What women should be doing during their engagements, instead of planning big parties, is talking with their fiancés about money, children, religion, sex, work, and the expectations they have of one another with respect to the division of labor in the household. As for the mental preparation, the single most important thing to understand is that love is not enough.
Another great quote on marriage from Suzanne Venker
P.S. Her point is well-taken, but the only edit I would make is to alter “instead of planning big parties” to “in addition to planning big parties” … of course ;) Great weddings and great marriages are not the same thing, certainly, but it doesn’t mean they have to be mutually exclusive!
