Nashville Marriage Studio

It’s 10 days until Nashville Marriage Studio’s FIRST Premarital Education Workshop. I’m not sure if I can contain my excitement.

In honor of the premiere of Bound Together, I am counting down the days Dave Letterman style one day at a time…

10 Reasons You Really Want To Be At Bound Together:

10 – Bound Together will save you money. And not just because you get a $60 discount on your TN marriage license. No, I’m talking bigger picture, People. Getting premarital education decreases the likelihood of getting a divorce by 30%.

That means you’re 30% less likely to file for divorce (which is expensive).

You’re 30% less likely to hate your life because your marriage sucks and happy people make more money.

You’re also 30% less likely to ever have to do any of this wedding stuff over again. Ok, doing the wedding stuff over again would be kind of fun. How about, you’re 30& less likely to have to pay for any of this wedding stuff all over again? Much better.

Bound Together. It’s like money in your pocket.

Nashville Marriage Studio was created to help Nashville couples design the marriage they’ve always wanted. One way we do this is through premarital counseling. Premarital counseling allows a couple to learn valuable relationship skills, deepen their commitment to the relationship, and increase their confidence as they prepare to walk down the aisle.

As we enter the beginning of the traditional wedding season I will be “doing” premarital counseling with popular fictional couples that we all know and love.

Preparing for marriage requires going in with both eyes wide open. Or at least as open as possible. It is easy to become so in love with the idea of “happily ever after”, especially when planning a wedding, that you lose sight of the reality that you are two imperfect people coming together to form an imperfect union.  Knowing what your Relationship Weaknesses are will help you avoid that “caught off-guard” feeling that typically comes with your first marital rough patch.

Carrie and Big have investigated what makes their relationship strong, now let’s take a look at areas where they can expect to struggle.

Emotional Intimacy
Big has emotional intimacy issues.  Huge ones.  And Carrie, honestly, isn’t much better since she insists on wanting he who is never available.  Becoming “too close” scares both of them and they have a habit of sabotaging the relationship so that it will return to a distance they feel comfortable with.  This weakness will probably be present in varying degrees for the rest of their relationship.  Learning to say “I’m afraid of getting too close”, rather than act out and cause damage, will mitigate this weaknesses effect on their bond.

Infidelity
Lots of cheating went on between Big and Carrie in all its various forms.  The rule “Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior” does not disappear after you say “I do”.  Their infidelity is rooted in their problems with emotional intimacy, however, its presence decreases the level of trust in their relationship.  Low levels of trust make relationships darn near impossible.

Passion
Like anything else, our strengths can also be our weaknesses.  Big and Carrie connect so well physically that it can become easy to use it as a sort of crutch.  Instead of truly resolving issues they depend on sexual intimacy as a way to feel close to one another.  This weakness is tricky since it has it’s healthy side to it as well.  Big and Carrie will have to make a point to be very concious of their motivations for seeking out physical connection:  are we doing this because we want to be close, or is this our way of avoiding real issues?

If you are a Nashville couple and would like more information on premarital counseling with the Nashville Marriage Studio, please contact me at marie.mckinney@gmail.com.