love notes or notes on love

February 7th to 14th is National Marriage Week. to celebrate, some of my favorite bloggers and i will be sharing some our thoughts and stories about marriage to help encourage you to strengthen your own relationships. i hope these posts will help you nurture your own relationship and rekindle the love you have for one another.

[photography by Kate Lines Photography]

today, i asked a few of my blogging friends & sponsors to share some of their thoughts/advice about marriage.
i really enjoyed what they had to say and i hope you all will be encouraged as you read their little snippets as well!

Marriage is not something that is ever easy, it's something that has to be worked at constantly. Marriage will test you and make you soar, but if you work hard at it… marriage is completely worth it. In a marriage you can grow together or you can grow apart, make it to where you grow together. Talk, communicate & spend time together. Because marriage is beautiful.
-Cassie from Live.Laugh.L0ve

Some of the best relationship advice was given to us the night before we got married.  It was from my aunt and it has always stuck with us.  She said, "Never say the word divorce.  If you don't ever say it, then it never becomes an option."  I think that is so true.  There are going to be times when you will want to joke about it, consider it seriously, or even feel like it's a way out.  But if you never say it, if you never let it become an option, then you can always find a way to work through it. 

Also, I hope couples who are about to make the transition from "husband and wife" to "dad and mom" realize that it can be a difficult one on a marriage.  Not only are you now sleep deprived, put into different roles, managing new expectations, and caring for a new little person, but your relationship changes deeply.  For me, some of these changes were welcome while others weren't. And this is coming from someone who loved marriage, who wanted to spend every single second with my husband.  We were married for several years before we had our daughter and it was still really rough for me.  So expect that things won't stay the same but it doesn't have to be a bad thing.  Just roll with the punches and know that communication is paramount during this time because you need to ensure that your views are heard and valued.  Embrace this new time in your life and always make sure to set aside time to be "husband and wife" again. 
-Jessica from Sebastian Design

Marriage means so much, yet so little to me. The relationship with my husband started when marriage was a definite "no way, never ever" in my mind and eventually, it grew to become something more. Something truly magnificent. Being married hasn't changed me, us, or him. But being together this long, and knowing we're in this for the long-haul, has changed me. And us. And him. We've grown with each other and experienced life in ways that sometimes I wished we hadn't, but it was always together. So while marriage itself has such little meaning in the relationship I have with my husband because it's never defined us as a couple, I'm proud to say I'm his wife. And I always will be.
-Ashley from After Nine to Five

i completely agree with everything that has been said!
thank you so much Cassie, Jessica, and Ashley for sharing your thoughts about marriage!
i hope you all were able to hear something that resonated with you and you can apply to your relationship.