BEFORE SAYING “I DO”

Most couples spend more time planning their wedding day than preparing for the marriage that follows it.

Before Saying "I Do" is a workbook-style guide built to close that gap. Across fourteen chapters, Margaret Adindu walks engaged and pre-engaged couples through the conversations that are easy to skip but hard to recover from later — readiness versus pressure to get married, the family stories and wounds each person is quietly bringing into the relationship, what a Christ-centered marriage actually requires day to day, how to fight fair, what money really means to each of you, whose family traditions shape your new household, whether and how you want children, and the honest questions about sex, intimacy, and affection that many premarital conversations gloss over.

The second half moves from the internal to the practical: careers and calling, who does what at home, screens and digital boundaries, what happens when life doesn't go according to plan, and — critically — the red flags couples are tempted to explain away. It closes with a chapter on final reflection, a prayer, and a fill-in marriage covenant couples can complete together as a keepsake.

This isn't a book of easy answers or a checklist to rush through before the wedding. It's structured as an actual dialogue tool — reflection questions, blank space to write in, and prompts meant to be worked through together, not read solo. It's for couples who want to enter marriage with their eyes open, not just their hearts full.