Hey all you love birds!
Congratulations on getting engaged or in your first years of marriage! It’s not always an easy road, but boy is it worth it.
There are articles upon articles on weddings, marriages and relationships; but this sucker stole the show. After reading it, I immediately thought of a ground-breaking blog written by Jill Caren Photo about having a marriage-focused wedding. If you haven’t checked this girl out, you are going to have all the feels over the behind the scene photos she captures.
Check out Jill’s take on Bloomberg’s “U.S. Divorce Rate: Millennial Are Causing the Divorce Rate to Plummet”:
'“There’s SO much to unpack from this article! I think I’d like to highlight what I found to be most interesting, which is there is proof showing divorce rates are dropping! As a wife, advocate for marriage, and wedding industry professional I am absolutely overjoyed and humbled by these statistics.
Regardless of how one may interpret why the rates are dropping, I think we can all agree - it’s a good thing. But as a society we are obsessed with knowing the why behind everything. And I think we could all speculate the reasons why younger generations are choosing to stay married. The article points out just a few including: “people are waiting longer to marry… people are more educated… marriage is more of an achievement of status… the boomer generations have continued to divorce at unusually high rates”…etc. On my first, second, third, and fourth passes through this article, I struggled to gather my thoughts on all the “whys.” I wondered, how am I supposed to expound on what has already been said? What should I add? That our generation is a product of the divorce pain caused by generations before us? That getting married is no longer a form of escape that grants independence? That it’s harder to even find someone to date right now, without even thinking of getting married? Those could all also be valid reasons for the statistical decline. Then it hit me, NONE OF THIS MATTERS! The “why” people are not getting divorced is not my heart for being in the wedding industry. I chose to get into the industry to fight against divorce rates. To encourage my couples as they take the biggest step in their relationship. To instill confidence in their decision to value their marriage more than their wedding day. To be at least 1 positive voice in their planning process. So the “why” doesn’t matter, but the hope found in these statistics does. The U.S. divorce rate dropped 18% from 2008 to 2016. The real question we should be asking is why are we not talking about this decline? This trend should be trending! Who cares about the theories, can we just highlight the good? We should be celebrating as humanity that we are finally getting back to the heart of marriage as it was originally intended to be, for life.
If you’re reading this and you’re newly engaged, I’m cheering for you. Marriage is AWESOME. It’s challenging, full of growth and change, it’s beautiful and the deepest form of love you get to choose to pour out. I dare you to remember that your wedding day is just one day. While extremely important (and I genuinely hope all your dreams come true), I ask that you leave room for the unexpected. Don’t get caught up in the stress of planning and making everything Pinterest perfect. Leave the worrying to the professionals; that’s what you pay us for! All that really matters is that you and your spouse-to-be are rooted in the life choice of commitment you’re about to make to one another. Your marriage is so much bigger than just one special day. It’s honestly more about the boring and un-special days in between and I’m so excited that our generation is realizing this. For the first time in a long time, the future is bright for you two as a couple.
Enjoy The Ride,
Jill Stuefer”
STAY WILD.