Getting married has been one of the best decisions l have made in my life. And l love the memories from our wedding day.

This year, over 2 million couples will get married. Friends, family, and loved ones of the bride and groom will be in attendance. The weddings will be well planned and unique to each couple. For the guests, it will be a great time to support the bride and groom as their journey together begins. If you are getting married this year, congratulations!

As someone who likes to observe and learn from events, I have been thinking about the marriage lessons we can all learn from weddings. Here is what I learned.

1. Plan, prepare, and work hard for your marriage

Every wedding I have attended involved a lot of planning, preparation and hard work. These three things play a huge role in how successful the wedding will be.

If you plan, prepare and work hard for your marriage, the chance of your marriage ending in divorce is considerably reduced.

Usually, a lot of couples forget the hard work (like becoming selfless, empathetic listening and putting your spouse's needs before your wants), required to make a marriage work.

2. Find the best resources you need to have a great marriage

Throughout every wedding l have attended, I observed the best products and items used for the ceremony. Such as the wedding dress, bridesmaid gowns, photographers and the cake.

For example, the design, taste and look of the wedding cake are made with expertize and some of the best products on the market. Who wants a disappointing cake for their wedding day? No one.

Don't be afraid to invest in your marriage. How successful will your marriage be if you spend the same or even a fraction of the amount of money you spent on your wedding for your marriage?

3. Hire experts to help your marriage when the need arises

Whenever an engaged couple plans their wedding, they hire experts to help with the wedding. An example would be hiring a wedding photographer. Even if you are on a tight budget, you want to make sure the memories are captured by someone who knows what they are doing.

Experts can also assist you during latter parts of your marriage. When tough times arise between you and your spouse and you are not making any progress, consider hiring a marriage counselor or coach to help you resolve your problems.

4. You can't do it alone

It takes more than one person to get married, and this is a great reminder that the success of your marriage does not depend on you only, but also your spouse. Work together with your spouse on the issues, problems and struggles that may arise in your marriage.

5. Don't be afraid to rent

A lot of weddings take place in a rented venue, or with a rented wedding dress, tuxedo, furniture, etc. So don't be in a rush to buy your first home. Rent if that's the best choice for your financial situation.

My wife and l have been renting our home for years. It's been a great choice as we have moved for a number of reasons.

6. Smile, dance and laugh with your spouse

Weddings are filled with a lot of excitement and laughter. Guests eat together, share jokes, have different conversations, and display their dancing skills.

Enjoy your marriage by remembering to laugh and smile together every day. Eat together, share a joke or two, and dance together like you did on your wedding day.

7. Plan your finances

Before a wedding takes place, the soon-to-be-married couple decides how much will be spent on the wedding.

This budgeting tool will become very handy in your married life. Financial issues are the root cause of arguments between spouses and many divorces. With that being said, the quick you both learn to handle your money as a team, the better.

8. Expect the unexpected

Things don't always go as planned on the wedding day. However, you will find different ways to make your wedding day a success. The same goes with marriage.

Your spouse will change over time. What he/she used to love doing before you got married could change. Adjust and support your spouse as they grow, mature and become a better person.

We all want to believe that nothing bad will ever happen and we will get to live happily ever after. The truth is life is full of surprises. Unexpected pregnancies, the loss of a family member or sicknesses can occur. Being able to lean on each other and having some sort of plan for the unexpected will help your marriage stay afloat through rough seas.

9. Communicate often

Communication is vital to the success of planning a wedding. From the beginning to the end. Don't stop speaking to one another. And continue to do so even after your wedding day.

Communication issues can make or break a marriage. Learn how to listen to your spouse and understand where they are coming from as much as they do for you.

10. Have little to no criticism

I have yet to observe a wedding that involved criticism, especially the negative kind. When you criticize your spouse, let it be constructive. Negative criticism will increase resentment in your marriage. Show your spouse you appreciate him/her, just like you did on your wedding day.

If you are struggling or want to improve your marriage, start by applying these lessons in your relationship today.

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Huffington Post. It has been republished here with permission.

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Needless to say, sex is an amazing and intimate experience. As you know, it plays an important role in marriage and brings health benefits. And, in fact, it is one of the few topics that easily gets our attention.

Of course every couple wants to have great intimacy.

However, to have great intimacy in your marriage, you first need to have some conversations about it with your spouse. These conversations could end up being full of laughter and new discoveries about each other, even if they start out a bit uncomfortable.

Here are 8 conversations you should have as husband and wife about sex.

1. How many times do you want to be intimate in a week?

Everyone is unique and different. Our sex drives are not the same.

As a married couple, sit down and discuss how often you both want to have sex. Who has the higher sex drive in your relationship? Who has the lower one?

It's important to discuss this question with your spouse before you end up having a fight about it. Keep in mind there isn't a set number of times couples should have sex in a week.

Discuss your sex drives and compromise on frequency. Those desires will change over time, so bring this up again when you feel like you and your spouse are either having too little or too much intimacy.

2. What do you like most?

We all have our favorite foods, places to eat, books to read, movies to watch, etc. And, intimacy is no exception to what we favor.

When it comes to sex, what gets you excited and what makes you feel most intimate? Does your spouse know what you like? Have you told them? If your spouse does not know, tell them today.

What you and your partner like might change, so don't automatically assume what the other one says they like will always work. Communicate and stay open to new ideas.

3. What isn't working for you?

This question is similar to the last one, but it entails a bit more. Before, during and after you are intimate with your spouse, talk about some of the things that turn you on and turn you off.

How do you want sex to be initiated? When do you most want to have sex?

As simple as these questions sound, you and your spouse need to know what turns each other on if you want to have intimacy that really brings you together.

When having this conversation, never accuse or blame the other person. Don't ever make your partner feel guilty for not knowing what turns you on or off. Instead, talk about it kindly and lovingly. Showing gratitude for when your spouse turns you on is one of the most effective ways of communicating what you like.

4. Do you feel sexually connected and safe?

Emotional connection, to feel intimate and as one, is one of the many reasons why couples have sex. It's important for you to find out if your spouse is feeling this connection from making love.

Ask your partner: Do you feel rejected or sexually abused? Do you see sex as a chore or duty?

In order to have amazing intimacy in your marriage, make sure your spouse feels safe with you, trusts you and feels connected to you.

5. What does sex mean to you?

Is sex for pleasure, making babies, connection and/or fun?

Understanding what intimacy means to your partner can help you better understand their sexual habits and desires.

Explore this topic together. Perhaps you will both realize sex can have many different meanings and that on some days sex has different meanings than on other days.

6. How do you define a "sexless" marriage?

This question is a difficult one to ask, especially when you have a sexless marriage or when your spouse is not interested in talking about intimacy. But it's important for you and your spouse to discuss what a sexless marriage means to each of you. If you are in a sexless marriage, there is hope.

Maybe your partner considers having sex once a week as a sexless marriage, but you don't. Remember we are all different, so find out what your spouse's viewpoint is. Don't be surprised if they have a completely different view from yours. Talking about how often each of you desire to be intimate will foster understanding. And, again, compromise is huge here.

7. What will you do in times of a health crisis?

This may seem like a strange question to bring up when talking about intimacy. But ask each other what you will do when either one of you is sick, experiences pain during sex or is disabled. Other questions to ask are perhaps more gender-specific:

How will you respond when your wife has hormonal changes due to pregnancy, childbirth or menopause?

What will you do when your husband has erectile dysfunction?

8. How will you respond when one of us has a decrease or increase in our sex drive?

The human body is designed to undergo various changes based on different life events and our ages. Our sex drives are a part of this and will change.

For example, the death of a loved one or a miscarriage will certainly impact a person's desire to be intimate; their desire could be high or low. It might be high if they are in need of emotional or physical connection. Or it might be low if they desire to be alone and/or not to be touched.

Ask each other how each of you will respond when these highs and lows occur.

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Back in December 2010, l said "I do" to my amazing wife Ashley. To be honest, our first year of marriage was not easy. But we made it through.

Even though we describe it as an emergency mode year, I am glad we used the first year to build a strong foundation for our marriage. I hope you do too.

We had to re-learn a lot of things we thought we already knew about each other. From adjusting to married life as a couple, changing our thinking from I to we, learning how to communicate with each other, exploring each other's bodies, combining our finances, etc.

If you just got married, engaged, or are in your first year of marriage, I believe these 5 simple things will help make your first year of marriage easier:

1. Be patient with your spouse

During the heated arguments and times when your spouse does the same thing you have already told him/her to stop doing, have patience. Sometimes they may not even realize they are doing it. Take a deep breath and relax.

Approach your spouse when you are calm and let them know how you feel about the situation.

2. Schedule time to connect and grow together every day

As you already know, life can be very busy. In the midst of your careers, decorating your new home or apartment, planning events, you can neglect spending time together. But do not let that happen to you. Schedule a time that fits your schedules to connect and grow together as a couple. Talk about your day, the new experiences you are going through as a person.

Sit down together making eye contact and hopefully body contact while you talk about what's most important to each of you. Talk about how you are growing, what you are learning, your hopes and dreams for your life together, fun plans you make for the future or even right around the corner.

3. Learn how to communicate effectively with each other

Communication issues made adjusting to married life more difficult for us. We were not able to communicate effectively with each other. However, with time, we were able to overcome it by practicing simple things like empathetic listening, paying full attention when we communicate and always asking for clarification.

In addition, learn how to communicate your marriage expectations, sexual and emotional needs. If you and your spouse know what you both expect from each other, it will make your first year of marriage a whole lot easier. Some of the arguments we had in our first year of marriage were due to us having different expectations.

4. Figure out your finances

Financial issues are well known to cause a lot of stress in many marriages. Discuss your finances with your spouse and agree on when and how you will spend your money. What financial goals like buying a house, taking a vacation, investing for retirement etc. do you want to achieve as a couple? A monthly budget that you both agree to will make it easier to be on the same page about money.

What financial goals like buying a house, taking a vacation, investing for retirement etc. do you want to achieve as a couple? A monthly budget that you both agree to will make it easier to be on the same page about money.

Talk about your finances every week.

5. Use this simple strategy to convey messages to your in-laws

When you have to tell your in-laws something, let your spouse deliver the message to his or her parents and vice versa. After several years of practicing this simple strategy, we have been able to prevent a lot of miscommunication with our in-laws and improved the boundaries we have for our marriage. Families usually receive things better this way and this requires the two of you to have already discussed things and made a united decision. This will set you up for a great boundary foundation.

I wish l knew about these 5 simple things before I got married in 2010. My hope is that you will be able to learn and apply these things in your marriage, especially if any is missing. Your marriage will certainly benefit from implementing them.

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There is only one person who is foremost in your mind. The one you want to spend the rest of your life with, share your dreams with and care about. The one you are proud to talk about with your friends and family. The one who compliments you, challenges you and sometimes provides you with the constructive feedback you need to hear.

As you know, life gets busy. And like many, we can easily forget to make our spouse feel loved every day. But if you are intentional, you can change that by doing thse 7 simple things.

1. Smile, hug and kiss your spouse

Smiling alone can brighten up not only your spouse's day but yours too. Smiling is proven to help reduce stress and increase productivity.

Smiling is contagious, so why not smile with your partner every day? Even babies smile while in the womb.

In addition, you can give your spouse a passionate hug and kiss every day. It's the last thing l do before l leave home and the first thing I do when l get back.

You'd be surprised at how much good a 1-minute hug, kiss and smile can do for your spouse, yourself and your marriage.

2. Compliment your spouse

Tell her she is beautiful. Tell him he is handsome. Compliment his character or things you can see she is making an effort in. For example, when I come home from work and see how tired my wife is from taking care of our 2 toddlers all day, I say, "Thank you for taking care of the kids all day."

Sometimes the compliment can be in the form of a thank you: "Thank you for remembering what I asked you to do. I really appreciate it." "Thank you for trying to change this habit. It means a lot to me." "Thank you for working so hard for us."

Or simply say something like, " You are so good at cooking/social situations/making me feel loved."

As someone who struggles with giving and receiving compliments, I can definitely say this has been a game changer for our marriage. My wife loves compliments, so complimenting her on even the littlest of things she does boosts her confidence. It helps her to know l see the little and big things she does. She also feels appreciated and loved.

3. Say "Thank you for choosing me"

Thank your spouse for choosing to be with you. Being with someone is a choice we make every day. We choose that person every day over the temporary pleasures, over our selfishness; and our spouse does the same. Your spouse chose YOU out of the billions of people in this world. Be thankful!

4. Listen to your spouse

Listening is a skill that requires intentional effort from you. Listening means you give your full and undivided attention to what your spouse says. Never "listen" while thinking about your response.

Your spouse will be able to communicate better with you if he/she knows you listen. When you listen to your spouse, you will be able to provide constructive feedback on questions, ideas or discussions.

5. Spend time together

It could be cooking, playing a game at home or going to an event. This is the time you get to connect with each other on a different level. You get to ask your spouse about his/her day and tell him/her about yours. During this time, you can talk about your goals as individuals as well as a couple. Share what you are learning. Have great conversations, laugh and be happy in each other's presence.

When it comes to spending time together, my wife and I spend an hour together every day after we put our kids to bed. We are very intentional about spending time together every day because it helps us to connect with each other. We even have it set as reminders on our calendars.

Choose whatever time fits your schedule, and commit to spending that time together with your spouse.

6. Encourage your spouse to achieve goals

We all have dreams. I have some big ones, and l am sure you do too. Your spouse also has some big dreams.

Despite how well we plan and act on our dreams, there are days when you feel like giving up. When the hindrances and roadblocks seem unending.

However, a little encouragement from your spouse could be all you need to overcome the obstacles and achieve your dreams.

Spend a few minutes every day to encourage your spouse to achieve his/her dreams. If your spouse does not have one, help him/her figure it out. You are in this together.

7. Say "l love you"

Say it in-person and via text, social media, email, etc. Say it when you first wake up; whisper l love you.

Put a note saying "l love you" on the computer, tablet or phone by changing the wall paper or screen saver. You could leave it as a voicemail, or send it as a video, too.

As you can see, we can all do these things for our spouses every day. Pick 3 of these simple things, and start doing them for your spouse today.

What other simple things can you do for your spouse every day? Comment below.

This article was originally published on The Good Men Project. It has been republished here with permission.

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