginning of 2019 and WOW. So good.
OTHER HELPFUL RELATIONSHIP BUILDERS:
Personality Tests can be extremely helpful in understanding the psychology behind your fiancé/spouse. Below are some personality tests that are my personal favs.
ENNEAGRAM TEST
https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test
https://tests.enneagraminstitute.com/ ***
MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY TEST
https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test ***
5 LOVE LANGUAGES TEST
https://www.5lovelanguages.com/ ***
