relationships | Offbeat Bride

This is Offbeat Bride's archive of relationships posts.

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Lately I've been having anxiety attacks about being married. Mind what I said — Being married.

I'm all into the wedding planning and I love my husband-to-be, but suddenly I was in full on panic mode. We have started pre-marriage counseling, invitations are about to be sent out, and I'm about to be wed in less than two months; we are in full wedding planning and execution hype.

I have doubts. I wanted to blame them on the stress of planning the wedding but I couldn't lie to myself. I have always had them. So after one particularly long and emotionally draining day, I talked to my partner about my doubts and even created an action list of thing we should do to move forward. I neither cried nor was I as emotional as I thought I would be; I was actually very logical.

That's when I recognized that it was going to work out. Rather than be my usual overly-dramatic self, I was finding ways to overcome this obstacle and have a clearer understanding on how to make our marriage stronger.

I never would have expected that my first bout of chilly feet would be triggered by a beautiful new car. I know cold feet can mean many things, and has an alarming sound to it. So let me define my version of it.

Any person who's ever been in a long-distance relationship can tell you how much it sucks. But I've also learned some things which might be helpful to any couple forced apart for a while. Here are four tips for a happy long-distance engagement.

When I got engaged, I wondered how I would balance the excitement of planning the magical party with the importance and gravity of beginning a lifelong commitment. Going into couples counseling, even for just our brief stint, has been a very grounding way to hold this intention.

In which Ariel explores the question of "if your relationship and emotions are ready for marriage, is it just stubborn to put it off until 'your lives are in order' (whatever that means)?"

As I said in my previous post, my marriage failed. After a period of struggle, we decided to separate (and have since divorced). The separation process was also fraught and sometimes felt impossible, but I got through. Here are a few things I learned.