Are you ready to become his wife or just someone’s wife? Whether you’ve met Mr. Right or not, in this article we are going to unpack what you should take care of before you say, I do.
Get Your Money In Order
Get your finances in order. Pay off credit cards. Put some money in savings. These are excellent goals for anyone, but especially for someone who is about to enter into a shared financial status. You don’t want to enter into a marital union with a set of debt to go along with it. Your husband will be taking on whatever debts you have, as well as you taking on his, so try to wipe the debt slate clean if possible before getting married. This may not be possible if you are getting married right out of college. It can take awhile to pay off student loans, but if that is the case for you, just set up a payment plan and make sure you stick to it.
Respect Yourself
Make sure that you embrace who you are and deal with the baggage that might have accrued in the past. Realize that you deserve to be treated well and that any man who is unable to do that needs to go. Likewise, respect yourself enough to set healthy boundaries in a relationship. And to have a list of things that you wouldn’t be able to tolerate before you get too invested in a relationship.
Manage Your Life
Practice managing your life now while you are still single. Pay your bills on time, try to keep an organized dwelling place, stay healthy and learn to get along with others. These seem like simple tasks, but it does help to practice now before you are meshing in your belongings and patterns with one another. It would be to your benefit if your future husband is doing the same, right? But you can’t control or influence what he’s doing, especially if you haven’t met him yet. Practice at being the best version of you that you can be, right now. It will pay off big time when you are married.
Learn to Get Along With Others
All those things we learned in Kindergarten really are important throughout our whole lives. We all need to keep learning to get along with our family members, friends, acquaintances, and strangers that we meet in line at the grocery store. Practice being kind and saying you’re sorry when you’ve hurt someone. These are life skills that are going to be extremely important when you get married.
Learn To Cook
It never hurts to learn some new cooking skills. Of course, you aren’t preparing to be a maid, but let’s face it, men like to eat. Humans like to eat. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your future husband was learning some great cooking skills right now too? If you become a mother, this skill is going to be critical. Nowadays, you don’t even have to buy a cook book. If you are a beginner cook, just google search something like “simple beginner recipes” or “fast and easy dinners.” Pinterest is full of inspiration for any meal you could imagine. In no time at all, you’ll be a better cook.
Final Thoughts:
I hope these tips on preparing to be a wife helped. There isn’t anything on this list that wouldn’t also help you to be a better friend, sister, daughter, teacher, and the list goes on. So practice being the best version of yourself that you can be. When you mess up, say sorry to yourself, accept the apology and try again.
For tips on surviving the first year of marriage, check out our article here.