A Message for Brides

Brides, no matter how well-educated or how much they are in love, have no idea how complicated marriage and relationships can be. You’ve got that right (“Toast the Bride,” May 4). Uncomplicated, lusty love is wonderful.

But once engaged, most women enter into a mostly “no-man’s” land of wedding planning, gift registries and celebrations. Husbands-to-be tend to feel left behind.

A groom-to-be walked out of a counseling session in my office and, ultimately, out of his fiancee’s life, when she complained about his lack of interest in the color of the dish towels she had selected. The bride had forgotten, or never learned, that marriage is a process, not an event.

Brides beware: Weddings can be fun. But marriage, at its best, takes commitment, communication, time, respect and lots of loving, starting right now, before the wedding.

Linda P. Algazi PhD

Corona del Mar